Main description:

The alumni of Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons (VP&S) have made remarkable strides in medicine, academia, public health, and industry. In this they follow in the footsteps of Samuel Bard (1742-1821), a prominent early American physician and a founder of what would become VP&S. In The Caring Heirs of Doctor Samuel Bard, Peter Wortsman offers a selection of profiles of Columbia-educated doctors who have made a fundamental difference in the lives of others.

The physicians profiled in this book represent the complete spectrum of MDs. They have charted new fields of medicine, resolved long-standing biochemical mysteries, discovered the causes and cures of diseases, developed vaccines, pioneered surgical procedures, helped halt epidemics, and cared for imperiled populations. Some have run hospitals, medical schools, universities, the National Institutes of Health, the National Library of Medicine, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, city health departments, and major pharmaceutical concerns. Others practiced at the White House, climbed mountains, or flew to outer space. Still others wrote pioneering papers, edited prestigious medical journals, and authored prize-winning books and best-selling novels. In each case, the clinical training, scientific thoroughness, and humanistic values inculcated at Columbia had a formative influence on their thinking and practice. In telling their stories, The Caring Heirs of Doctor Samuel Bard illustrates the importance of clinical rigor and humanistic caring in the practice of medicine and offers readers a rare insight into the heart and soul of American medicine at its best.

Contents:

Acknowledgments
Taking Doctors' Histories, a Preface
1. A New Dean Digs in at Boston University School of Medicine, by Karen Antman '74
2. A Champion of Health Equality at the Helm of the NYC Department of Health, by Mary T. Bassett '79
3. New Jersey's Health Care Crusader, by Stanley S. Bergen, Jr. '55
4. A Nobel Laureate's Lifelong Commitment to Curiosity, by Baruch Blumberg '51
5. Babies' Best Friend, by T. Berry Brazelton '43D
6. Musings of a University President Emeritus, by Keith Brodie '65
7. Promoting Respect for "Our Future Selves," by Robert N. Butler '53
8. A Neurosurgeon at the Helm of the AMA, by Peter Carmel MSD '70
9. A Vitreoretinal Visionary, by Stanley Chang '74
10. Protecting Imperiled Populations, by Davida Coady '65
11. How Three P&S Alumni Bucked the Odds and Made It Big in Biotech, by Ron Cohen '81, Paul Maddon MD '88 MD PhD, and George Yancopoulos MD '86, PhD '87
12. An American Odyssey, by Robert Coles '54
13. Medicine by the Book, by Robin B. Cook '66
14. A Shared Life in Medicine, Canadian Style, by Richard '55 and Sylvia Cruess '55
15. Surgeon-Scientist Takes Knowledge to the Cutting Edge, by Patricia Donahoe '64
16. Tuning-up the Engine of Public Health in the Motor City, by Abdul El-Sayed '14
17. The Un-Retiring Dean of American Rheumatologists, by Ephraim P. Engleman '37
18. From Student to Surgeon to University Trustee-a Columbia Journey, by Kenneth Forde '59
19. From Endocrinology to Admissions, a Life in Medicine, by Andrew G. Frantz '55
20. Practicing the "Art of the Possible," by The Outgoing Director of the CDC Reflects on His Time at the Helm, by Thomas R. Frieden MD/MPH '86
21. Medicine by Bench, Bedside, and Book, by Jerome Groopman '76
22. A Pioneer in Adolescent Medicine Committed to Health and Well-being for All, by Karen Hein '70
23. At Home in High Places, by Charles S. Houston '39
24. An All-Star on the Team Against TB, by Michael Iseman '65
25. Championing Intellectual Rigor and Risk at the American University of Beirut, by Fadlo R. Khuri '89
26. Making Health Care Happen, a Committed Primary Care Practitioner in the Deep South, by Karen Kinsell '93
27. Urologist, Historian, Collector, Sleuth, by John K. Lattimer '38
28. Yes, There Is Balm in Gilead, by Margaret Morgan Lawrence '40
29. A Doctor in the House-the White House, That Is, by Burton J. Lee, III '56
30. Receptive to Receptors, by Robert J. Lefkowitz '66
31. Adventures in Virology, by Jay Levy '65
32. A Digital Pioneer at the National Library of Medicine, by Donald A.B. Lindberg '58
33. Out of Anguish into Africa, by Martha M. MacGuffie '49
34. Battling Invisibility-a Primary Care Clinician and Spokesperson for the Care of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, and Transgender People, by Harvey J. Makadon '77
35. At the Cancer Command, by Paul Marks '49
36. A Pivotal Player at P&S and Presbyterian Hospital Throws in the White Coat
37. A Surgeon in Space, by F. Story Musgrave '64
38. A Military Neurologist on the Front Against Chemical Attack, by Col. Jonathan Newmark, MC, USAR '78
39. It Takes Heart, by Suzanne Oparil '65
40. An Educator Not Afraid to Stick His Neck Out, by Calvin H. Plimpton MSD '51
41. Notes of a Pioneering Neurosurgeon, by J. Lawrence Pool MD '32, MSD '40
42. First Woman of Medicine, by Helen Ranney '47
43. Medicine by Blue Pencil, by Arnold Relman '46
44. A Doctor to the World, by Allan Rosenfield '59
45. Kidneys are Color-blind, by Velma Scantlebury '81
46. The Hands-On Surgeon-in-Chief of the Hospital for Special Surgery, by Thomas P. Sculco '69
47. The Assistant Secretary for Health is a Doctor First and Foremost, by Eve Slater '71
48. Rebel Doctor with a Cause, by Benjamin Spock '29
49. A Veteran NIH Investigator Takes on Complementary and Alternative Medicine, by Stephen E. Straus '72
50. A Pioneering African American Perinatologist Looks Back with Pride, by Yvonne Thornton MD '73, MPH '96
51. Merck's MD at the Top, by P. Roy Vagelos '54
52. Nobel Laureate at the NIH, by Harold Varmus '66
53. for Women's Health, by Lila Wallis '51
54. A Matter of Heart, by Clyde Y. C. Wu '56
55. The Scientific Wunderkind of Biotech Makes Proteins Do the Right Thing, by George D. Yancopoulos PhD '86, MD'87
Author's Bio
Photo Credits