Jiang He, MD, PhD, DMS, is a busy man. Seven days a week, this
Tulane epidemiologist rises before dawn, begins his work day before many
have had their first cup of coffee, and doesn't turn off his office light and head
for home again until the last of the rush hour commuters are sitting down for
dinner, sometimes 12 hours later. It was in his native China that He
(pronounced "her" with a soft r) was first bitten by this epidemiology bug.
He was practicing medicine, immersed in a residency program when, by luck,
according to He, one of his professors invited him to participate in a national
survey of cancer mortality in China.
"It was my first exposure to epidemiology and public health,² recalls He, who remembers finding it "very interesting." Interesting enough that today he spends virtually every waking moment pursuing his passion for discovering the etiology and preventive method of disease in a population - and to making headlines with what he learns.
He's office in the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine (SPHTM) looks lived in. There are neat stacks of paper - copies of his published research, embargoed press releases, edited notes for a presentation - surrounding him in his home away from home.
When we met, He was gearing up for the public release of his most recent research, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, which finds second-hand cigarette smoke associated with a 25% increase in heart attack risk. "According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, smoking kills a half million people in this country every year," says He, who is lead author of the paper. "Approximately 3,000 lung cancer deaths each year are due to passive smoking. We estimate that passive smoking results in 15,000 coronary heart disease deaths each year."
Coronary disease is the number one killer in the United States and passive smoking is a very common exposure, He points out. "The combination of common exposure and a common cause of death makes it a big public health issue."
He expects the publication of the study to impact smoking regulations in favor of protection for nonsmokers, especially children. "Many children are regularly exposed to cigarette smoke at home or in other environmentsŠ" says He. "The only safe way to protect nonsmokers from exposure to cigarette smoke is to eliminate this health hazard from public places and work places, as well as from home."
Last December, He's study on aspirin therapy made news, as well. He and his colleagues found that taking aspirin regularly as a preventive measure to ward off heart attacks and strokes actually increases the risk of hemorrhagic strokes, or brain hemorrhage. The article in the December 9 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association went on to say that aspirin's benefits outweigh its potential adverse effects.
He says that the study will help physicians assess the individual patient's condition before prescribing aspirin therapy. "Is the patient at really high risk for coronary artery disease? Or at high risk for hemorrhagic stroke? It will help physicians be cautious," explains He, who said that several hundred doctors from around the world were interested in reprints of the article.
He left China for the United States in 1991, after graduating from Jiangxi Medical College and receiving his Doctor of Medical Science at Peking Union Medical College in Beijing. At the advice of a professor, he headed to Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, where he received his PhD in epidemiology, completed a post-doctoral fellowship sponsored by the National Institutes of Health and met Paul K. Whelton, MD, MSc, now dean of the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine.
It was Whelton who recruited He to Tulane as assistant professor in July 1997. "Jiang is a very successful researcher and a marvelous mentor for younger colleagues who are serious about developing their research skills at the nationally competitive level," says Whelton, who continues to serve as He's mentor. "As such I could be accused of being biased, but I think that I separate my personal pleasure at seeing him be so successful from any self interest in trying to overstate the magnitude and importance of his accomplishments in the public health sciences."
Indeed, an unbiased source -- New Orleans magazine -- just named He one of its people to watch in 1999.
Despite the hectic pace, He tries to carve out time for his family. William, he enthuses, is just learning to walk. Another mentor has counseled him to spend one day a week with his son, an objective that he is focusing on achieving.
When his schedule was less intense, He was interested in music. "I played the violin for many years when I was in high school," he says. He also had a longtime interest in Chinese printing, and almost took a vastly different career path to pursue that craft.
He still enjoys cooking and either prepares or helps Jing with dinner when he arrives home. His specialty: Chinese food. "Last Christmas," He reveals, "I brought some to the department Christmas party and it disappeared."
He is also buoyed by the recent emergence of a separate Department of Epidemiology (from a combined Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology) at the SPHTM. He says that the department will have a big impact on the students, the faculty and the school, particularly in the competitive funding arena.
"If you look at the good schools of public health, they have a strong department of epidemiology. You have to have a first-class department of epidemiology to be a first-class school of public health,"explains He, who says it is as central a feature as a department of medicine is to a medical school. He expects the new department to be an attractive recruiting tool for new faculty, who can "help get more research going." Then maybe He will take that day off.