Richard J. O'Reilly, Chair of Memorial Sloan-Kettering's Department of Pediatrics and Chief of the Pediatric Bone Marrow Transplant Service, received the John P. McGovern Compleat Physician Award from the Harris County (Texas) Medical Society and the Houston Academy of Medicine. Dr. O'Reilly was honored for his "pioneering contributions to the development of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation as a lifesaving treatment for immune deficiencies, leukemia and other blood disorders."
A world-renowned pediatrician, Dr. O'Reilly has dedicated his career to research in the field of bone marrow transplantation and has helped foster significant improvements in outcomes for patients with leukemia and genetic disorders of the immune system. In 1973, he helped established the bone marrow transplant program at Memorial Sloan-Kettering, one of the first transplant centers in the United States, and in 1976 was appointed director and chief of the transplant program in Pediatrics. From 1976 until 2004 he was also chief of the allogeneic bone marrow transplantation service in the Department of Medicine. He and his colleagues have worked to make bone marrow transplants possible even for patients without genetically matched relatives who can serve as donors and to increase the successful use of such transplants in the treatment of leukemia.
Dr. O'Reilly is the incumbent of the Claire L. Tow Chair in Pediatric Oncology Research.
