Robert A. Gabbay

Robert A. Gabbay, MD, PhD, FACP, is the Chief Scientific and Medical Officer for the American Diabetes Association (ADA), the global authority on diabetes. Dr. Gabbay leads the ADA’s efforts to drive discovery within the world of diabetes research, care and prevention.

Previously, Dr. Gabbay served as the Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President at Joslin Diabetes Center, and Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School. At Joslin, he oversaw the clinical care for over 25,000 patients, as well as the education and care programs Joslin delivers nationally and internationally. His research focused on innovative models of diabetes care to improve to enhance diabetes outcomes and improve the lives of people with diabetes. To meet these goals, he has traversed many arenas including an initial career as a basic scientist researcher to development of better patient communication tools, creating the first broad scale diabetes registry, designing and implementing a care management training program, leading Pennsylvania’s statewide implementation of the Patient Centered Medical Home and defining the medical neighborhood and the role of centers of excellence in diabetes and envisioning the digital health as the latest member of the diabetes team. Dr. Gabbay has received funding from the National Institute of Health Diabetes, Digestive and Kidneys Diseases (NIDDK), the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), and the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation for his care transformation work.

The reach of his work has been recognized through leadership roles in national and international activities to transform diabetes care. Dr. Gabbay has served as visiting professor, keynote speaker and organizing committees for global meetings of the ADA, International Diabetes Federation, Endocrine Society, and the Diabetes Technology Society. Along with an extensive peer reviewed publication record, his views have appeared in popular press such as the New York Times, CNN, Oprah, the Washington Post and NPR.

Dr. Gabbay completed his B.Sc. Degree at McGill University and his PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin where he published on mechanisms of insulin signaling. He then went on to get his medical degree from the State University of New York at Brooklyn School of Medicine with a residency in Internal Medicine at New York Hospital-Cornell and fellowship in Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism at a joint Joslin-Beth Israel Deaconess-Brigham and Women’s Hospital program at Harvard. Dr. Gabbay was a visiting scientist at MIT and a Professor of Medicine at Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine and founding director of the Penn State Institute of Diabetes and Obesity before his tenure at Joslin.