Mindy Fain, MD, named next American Journal of Medicine editor in chief

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Mindy J. Fain, MD, will be the new editor of The American Journal of Medicine effective January 2027, according to an internal release put out a week ago by the journal’s publisher, Elsevier Health & Medical Sciences. The notice posted Oct. 1 to the journal’s website.

First published in 1946, the monthly peer-reviewed publication — often called the “Green Journal” due to its distinctive cover — is the official journal of the Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine, a group comprising more than 125 medical schools’ medicine department chairs across the U.S. The journal, whose print edition is received by about 130,000 U.S. physicians, reaches millions of readers online worldwide.

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Dr. Fain brings more than four decades of clinical, academic and editorial leadership to her new role leading the journal. Her career has spanned general internal medicine, geriatrics, palliative medicine and aging research. She has served the journal since 2015 as specialty editor in practical geriatrics.

She is currently a University of Arizona professor of medicine and nursing, chief of the Department of Medicine’s Division of General Internal Medicine, Geriatrics & Palliative Medicine, or GGP division, director of the U of A Center on Aging and the Anne and Alden Hart Endowed Chair in Medicine at the College of Medicine – Tucson.

James K. Liao, MD, chair of the Department of Medicine, congratulated Dr. Fain on her selection to lead the journal.

“It is a testament to Dr. Fain’s academic accomplishments and her stature in the field of internal medicine. Dr. Fain succeeds our very own Dr. Joseph Alpert, who had a remarkable tenure as editor in chief of this prestigious journal. I am confident that it continues to be in good hands under her stewardship,” Dr. Liao said. 

Dr. Alpert, a professor in the Division of Cardiology and of the Clinical Translational Sciences Program, the DOM’s vice chair for faculty appointments and promotion, as well as a Sarver Heart Center member who was a predecessor of Dr. Liao as Department of Medicine chair (1992-2006), will have led the journal for 23 years when he steps down in December.

“I am grateful for Dr Alpert’s mentorship and the remarkable standard he has set for the journal,” Dr. Fain said. “I also am excited to shape the journal’s future — bringing together the best of science, primary care, education and policy to improve the health of patients and inspire the generations of clinicians and scholars who will care for them.”

Dr. Fain earned her medical degree from the New York University School of Medicine in 1977. She completed her internal medicine residency training and a one-year clinical fellowship in infectious diseases at University Hospital of Cleveland, which is affiliated with Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. She has completed advanced leadership training through the Leadership Development for Physicians in Academic Health Centers program at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine (ELAM) program at Philadelphia’s Drexel University.

After moving to Tucson in 1984, she became medical director of the Southern Arizona VA Health Care System’s Home-Based Primary Care Program, where for more than two decades she led and practiced team-based primary care for seriously ill and home-limited adults. In dual roles at the College of Medicine, she was assistant director of the Department of Medicine’s geriatric medicine residency program (1993-98), medical director of its hospital’s home health service (1996-2014), program director of its Geriatric Medicine Fellowship (1999-present) and head of its Section of Geriatrics & Gerontology (2003-2011).

She has led, as co-director or director, the Center on Aging and the Arizona Reynolds Program of Applied Geriatrics since 2006 and, as a full-time U of A faculty member, the GGP division since 2011. She directs the college’s Leadership and Innovation in Health Care Distinction Track and co-teaches the Introduction to Medicine course in the Bachelor of Science in Medicine program. Since 2004, she has mentored about six dozen students via the American Federation for Aging Research’s MSTAR summer program, also winning the college’s Faculty Mentoring Awards in 2020 and 2023 as well as a recently announced 2026 Torchbearer Award. She has been recognized too by the Arizona Geriatrics Society (Geriatrician of the Year, 2000), U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (Undersecretary for Health Award for Clinical Programs of Excellence, 2002) and American Medical Women’s Association (Local Legend from Arizona, 2003).

In addition, Dr. Fain currently serves as principal investigator of the HRSA-funded Arizona Geriatrics Workforce Enhancement Program, extending geriatrics training and quality improvement initiatives statewide, including tribal, rural and underserved communities. And she’s a multi-principal investigator of the NIH-funded R25 MSTEM THRIVE program, building the next generation of aging researchers. And she leads or collaborates on multiple NIH R01 and R21 studies focused on frailty biology, digital health technologies and aging-related outcomes. She previously served as president of the American Academy of Home Care Medicine.

EXTRA: A Long Haul to Editorial Excellence

Stepping down with the second longest tenure at The Journal of American Medicine’s helm after founding editor Alexander B. Gutman, MD (1946-71), the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson’s Joseph S. Alpert, MD (2004-2026) said he’s most proud of having made the Green Journal readable again.

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That’s because, at the time he took it over, readership was down due to prior esoteric story selection, he said. To turn it around, he expanded the editorial board to add more perspectives, changed the editorial mix to allow more topical subjects and, ultimately, improved its readability index, making it a more relevant publication again.

Dr. Alpert recalls the journal making headlines when it published a widely reported 2013 analysis of fast-food chicken nuggets showing, at the time, that there was very little chicken meat in them. That changed standards on how the nuggets were made and earned the journal a lot of headlines, including in the New York Times, he said.

The journal also earned the enmity of the salt industry when it published another study on “how much salt is good and how much salt is bad” in a person’s diet. “We got a nasty note from the salt lobbying organization saying, ‘No, this is not true,’” Dr. Alpert said.

He felt the salt lobby overreacted since the report published both sides of the story, calling salt an “innocent bystander” to added sugars and refined carbohydrates in processed foods that were actual metabolic culprits affecting insulin resistance. But excess sodium in these foods still raises blood pressure and cardiovascular risks for most people.

“I’ve also always tried to be balanced,” Dr. Alpert said.

Likewise, he and his wife, Qin “Mary” Chen, PhD, a professor in the college’s Department of Pharmacology and pharmacogenomics director at the R. Ken Coit College of Pharmacy, made few friends in the organic food industry when they published a study finding no definitive clinical proof that organic food extends lifespan or improves major health outcomes.

“By the way, we said that it’s OK to eat organics. You know, it’s not a bad idea. But it’s no guarantee you’re going to live longer,” Dr. Alpert added.

He’s also happy he moved the offices of The American Journal of Medicine to Tucson from San Francisco, where the prior editor in chief was based. Instead of renting, he took his wife’s advice and bought a condominium in Prince Village off Campbell Avenue and Prince Road to house its editorial operations. That saved a lot of headaches when rents skyrocketed several years ago.