Howard I Maibach is an American dermatologist. He serves as professor of dermatology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).[1] His contributions include work in wound management,[2] patient care, dermatophysiology, dermatophamacology, and dermatotoxicology.[3]
Maibach was born on 18 July 1929, in New York City.[4] He graduated from Tulane University School of Medicine in 1955, and completed his internship from William Beaumont Army Hospital, El Paso, TX in 1956. He completed his fellowship from Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in 1961. He practiced neuropsychiatry for a few months in 1956.
He specializes in contact and occupational dermatitis, including the toxicological and pharmacological aspects.[5]
In December 2022, UCSF released the results of a preliminary investigation into research he conducted on prisoners at the California Medical Facility at Vacaville in the 1960s and 70s. The report raised ethical concerns, especially over how he gathered informed consent and communicated research risks from/to his subjects, and the fact that many of the prisoners had been assessed or treated for psychiatric conditions.[6] The report noted that the experiments did not involve treating medical conditions, while in some cases exposing patients to herbicides and insecticides. Maibach responded with remorse regarding his involvement research, stating "[While] the work I did with colleagues at CMF was considered by many to be appropriate by the standards of the day, [in retrospect] those standards were clearly evolving. I obviously would not work under those circumstances today... I have sincere remorse in relationship to these efforts some decades ago." UCSF issued an apology for its role in supporting the research.[7]
In 2013, he was awarded the "Master Dermatologist Award" by the American Academy of Dermatology.[8] [9]