Vincent Felitti

Vincent J. Felitti, MD, is a noted physician and researcher on the negative impacts in adults of adverse life experiences during childhood. Dr. Felitti is co-principal investigator of the internationally recognized Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study, a long-term, in-depth, retrospective and prospective analysis of over 17,000 adults that matches and tracks their current adult health status against ten categories of adverse life experiences during childhood.

Findings to date reveal a powerful, dose-response relationship between our emotional experiences as children and our physical and mental health as adults, as well as a strong link to the major causes of adult mortality in the United States. In other words, the ACE Study documents the conversion of traumatic emotional experiences in childhood into organic disease later in life. It also documents that time does not heal all wounds. One does not "just get over" some things, not even 50 years later. In his keynote address, Dr. Felitti will discuss the ACE Study and its relevance to the everyday practice of medicine, to mental health, and to healthcare costs. The importance of primary prevention is notable in this realm.

Dr. Felitti is a graduate of the Johns Hopkins Medical School (1962), and a Physician in the Southern California Permanente Medical Group. He founded the Department of Preventive Medicine for Kaiser Permanente in San Diego, California, in 1975, and served as Chief of Preventive Medicine until March 2001. Under Dr. Felitti's leadership, the Health Appraisal Division of the Department of Preventive Medicine provided comprehensive medical evaluation to 1.1 million individuals, becoming the largest single-site medical evaluation facility in the western world. During his career, associated health risk abatement programs included weight loss, smoking cessation, stress management, and a wide range of cutting-edge risk abatement programs offered to over 1,000 patients per month at one facility.

Dr. Felitti is Clinical Professor of Medicine at University of California-San Diego and a Fellow of The American College of Physicians, licensed to practice medicine in Maryland, California, and Arizona. Dr. Felitti is also the President and CEO of the California Institutes of Preventive Medicine.