Medical Scientific and Advisory Board

Jack Ansell, MD. Chairman of the Department of Medicine at Lenox Hill Hospital, NY

Dr. Ansell is the Chairman of the Department of Medicine at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. Before joining Lenox Hill Hospital, Dr. Ansell was Professor of Medicine at Boston University School of Medicine and Vice Chairman for Clinical Affairs of the Department of Medicine.  See related news story.

After receiving his medical degree from the University of Virginia School of Medicine in Charlottesville, Virginia, Dr. Ansell completed an internship and residency at Tufts New England Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts. Dr. Ansell then completed a fellowship in hematology at Boston University and in hematology/hemostasis at Boston’s Veterans Administration Hospital.

Dr. Ansell’s main areas of interest and research include hemostasis and thrombosis, with a special emphasis on thrombotic disorders and antithrombotic therapy. He has had a continued interest and involvement in the application of new modes of delivering and monitoring anticoagulants, particularly in the management of oral anticoagulant therapy.

Dr. Ansell’s main areas of interest and research include hemostasis and Dr. Ansell has approximately 170 publications in notable journals such as Annals of Internal Medicine, The New England Journal of Medicine, and The Journal of the American Medical Association. His publishing activity includes reviews, editorials, textbooks, videos, abstracts and letters. He serves as an associate editor for the Journal of Thrombosis and Thrombolysis and as an editorial consultant for such journals as The New England Journal of Medicine, Blood, Thrombosis and Haemostasis, and Circulation.

Dr. Ansell is the founder and Chair of the Anticoagulation Forum, a network of anticoagulation clinics throughout North America, and is a member of a number of professional organizations including the American College of Physicians (Fellow); the American Society of Hematology; the International Society of Thrombosis and Hemostasis and its Scientific Subcommittee on Haemostasis Testing; the American Heart Association (Fellow), and the American Medical Association. Dr. Ansell also serves as Chair of the Committee on Managing Oral Anticoagulation for the American College of Chest Physicians Consensus Conference on Antithrombotic Therapy.

Kenneth A. Bauer, MD, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA

Dr. Bauer is Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. His hospital positions include Chief, Hematology Section. He was a Fellow in Medical Oncology and a Clinical/Research Fellow in the Division of Thrombosis and Hemostasis at Dana Farber Cancer Institute and was also a Clinical/Research Fellow in the Hematology-Oncology Division at Beth Israel Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts . Dr Bauer's clinical and research interests include the pathophysiology of hypercoagulable states, the evaluation and management of hereditary thrombotic disorders and the clinical evaluation of new antithrombotic drugs. Dr Bauer currently serves as Chairman of the Council of the International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis (ISTH) and was previously Chairman of the Subcommittee on Predictive Haemostatic Variables in Vascular Diseases of the ISTH. Dr Bauer has published over 200 original reports, reviews and book chapters. He is married and has 2 children.

Edward Libby, MD; University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM

Dr. Libby received and completed his Internal Medicine residency and Hematology fellowship at the University of New Mexico (UNM) Health Sciences Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He has been interested in the care of patients with thrombotic diseases since 1996, when he assumed the directorship of the UNM Anticoagulation Clinic.

Dr. Libby has participated in many trials of new anticoagulants and is also involved in several investigator-initiated trials on coagulation topics.

Kenneth Mann, PhD, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT

Dr. Mann received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry (C.S. Vestling) at the University of Iowa. After additional post- doctoral training in physical biochemistry at Duke University (C. Tanford), he moved to the University of Minnesota as an Assistant Professor. His interest in applying Physical Biochemistry techniques to elucidating the varied physical and functional interactions of proteins in the blood coagulation process was encouraged by a joint appointment at the Mayo Clinic (Mayo Medical School), where he achieved the rank of Professor of Biochemistry and Medicine and became Vice Chair of the Department of Medicine. He came to the University of Vermont in 1984 as Professor and Chair of Biochemistry, and he relinquished the Chair in 2005. Dr. Mann has received many National and international awards, including the E. Donnall Thomas Award (ASH), the Sherry Award (AHA) and the Wood Medal (ISTH).  

Elizabeth Varga, MS, CGC; Columbus Children's Research Institute, Columbus, OH

Ms. Varga learned she had factor V Leiden in 2000 after she was tested because of a family history of the disorder. She is a certified genetic counselor and has 5 years of experience in educating patients, families, health care providers and the public about inherited disorders and disease prevention, specifically as related to thrombophilia. As the Chairperson of the NATT Education Committee, she produces patient education materials and presentations. She also organizes and implements information seminars for health care providers and the public. Ms. Varga serves as a liaison to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to foster collaboration among public and private groups involved with preventing or reducing the complications of clotting disorders. Her commitment to NATT is based on her desire to see improvements in health care education related to thrombosis and thrombophilia. Ms. Varga currently works as a genetic counselor and research coordinator at Children’s Research Institute in Columbus, OH.

Andra H. James, MD, MPH, Duke University, Durham, NC

Dr. Andra H. James is a maternal-fetal medicine specialist and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Duke University Medical Center. She is a Co-Director of Duke’s Comprehensive Hemostasis and Thrombosis Center and founder of Duke’s Women’s Hemostasis and Thrombosis Clinic. Her practice, research and publications focus on reproductive issues among women with bleeding and clotting disorders.

Dr. James is involved both nationally and internationally in activities to improve healthcare for women with bleeding and clotting disorders. Besides serving on the Medical and Scientific Advisory Board (MASAB) of NATT, she is currently Chair of the Women’s Task Force of the National Hemophilia Foundation (NHF) and serves on their Medical and Scientific Advisory Committee (MASAC). She is also Chair of the Women’s Issues Scientific Subcommittee of the International Society on Haemostasis and Thrombosis. She has served on the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Heart Lung and Blood Institute’s Women with Bleeding Disorders Working Group and their Von Willebrand Disease Expert Panel. A book that she co-authored with Dr. Thomas L. Ortel and Dr. Victor F. Tapson, entitled 100 Questions and Answers About Deep Vein Thrombosis and Pulmonary Embolism, was published in 2008.

Bruce Evatt, MD, Director, Division of Hereditary Blood Diseases (Retired)

As a hematologist interested in blood coagulation-associated diseases, Dr. Evatt has worked with hemophilia and thrombotic disorders since 1965, first at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore and then the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta beginning in 1976, when he established a national laboratory in hemostasis. He also served as a volunteer and Board of Directors member for Hemophilia of Georgia until the late 1980=s. His major accomplishments include identifying AIDS as a blood-borne disease affecting persons with hemophilia and blood-transfusion recipients, demonstrating that heat-treatment of clotting factor concentrates inactivates HIV, and identifying a new class of congenital clotting disorders, protein C deficiency. He has authored or co-authored more than 250 scientific or review articles.  Presently, his major activity includes managing a national program directed at preventing complications of hemophilia and related bleeding and clotting disorders and thalassemia.
 
Current Academic Positions: Clinical Professor of Medicine, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia
 
National Activities (Current & Past): National Blood Resource Education Program Coordinating Committee; FDA Blood and Blood Products Advisory Committee; National Hemophilia Foundation AIDS Task Force Committee; Public Health Service AIDS Task Force on Blood and Blood Products; American Society of Hematology Subcommittee on Hemostasis; American Society of Hematology Subcommittee on Clinical Laboratory Standards; National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards Subcommittee on Coagulation
 
International Activities: Member, Executive Committee, World Federation of Hemophilia (WFH); Vice-President Developing World, WFH; CDC Liaison to International Committee for Standardization in Haematology; CDC Liaison to International Society for Thrombosis and Hemostasis
 
Prior Positions: Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Center; Assistant Professor of Medicine, John Hopkins School of Medicine; Chief Resident of Medicine, John Hopkins School of Medicine; Senior Resident of Medicine, John Hopkins School of Medicine; Osler Medical Service, John Hopkins School of Medicine
 
Education: University of Oklahoma; MD, University of Oklahoma Honors: American Society of Hematology Outstanding Lifetime Service Award; 2004 CDC Distinguished Service Award; Public Health Service Meritorious Service Award; Dr. L. Michael Kuhn Award for Outstanding Governmental Leadership; Dr. Murray Thelin Award for Distinguished Research; PHS Commendation Award; Stewart Wolfe Lectureship, University of Oklahoma; Public Health Service Hemophilia Association of New Jersey; The Francis S. Schwentker Award for Research, John Hopkins Medical School

John Heit, MD, FACP, FACC, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN

Dr. Heit is Professor of Medicine at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, where he serves in multiple capacities. He is the Director of the Mayo Clinic General, Special and DNA-diagnostic Coagulation Laboratories and Coagulation Clinic; Chair of the Division of Hematology Coagulation Disease Oriented Group and Program Director for the NIH K12 Vascular Medicine Clinical Research Training Program. Dr. Heit is a staff consultant within the Divisions of Cardiovascular Diseases (Section of Vascular Disease) and Hematology (Section of Hematology Research), Department of Internal Medicine and the Divisions of Hematopathology and Laboratory Genetics, Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology. Dr. Heit is the Founder and former Director of both the Mayo Clinic Thrombophilia Center and the Mayo Clinic Chronic Anticoagulation Management Clinic. He is also Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Mayo Clinic Special Coagulation DNA-diagnostic Laboratory.

He is the Principal Investigator on 5 NIH grants and Co-Investigator on 2 NIH grants, addressing the epidemiology (including the genetic epidemiology) and mechanisms of venous thromboembolism and thrombophilia in white and African-American populations, the role of estrogens and platelets in atherosclerosis and bleeding disorders in women.
Dr. Heit has written over 130 peer-reviewed articles, invited papers or book chapters. He has delivered presentations at various medical conferences in the US and abroad, and has served as a member of NIH study sections, as a member of the American College of Chest Physicians Consensus Conference on Antithrombotic and Thrombolytic Therapy since 1995, as a reviewer for 28 medical journals, as Associate Editor for the journal Thrombosis Research, and as Co-Chair of the National Quality Forum/Joint Commission Steering Committee on Venous Thromboembolism Prevention and Management. Dr. Heit is married, and has two children and four grandchildren.

Marilyn Manco-Johnson, MD; University of Colorado Health Sciences, Denver, CO

Marilyn Manco-Johnson is Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Colorado Denver and Director of the Mountain States Regional Hemophilia and Thrombosis Center. She is a renowned expert on pediatric hemophilia, specifically, joint disease prevention and neonatal and pediatric thrombotic disorders.
 
Her hemophilia-related research interests include P32 radiosynoviortheses, transfusion-acquired infections and pre-licensure studies of novel clotting factors. She was principal investigator of the Joint Outcomes Study (JOS), the first US randomized controlled trial to compare prophylaxis with an enhanced episode-based treatment for structural joint development in young children with hemophilia A.
 
Dr. Manco-Johnson is Co-Chair of the Workshop on Congenital Bleeding Disorders in Children for the American Society for Pediatric Hematology/Oncology and a medical advisor to the World Federation of Hemophilia. She is a member of both the steering committee of the International Prophylaxis Working Group and the Subcommittee on Perinatal and Pediatric Hemostasis for the International Society for Thrombosis and Hemostasis.
 
She has published extensively, including over 90 peer-reviewed articles, dozens of reviews and over 100 abstracts. She sits on the editorial board of Biology of the Neonate and the Journal of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology and is a reviewer for other journals including the American Journal of Hematology, Blood, Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis (JTH) and the New England Journal of Medicine.
 
Dr. Manco-Johnson’s numerous awards include the Kenneth Brinkhous Award for Excellence in Clinical Research.

Jeffrey Weitz, MD, Hamilton Regional Cancer Centre, Hamilton, Ontario

Dr. Weitz is Professor of Medicine at McMaster University School of Medicine, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, and the Director of the Experimental Thrombosis and Atherosclerosis Programme at the Hamilton Civic Hospitals Research Center in Canada. Dr. Weitz also holds the Canada Research Chair in Thrombosis. His research interests include the biochemistry of coagulation and fibrinolysis and the application of basic research to the study of clinically relevant problems in thrombosis, hemostasis and inflammation. Dr. Weitz is involved in clinical trials examining optimal methods for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of clotting disorders. He has opened new avenues for investigation by focusing on the basic mechanisms by which anticoagulants and thrombolytic agents work. Through other research, Dr. Weitz has provided an explanation for the puzzling clinical observation that the clot digesting drug, tissue-type plasminogen activator or t-PA, produces more bleeding than was originally anticipated. This work has paved the way for new drugs that may be safer than t-PA. He has published over 200 peer-reviewed papers and 30 textbook chapters on thrombosis or fibrinolysis.