Richard L. Tannen, MD
February 22, 2020
Dr. Richard L Tannen., 82, passed away on February 22, 2020 in NYC. He leaves behind his loving wife of 30 years Vivien, five children, son Bradford (Iris), daughters Jennifer Geiling (Greg), Julie Art (Jonathan), Whitney Jones (Walter), Alison McMillan and nine grandchildren. Richard was born in Brooklyn, the family later moved to Memphis, Tennessee. He attended Vanderbilt and received his medical degree from the University of Tennessee, completing residency and fellowship in Nephrology at the Brigham Hospital. During the Vietnam War, he was a Major in the Army at Walter Reed Hospital. Richard and a colleague started the Department of Nephrology at the University of Vermont and was also Professor and Division Chief. In 1978, he accepted a position as Division Chief of Nephrology at Michigan and Director for the Kidney Research Center. In 1988, he moved to Los Angeles as Chair of Medicine at USC. Richard ended his career as Senior Vice Dean at the University of Pennsylvania. He co-authored several textbooks on nephrology, published numerous articles In scientific journals, was a frequent speaker at national and international medical conferences and received research support from the NIH most of his career. He served as President of the American Society of Nephrology and also served on the Board of American Heart Association. Richard and several associates were invited by Pope John Paul II to the Vatican to discuss the Church's support of organ donations, the Vatican gave it's Blessing. Upon retirement, he retooled himself with the study of biostatistics the ultimate goal of pursuing a passion project -- investigating the utility of computerized ambulatory medical record databases to inform medical practices and the efficacy of clinical trials. From 2002-2017 he received numerous grants $2.5M, to pursue research. His work in this field of computational medicine laid the foundation for continued research in the efficacy of using medical record databases to impact medical research, plus development of new treatments and drugs. He will be dearly missed. A private memorial service will be held and a bench in New York City's Central Park will be dedicated in his memory.
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