Kenneth Johnson, MD, a cardiologist, U.S. Navy veteran and innovative champion of bringing modern medicine to underserved areas, died Jan. 28 at 97, the Legacy reported.
Dr. Johnson bridged the worlds of academic medicine and public health, according to his obituary. He served as a clinical professor of cardiology at New Haven, Conn.-based Yale University; director of medicine and epidemiology at the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission in Japan, a U.S. government-funded agency overseeing the medical needs of survivors of the 1945 bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; associate professor of medicine and director of epidemiological research at New York City-based Weill Medical College; and a full professor of medicine at Hanover, N.H.-based Dartmouth Medical School, where he established the Department of Community Medicine.
Dr. Johnson also worked as a senior consultant to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (no family connection), where he designed and oversaw two major national programs related to perinatal care in underprivileged communities and elder care for underserved seniors.
He's also credited with helping form a cooperative fellowship program for training physicians and physician assistants from the Poughkeepsie, N.Y.-based Mid-Hudson Family Health Institute and Dermatology Services of Kingston (N.Y.)