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Neil Holtzman, M.D., a genetic policy analyst, will deliver SUNY Upstate Medical University’s Commencement Address May 21

Neil A. Holtzman, M.D., a leading researcher and genetic policy analyst involved with the national Human Genome Project, will deliver the commencement address at SUNY Upstate Medical University’s Commencement Sunday, May 21 at 1 p.m. in the Onondaga County Civic Center’s Crouse Hinds Theater. The 2000 Commencement will honor graduates of SUNY Upstate’s Colleges of Medicine, Health Professions, Nursing and Graduate Studies. Holtzman, professor of pediatrics, health policy and epidemiology and director of genetics and public policy studies at The Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, has devoted much of his career to the innovation and dissemination of new genetic technologies and their policy implications. His research, supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Human Genome Research Institute, includes studies on women’s and providers’ attitudes toward testing for genetic susceptibility to breast cancer; the relation between physicians’ knowledge of genetics and their adoption of new genetic tests; the role of insurance coverage in the advent of new genetic technologies; and the development of such tests in academe and industry. Holtzman is author of more than 150 research studies and co-editor of “Assessing Genetic Risks,” an Institute of Medicine report that explores policy issues made acute by advances in molecular biology and the Human Genome Project as well as the book “Proceed with Caution.” He also chaired the NIH Department of Energy Task Force on Genetic Testing, co-editing its final report in 1998, “Promoting Safe and Effective Genetic Testing in the United States.”