Ira Helfand, M.D.

Guest Author

Dr. Ira Helfand is a member of the International Steering Group of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapon (ICAN) and is a co-Founder and Past President of Physicians for Social Responsibility, IPPNW’s US affiliate.

He represented ICAN at historic intergovernmental meetings to address the humanitarian impacts of nuclear war and at key United Nations assemblies that led to the successful negotiation of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

The recipient of numerous leadership awards, Dr. Helfand has published studies on the medical consequences of nuclear war in the New England Journal of Medicine, the British Medical Journal, the Lancet and the World Medical Journal, and has delivered countless lectures around the world on the health effects of nuclear weapons. He represented PSR and IPPNW at the Nobel ceremonies in Oslo in December 2009, honoring President Obama, and presented their new report, Nuclear Famine: One Billion People at Risk, at the Nobel Peace Laureates Summit in Chicago in April of 2012. A second edition was released in December of 2013.

Dr. Helfand was educated at Harvard College and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He is a former chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine and President of the Medical Staff at Cooley Dickinson Hospital, and is a retired internist and urgent care physician at Family Care Medical Center in Western Massachusetts.