Susan E. Mackinnon, M.D., has been elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, one of the highest honors medical scientists in the United States can receive. Mackinnon was honored for her professional achievement in the health sciences.
Mackinnon is the Sydney M. Jr. and Robert H. Shoenberg Professor and chief of the Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.
The Institute of Medicine serves as a national resource for independent analysis and recommendations on issues related to medicine, biomedical sciences and health. It was established in 1970 as part of the National Academy of Sciences, which advises the federal government on science and technology issues. Members are selected based on their professional achievement and commitment to service.
Mackinnon, a surgeon at Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children’s hospitals, is considered an international authority on nerve regeneration, nerve transfer and on the use of limited immunosuppression in transplant patients. She established her international reputation as a surgeon in 1988 by completing the first donor nerve transplant, a procedure that can restore function to severely injured limbs that previously were considered irreparable.
She was the first recipient of the outstanding clinician award given by the School of Medicine’s Humanity Program. She also received the Medal Award in Surgery from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada in 1988.
She is president of the American Association of Plastic Surgeons for the 2007-08 term and was president of the American Association of Hand Surgery in 2005.
Mackinnon earned her medical degree from Queens University in Kingston, Ontario, in 1975. She did a surgical residency at Queen’s University in 1978 and a residency in plastic surgery at the University in Toronto in 1980. She did a neurosurgery research fellowship at the University of Toronto in 1981 and a fellowship in hand surgery at Raymond Curtis Hand Center at Union Memorial Hospital in Baltimore in 1982.
Mackinnon is among 65 members whose elections to the Institute of Medicine were announced by the National Academy of Sciences Oct. 8. As a member, Mackinnon makes a commitment to devote a significant amount of volunteer time on committees engaged in a broad range of health-policy issues.