Epidemic Investigations:

ADVENTURES IN EPIDEMIOLOGY

Reimert T. Ravenholt, MD MPH, President, Population Health Imperatives
Seattle, Washington, ravenrt@oz.net, fax 206-528-1833

EPIDEMIOLOGY – the study of distributions and determinants of diseases in human populations – has during the last half-century emerged from obscurity into the main stream of the biological and social sciences. The word, epidemic, derived from the Greek words epi and demos, meaning upon people, was during many centuries used to denote the sudden appearance and rapid increase in diverse infectious diseases: influenza, smallpox, the Black Death of plague, syphilis, malaria, yellow fever, tuberculosis, cholera, typhoid fever, scarlet fever, diphtheria, poliomyelitis, and, most recently, Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). But with the massive increases in mortality from cancers and atherosclerotic and other degenerative diseases of aging during the 20th Century, epidemiology was increasingly applied to the study of non-infectious diseases. Today it is applied to the study of occurrence of any disease in a human population.

My career in epidemiology began in 1952, when following graduation from the University of Minnesota Medical School and completion of my internship in the US Public Health Service Hospital in San Francisco I was invited by Dr Alexander Langmuir to join the Epidemic Intelligence Service of the National Communicable Disease Center, United States Public Health Service, for two years of training and service. After initial training at CDC in Atlanta, I was assigned to the Ohio State Health Department a year; then to the Seattle-King County Health Department, where I served during eight years.

Under Langmuir’s inspired leadership, the EIS of CDC rapidly became "the most seminal, adventurous and effective epidemiology program the world has known." And during many years it was my good fortune to participate in the investigation and control of numerous fascinating epidemics of infectious and non-infectious diseases, domestically and globally, in what became The Golden Age of Epidemiology. Accounts of my Adventures in Epidemiology can be accessed by clicking on items of interest on the following pages,

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

Reimert Thorolf Ravenholt, born and reared on a Wisconsin dairy farm and publicly schooled at Milltown, West Denmark, and Luck, received a Medical Doctorate from the University of Minnesota, a Master of Public Health degree from the University of California (Berkeley), and gained extensive research, administrative and teaching experience in epidemiology, public health, population and family planning as: Epidemic Intelligence Service officer, CDC/USPHS, 1952-1954; Director, Epidemiology and Communicable Disease Control Division, Seattle-King County Health Department, 1954-1961; Epidemiology Consultant, European Region, U.S. Public Health Service, American Embassy, Paris, France, 1961-1963; Associate Professor of Preventive Medicine, University of Washington, 1963-1966; Director, Office of Population, U.S. Agency for International Development, Department of State, Washington, DC, 1966-1979; Director, World Health Surveys, Centers for Disease Control, Washington, DC, 1980-1982; Assistant Director for Research and Epidemiology, National Institute on Drug Abuse, Rockville, Maryland, 1982-1984; Chief, Epidemiology Branch, Food and Drug Administration, Rockville, Maryland, 1984-1987; President, Population Health Imperatives, Seattle, Washington, 1987-present.

While directing major public health and population programs he also researched extensively, publishing more than 200 scientific reports on epidemiological investigations, preventive medicine, public health, population/family planning, malignant cellular evolution, tobaccosis, America’s shattered child plague/needed welfare reform and historical epidemiology. Many published articles, some unpublished reports, and miscellaneous memoranda and letters can be accessed on this Web.

During the 14 years Dr Ravenholt directed the global population/family planning assistance program of the U.S. Agency for International Development, it became the world’s foremost population program: providing more than half of all international population/family planning program assistance ($1.3 billion) during those years. In 1971 he originated the World Fertility Survey, "the largest international social science research program ever undertaken". WFS derivative surveys now accurately track birth and death rates in the less developed world.

Notable honors received include the Distinguished Honor Award of the U.S. Agency for International Development "In Recognition of His Distinguished Leadership in the Development of Worldwide Assistance Programs to Deal with the Challenge of Excessive Population Growth"; The Hugh Moore Memorial Award from the Population Crisis Committee and the International Planned Parenthood Association for "Innovation and Vision in the Population Field"; and the Carl Schultz Award of the American Public Health Association for "Distinguished Service to the Field of Population and Family Planning".

Licensed physician in Washington State, Board Certified in Preventive Medicine, a Fellow of the American Public Health Association, he serves on the Board of the American Council on Science and Health, and is a member of the Cosmos Club.