Dr. Monica Bertagnolli Becomes First Surgeon to Lead NIH

In a bipartisan vote, last week the US Senate confirmed surgical oncologist Monica Bertagnolli, MD, FACS, as director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Dr. Bertagnolli is the first surgeon to lead the NIH, and only the second woman. From 1991 to 1993, cardiologist Bernadine P. Healy, MD, led the US government’s principal medical research agency.

Dr. Bertagnolli fills a role that has been vacant since the December 2021 departure of Francis S. Collins, MD, PhD. Lawrence Tabak, DDS, PhD, had been performing the duties of NIH director in the interim.

Per the NIH website, “Chief among her key priorities is ensuring clinical trials yield the best results by increasing the diversity of participants; embracing the rapid expansion of new learning-based analytical tools and ensuring their use improves care for all people; and restoring trust in science by making it accessible to all communities and inspiring the next generation of doctors and scientists.”

Dr. Bertagnolli previously served as director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI)—the first woman to serve in that role—after her appointment in 2022.

Before her governmental roles, she served as the Richard E. Wilson Professor of Surgery in surgical oncology at Harvard Medical School, a surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and a member of the Gastrointestinal Cancer Treatment and Sarcoma Centers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, all in Boston, Massachusetts.

Dr. Bertagnolli has decades of experience in clinical research and executive leadership in oncology and cancer policy, including her role as chair of the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology, a clinical trials cooperative group funded through NCI’s National Clinical Trials Network.

An ACS Fellow since 1996, Dr. Bertagnolli was awarded the prestigious Owen H. Wangensteen Scientific Forum Award at Clinical Congress 2023. She also delivered the Commission on Cancer Oncology Lecture at Clinical Congress 2011 and is a past-president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.