By CQ HealthBeat Staff
April 28, 2015 -- The National Academy of Sciences has voted to change the name of the Institute of Medicine to the National Academy of Medicine effective July 1 as part of broader internal reorganization.
The newly named entity will continue to be an honorific society and inherit more than 1,900 current elected members and foreign associates of the IOM. It joins the National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering in advising the nation on matters of science, technology, and health.
Officials said the change was part of efforts to more effectively integrate the work of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Reports and studies on health and medicine will continue to appear as activities of the Institute of Medicine, which will become one of the six program units operating under the direction of the integrated academies.
"The establishment of the National Academy of Medicine is a significant milestone in our history," said National Academy of Sciences President Ralph J. Cicerone. "It is an acknowledgement of the importance of medicine and related health sciences to today's global research enterprise. It will also better align us to take a more integrated, multidisciplinary approach to our work, reflecting how science is best done today."
The vote was taken at the 152nd annual meeting of the National Academy, which was founded in 1863 under a congressional charter signed by President Abraham Lincoln.
