Francine Kaufman

Francine Ratner Kaufman, M.D. was director of the Comprehensive Childhood Diabetes Center, and head of the Center for Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles until 2009 when she stepped down to become Chief Medical Officer and VP of Global Clinical, Medical and Health affairs at Medtronic Diabetes (Northridge, CA). Dr. Kaufman is Distinguished Professor Emerita of Pediatrics and Communications at the Keck School of Medicine and the Annenberg School of Communications of the University of Southern California, and an attending physician at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles. Dr. Kaufman has published more than 220 peer-reviewed and invited publications. She is the author of more than 40 books or book chapters. In 2012, she authored the Insulin Pump and Glucose Sensor Book for the ADA and edited the 6th edition of the ADA’s the Medical Management of Type 1 Diabetes. In 2005 her book, Diabesity, was published by Bantam. Dr. Kaufman was chair of the National Institutes of Health funded Studies to Treat (the TODAY Trial) and Prevent (the HEALTHY Trial) Type 2 Diabetes in Youth (STOPP-T2). She was a principal investigator of TrialNet, a multinational consortium evaluating ways to prevent type 1 diabetes, funded by the NIH. She was instrumental in banning sodas from Los Angeles Unified School District in 2003.
Dr. Kaufman was national president of the American Diabetes Association in 2002-03. She was elected to AOA Medical Honorary Society. She was president of Shaping America’s Health, chair of the National Diabetes Education Program, and she served as chair of the Youth Consultative Section of the International Diabetes Federation. In 2007, she was Co-Chair of the Diabetes Work Group for the Department of Health Services of the State of California to recommend diabetes treatment and prevention strategies for the Medicaid population. In 2005, she was elected Membership in the Institute of Medicine. In 2007, Dr. Kaufman filmed a documentary for Discovery Health on the global diabetes epidemic which was aired around the world on World Diabetes Day, November 14, 2007. In 2009, she was elected to membership in the Advisory Council of the Diabetes Branch of the NIH.