David R. Bell, PhD, MS

Bio

Dr. Bell joined the faculty of the Indiana University of Medicine- Fort Wayne in 1989 after serving as a research fellow in the Department of Cardiology at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, MI. He is currently a full time, tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Anatomy, Cell Biology and Physiology at the IUSM in Fort Wayne. Dr. Bell received BS magna cum laude and MS in Physiology and Biophysics from Michigan State University and then follow his mentor to join the NIH Specialized Center of Research in Hypertension at the University of Alabama-Birmingham Medical Center where he received his Ph.D. in 1983 in Physiology and Biophysics. He did his post-doctoral research fellowship as an NIH awardee in the Hypertension Program Project in the Department of Physiology at the University of Michigan. Dr. Bell’s research interests have focused on cardiovascular pathophysiology. He has conducted and published his research on functional vascular abnormalities in hypertension, including the pathophysiology related to special circulations, vascular smooth muscle, and the vascular endothelium. He has also published works in cardiac and coronary arterial fluid mechanics. His most recent studies focused on modulation of coronary vascular smooth muscle and endothelial NO function by estrogens and natural polyphenolics. His work also addressed how these compounds protect coronary arteries from oxygen radical mediated injury. He has given numerous presentations and invited seminars on his research at national and international meetings for over 40 years and received a top ten newsworthy designation by the American Physiological Society for his work on plant polyphenolics and vascular function. 

     Prior to the curricular redesign initiative at the IUSM, he served as course director, developer and sole instructor for the Medical Physiology course at the IUSM-Fort Wayne as well as an instructor for several areas of the Medical Pharmacology course where he also served as co-course director. He is the site director for the new Fundamentals of Health and Disease, and Hematology and Cardiology courses at the IUSM-Fort Wayne. He is also a member of the course management team for both courses. Dr. Bell is co-editor and chief author of 4 editions of a major medical physiology textbook, the author of a medical physiology review textbook and a multiple chapter author in an undergraduate physiology textbook. He is currently a member of the live faculty with Kaplan North America where he has responsibility for physiology instruction in the STEP1 prep program. He is the national chairman in physiology for Doody’s Review Services, Inc. where he reviews all new textbooks, specialty texts and research monographs published worldwide to assess their suitability for, and niche within, medical school and hospital libraries. He was a member of the IUSM Admissions Committee for 15 years and is currently a member of the IUSM Curriculum Council Steering Committee, the Foundational Sciences Component Committee, and the Teacher Learner Advocacy Committee. He has been a member, team leader and committee chairman for numerous other IUSM curriculum committees including all those involved with the creation of the new medical school curriculum for the IUSM. He was the co-chairmanship of the Cardiovascular and Hematology UDOS course development team.

     Dr. Bell is a member of the American Physiological Society and the American Medical Writers Association. He has been married for 46 years to his wife Pamela who is a chemist, medical technologist, and high school AP chemistry educator. They have two children: Andrew who is a tax, estate and transactional attorney in Chicago and Elizabeth who is a board certified MD in both pediatrics and pediatric emergency medicine serving as a full time attending physician at the Detroit Medical Center.