Kenneth L. Davis is
chief executive officer
A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especial ...
of the
Mount Sinai Health System
The Mount Sinai Health System is a hospital network in New York City. It was formed in September 2013 by merging the operations of Continuum Health Partners and the Mount Sinai Medical Center.
The Health System is structured around eight hospit ...
in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
, an
American author
An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states:
"''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...
and
medical researcher
Medical research (or biomedical research), also known as experimental medicine, encompasses a wide array of research, extending from "basic research" (also called ''bench science'' or ''bench research''), – involving fundamental scientif ...
who developed the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale, the most widely used tool to test the efficacy of treatments for
Alzheimer's disease designed specifically to evaluate the severity of
cognitive and noncognitive behavioral dysfunctions characteristic to persons with Alzheimer's disease. His research led to four of the first five
FDA
The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a federal agency of the Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is responsible for protecting and promoting public health through the control and supervision of food ...
-approved drugs for Alzheimer's.
Biography
Education
Davis graduated ''
magna cum laude'' from
Yale College
Yale College is the undergraduate college of Yale University. Founded in 1701, it is the original school of the university. Although other Yale schools were founded as early as 1810, all of Yale was officially known as Yale College until 1887, ...
in 1969 and was the
valedictorian
Valedictorian is an academic title for the highest-performing student of a graduating class of an academic institution.
The valedictorian is commonly determined by a numerical formula, generally an academic institution's grade point average (GPA ...
of
Mount Sinai School of Medicine
The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS or Mount Sinai), formerly the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, is a private medical school in New York City. It is the academic teaching arm of the Mount Sinai Health System, which manages eig ...
's second graduating class in 1973 with his M.D., where he received the Harold Elster Memorial Award for highest academic achievement. Supplementary graduate medical education was later completed at
Stanford University.
Career
In 1979, Davis was made chief of psychiatry at
Bronx Veteran's Affairs Medical Center, where he became the first director of its Schizophrenia Biological Research Center. From 1987 until 2003, he was chairman of psychiatry at Mount Sinai School of Medicine.
In 2003, Davis was appointed dean of Mount Sinai School of Medicine and held that position until 2007, when he was succeeded by
Dennis S. Charney, M.D. Davis was also appointed as the president and CEO of Mount Sinai Medical Center in 2003 – positions he holds as of 2020. In 2015, Davis had gross compensation from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai of $4,147,755. He is the director of the Mount Sinai Silvio Conte Neuroscience Center, trustee of the
New York Academy of Medicine
The New York Academy of Medicine (the Academy) is a health policy and advocacy organization founded in 1847 by a group of leading New York metropolitan area physicians as a voice for the medical profession in medical practice and public health ...
, trustee of the
Aspen Institute, and chair of the New York Academy of Medicine Deans Council. In addition, he has served as chairman of the board of governors for the Greater New York Hospital Association.
In September 2013, when Mount Sinai Medical Center merged with Continuum Health Partners, Davis became the president and CEO of the
Mount Sinai Health System
The Mount Sinai Health System is a hospital network in New York City. It was formed in September 2013 by merging the operations of Continuum Health Partners and the Mount Sinai Medical Center.
The Health System is structured around eight hospit ...
. In 2017, his annual salary was $12 million.
Davis has weighed in on the intersection of health and public policy, arguing that the
National Institutes of Health
The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...
should receive more funds to fight disease and calling drug prices 'outrageous' and a fair trade issue.
Awards and recognition
*Career Development Award,
Veterans Administration
The United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is a Cabinet-level executive branch department of the federal government charged with providing life-long healthcare services to eligible military veterans at the 170 VA medical centers a ...
*A.E. Bennett Award of the Society of Biological Psychiatry
*
American Psychiatric Association
The American Psychiatric Association (APA) is the main professional organization of psychiatrists and trainee psychiatrists in the United States, and the largest psychiatric organization in the world. It has more than 37,000 members are involv ...
Award for Research in Psychiatry
*Elected member, Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Science
*President,
American College of Neuropsychopharmacology
*2009
George H. W. Bush Lifetime of Leadership Award
*Ranked 50 in
Modern Healthcare
''Modern Healthcare'' is a twice monthly business publication targeting executives in the healthcare industry. It is an independent American publisher of national and regional healthcare news.
The publication is also known for providing statistic ...
's list of the 100 Most Influential in Healthcare, 2021
Research
Alzheimer's research
Davis participated in breakthrough
proof-of-concept
Proof of concept (POC or PoC), also known as proof of principle, is a realization of a certain method or idea in order to demonstrate its feasibility, or a demonstration in principle with the aim of verifying that some concept or theory has prac ...
studies and
clinical trials of
cholinesterase inhibitors. These trials (the first multicenter ones for cholinesterase inhibitors) established efficacy and ultimately led to the first four of the five
FDA
The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a federal agency of the Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is responsible for protecting and promoting public health through the control and supervision of food ...
-approved compounds for treating the symptoms of Alzheimer's:
tacrine
Tacrine is a centrally acting acetylcholinesterase inhibitor and indirect cholinergic agonist (parasympathomimetic). It was the first centrally acting cholinesterase inhibitor approved for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease, and was marketed un ...
,
rivastigmine
Rivastigmine (sold under the trade name Exelon among others) is a cholinesterase inhibitor used for the treatment of mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease. The drug can be administered orally or via a transdermal patch; the latter form reduces t ...
,
galantamine
Galantamine is used for the treatment of cognitive decline in mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease and various other memory impairments. It is an alkaloid that has been isolated from the bulbs and flowers of '' Galanthus nivalis'' (Common snowd ...
,
donepezil
Donepezil, sold under the brand name Aricept among others, is a medication used to treat dementia of the Alzheimer's type. It appears to result in a small benefit in mental function and ability to function. Use, however, has not been shown to ...
and
memantine
Memantine is a medication used to slow the progression of moderate-to-severe Alzheimer's disease. It is taken by mouth.
Common side effects include headache, constipation, sleepiness, and dizziness. Severe side effects may include blood clots ...
In 1978, Davis, together with Richard Mohs, conducted the first well-controlled study of a drug that was shown able to improve the storage and retrieval functions of
long-term memory
Long-term memory (LTM) is the stage of the Atkinson–Shiffrin memory model in which informative knowledge is held indefinitely. It is defined in contrast to short-term and working memory, which persist for only about 18 to 30 seconds. Long- ...
in humans.
[Science Magazine]
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In 1987, Davis participated in the first study providing strong evidence that Alzheimer's risk is inherited.
His Alzheimer Disease Assessment Scale (ADAS) is one of two primary cognitive measures used for all Food and Drug Administration
The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a List of United States federal agencies, federal agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is respon ...
(FDA) Altzheimer's-related clinical drug trials in the US.
While at Mount Sinai Hospital, Davis and his associates have been at the forefront in the delineation of the role of amyloid
Amyloids are aggregates of proteins characterised by a fibrillar morphology of 7–13 nm in diameter, a beta sheet (β-sheet) secondary structure (known as cross-β) and ability to be stained by particular dyes, such as Congo red. In the huma ...
in Alzheimer's disease,[ and were among the first to report the ]cloning
Cloning is the process of producing individual organisms with identical or virtually identical DNA, either by natural or artificial means. In nature, some organisms produce clones through asexual reproduction. In the field of biotechnology, c ...
and chromosomal
A chromosome is a long DNA molecule with part or all of the genetic material of an organism. In most chromosomes the very long thin DNA fibers are coated with packaging proteins; in eukaryotic cells the most important of these proteins are ...
location of the amyloid precursor protein, regarded as one of the most important discoveries in Alzheimer's research in the previous 15 years.
Schizophrenia research
Davis's work on schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by continuous or relapsing episodes of psychosis. Major symptoms include hallucinations (typically hearing voices), delusions, and disorganized thinking. Other symptoms include social wit ...
has shown that oligodendroglia cells and myelin
Myelin is a lipid-rich material that surrounds nerve cell axons (the nervous system's "wires") to insulate them and increase the rate at which electrical impulses (called action potentials) are passed along the axon. The myelinated axon can be ...
play roles in the disease's pathophysiology and that dopamine – long thought to be merely hyperactive in a schizophrenic brain – is actually '' hypoactive'' in different regions.
His paper, " Dopamine in schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by continuous or relapsing episodes of psychosis. Major symptoms include hallucinations (typically hearing voices), delusions, and disorganized thinking. Other symptoms include social wit ...
—a review and reconceptualization" (American Journal of Psychiatry
''The American Journal of Psychiatry'' is a monthly peer-reviewed medical journal covering all aspects of psychiatry, and is the official journal of the American Psychiatric Association.
The first volume was issued in 1844, at which time it was k ...
, 148-11: 1474–86, November 1991) is the third most-cited paper on schizophrenia research in its decade.
While studies have shown that individuals born in winter months are disproportionately likely to develop schizophrenia, Davis participated in a 2006 study that demonstrated that this disproportionality also exists in tropical regions, ruling out cold weather as the cause.
Publications
Editor and editorial roles
* Alzheimer Disease and Associated Disorders
* American Journal of Psychiatry
''The American Journal of Psychiatry'' is a monthly peer-reviewed medical journal covering all aspects of psychiatry, and is the official journal of the American Psychiatric Association.
The first volume was issued in 1844, at which time it was k ...
* Biological Psychiatry
* Clinical Neuropharmacology
The ''Clinical Neuropharmacology'' is a peer-reviewed bimonthly journal publishes original articles, brief reports, reviews devoted to the pharmacology of the nervous system in its broadest sense. According to the ''Journal Citation Reports'', ...
* Clinical Neuroscience Research
* Current Research in Alzheimer’s Disease
* Current Psychiatry Reports
* Harvard Review of Psychiatry
* International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry
* International Journal of Geriatric Psychopharmacology
* Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease
* Journal of Experimental Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience
* Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry and Neurology
* Journal of Psychiatric Research
The ''Journal of Psychiatric Research'' is a monthly peer-reviewed medical journal covering research in four major areas of psychiatry: clinical studies on normal and pathological human behavior; basic studies in psychiatry and related fields; cl ...
* Journal of the American Geriatrics Society
* Molecular Psychiatry
* Neuropsychopharmacology
Neuropsychopharmacology, an interdisciplinary science related to psychopharmacology (study of effects of drugs on the mind) and fundamental neuroscience, is the study of the neural mechanisms that drugs act upon to influence behavior. It entails ...
* Schizophrenia Research An International Multidisciplinary Journal
* Sociedade de Psiquiatria Do Rio Grande Do Sul
* Translational Psychiatry
Books
*''Alzheimer's Disease: Questions and Answers'' by Kenneth Davis and Kenneth L Davis and Paul S. Aisen and Deborah B. Marin, Softcover, Merit Pub Intl, (1-873413-36-X)
*''Brain Acetylcholine and Neuropsychiatric Disease'' by Philip A. Berger and Kenneth L Davis, Hardcover, Plenum Press, (0-306-40157-6)
*''Neuropsychopharmacology: The Fifth Generation of Progress'' by American College of Neuropsychopharmacology and Joseph T. Coyle and Charles Nemeroff and Dennis Charney and Kenneth L Davis, Hardcover, Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, (0-7817-2837-1)
*''Alzheimer's Disease: A Report of Progress in Researc''h S Corkin, J Growdon, E Usdin, KL Davis, RJ Wurtman (eds.). Raven Press, New York, NY, 1982.
*''Handbook for Clinical Memory Assessment of Older Adults'' LW Poon (editor) KL Davis, et al (Associate Editors) American Psychological Association, Hyattsville, MD, 1986.
*''Advisory Panel on Alzheimer’s Disease''. ''Report of the Advisory Panel on Alzheimer’s Disease'' DHHS Pub. No. (ADM)89-1644. Washington, DC: Supt. Of Docs., U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1989.
*''Advisory Panel on Alzheimer’s Disease'' ''Second Report of the Advisory Panel on Alzheimer’s Disease''. DHHS Pub. No. (ADM)91-1791. Washington, DC: Supt. Of Docs., U.S. Govt. Print Off., 1991.
*''Foundations of Psychiatry'' KL Davis, H Klar and JT Coyle (eds.). W.B. Saunders, Philadelphia, PA, 1991.
Articles
According to ResearchGate, Davis' peer-reviewed articles have been cited 28,265 times. He is credited with more than 575 articles.
References
External links
Mount Sinai Hospital homepageIcahn School of Medicine at Mount SinaiKenneth L. Davis on “Charlie Rose”Kenneth L. Davis, MD Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Davis, Kenneth L.
Living people
American medical academics
American medical researchers
Yale College alumni
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai alumni
Stanford University School of Medicine alumni
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai faculty
Members of the National Academy of Medicine
American health care chief executives
Year of birth missing (living people)