Francis A. Neelon, MD

Medical Director, Rice Diet Program
Associate Professor Emeritus of Medicine, Endocrinology
neelo001@mc.duke.edu

Formerly the Chief of DUMC's Division of Endocrinology, Dr. Neelon is now the medical director of Durham's Rice Diet Program.  He has been a Fellow of the National Genetics Foundation, an editor for Diabetes Care and Editor of the North Carolina Medical Journal.  Before his term as endocrine fellow and then Chief Medical Resident, he worked in the Laboratory of General and Comparative Biochemistry at the National Institute of Mental Health while in the United States Public Health Service. He has won the Duke University Medical Alumni Association's Distinguished Teacher Award, and has been a visiting professor at a number of American medical centers. He is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Endocrine Society, the American Association for the History of Medicine, and a number of other local and national professional associations.  He is President of the American Osler Society for 2007-2008.

Dr. Neelon has published over one hundred articles in the North Carolina Medical Journal and other medical journals, numerous commentaries on medical practice and social issues as well as scientific investigative pieces. He is co-author of A Syllabus of Problem-Oriented Patient Care (Boston: Little, Brown & Co.) and The Doctor's Doctor, a Biography of Eugene A Stead Jr. (Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press), and has produced several book chapters on endocrinology.

Dr. Neelon has long been interested in the role of literature in the formation and development of clinical practice.  He is a founder and regular supporter of the "Osler Literary Roundtable" whose weekly meetings at the Duke Medical Center are open to anyone who wishes to read works of literature and discuss their significance. The Roundtable takes its name from Sir William Osler (1849-1919), and serves as an advocate for humanistic medicine and for physicians' avocational interests; it continues to be a forum for developing the literary interests of Duke University Medical Center staff and others.