Upon graduation from the University of Wisconsin Madison in 1958, Dr. Rosenbloom did a rotating internship at Los Angeles County General Hospital in and a general practice residency at Ventura County General Hospital, in the days of the old-fashioned GP physician and surgeon. Unwilling to settle down into a lucrative California practice, he joined Tom Dooley’s MEDICO, practicing as physician and surgeon and building a surgical hospital in Cambodia, and developing a regional health center in central Malaya, before deciding that he was not smart enough to do everything and that pediatrics was to be his métier. After 2 years in Asia, he returned to his alma mater for pediatric residency and endocrinology fellowship.
Instead of going from fellowship to an academic position, however, Arlan was caught up in the Vietnam War draft. Because he spoke French and had overseas experience, he was able to join the US Public Health Service and be assigned to the CDC, trained as a field epidemiologist, and sent to Cameroon, West Africa as an epidemiologist consultant in the WHO/CDC smallpox eradication and measles control program.
Arlan returned to to the US in 1968 as the founding pediatric endocrinologist at the University of Florida, where he was promoted from assistant professor to associate professor in 1971, to full professor in 1974, and to distinguished service professor in 1996. At the same time as he was promoted to professor, in 1974, he was named the director of the NIH General Clinical Research Center, reflecting his contribution to greater than 50% of the research activity of that center. He also founded Florida’s Diabetes Camps, the UF Diabetes Research Education & Treatment Center, and the Regional Diabetes & Endocrine Program for Children. . He has served on numerous editorial boards, and on review committees for FDA, NIH, and other US and international grant agencies.
Arlan Rosenbloom has authored or co-authored over 380 articles and 83 chapters and books in the past 49 years. It is noteworthy that 120 of these papers and 35 of these books or chapters have been since he became emeritus in 1999. According to Google Scholar, these publications have been cited over 10,000 times since 1974 and 2700 times in the past 5 years.
His awards include the faculty research prize of the University of Florida College of Medicine in 1994, the Distinguished Alumnus Citation of the University of Wisconsin in 1995, the Florida Blue Key Distinguished Faculty Award in 1995, Honorary Professorship at the Central University of Quito Ecuador 2001, the Distinguished Physician Award of the Endocrine Society for 2003, the Prize for Achievement in Science, Education & Advocacy on Behalf of Young People with Diabetes from the International Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Diabetes (ISPAD) in 2004, the Eli Lilly LillyforLife Achievement Award for Professionals in 2006 and most recently, the Distinguished Achievement Award for 2014 from the University of Florida.