Richard C. Wender, MD is Alumni Professor and Chair of the Department of Family Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia.  A graduate of Princeton University and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Dr. Wender directed the Family Practice residency program at Thomas Jefferson for 10 years, became Vice Chair of the Department in 1995 and Chair in 2002.  In addition to being a practicing family doctor, Dr. Wender’s major area of academic focus has been cancer prevention and screening.  He was the editor of the American Cancer Society Primary Care Physicians Newsletter for 10 years and is now on the Editorial Advisory Board of CA: a Cancer Journal for the Clinicians, and for Patient Care.  Dr. Wender has served as President of the Pennsylvania Division of the American Cancer Society and is now on the ACS National Board of Directors.  He has served as Co-Chair of the Clinician Workgroup of the National Colorectal Roundtable and Chair of that organization’s Best Practice Task Force.  Dr. Wender worked with CDC to develop A Call to Action, a national training program for clinicians about colorectal cancer prevention and screening.  Dr. Wender was a member of the ACS Colorectal and Prostate Cancer Screening Guidelines Groups and co-authored both guidelines.  He is also a co-investigator of an NCI-funded study of tailored interventions to increase colorectal cancer screening.

 Dr. Wender has also had a career-long commitment to education in diabetes.  He has served as the co-director of several national diabetes education programs and is co-editor of the on-line newsletter, The Bottom Line, Achieving Diabetes Treatment Goals.  He chairs the Jefferson Medical College Continuing Medical Education Committee and Thomas Jefferson University Hospital’s Clinical Performance Committee.

 Dr. Wender has lectured and written extensively about the role of primary care clinicians in preventive care.  Understanding and overcoming barriers to primary care based preventive health services delivery and chronic disease management remains his principle focus of teaching and investigation.