Maintaining and restoring health is an important part of a healthy and well-functioning society. This National Doctors Day, celebrated on March 30, MDLinx would like to take a moment to honour doctors for their work to preserve and restore the health and well-being of patients, their communities and society as a whole.To that end, we would like to present a list of 10 doctors (in chronological order) who, through research, innovation, hard work and dedication, changed the face of medicine and how it is practiced today.
Charles Richard Drew, MD: Father of the Blood Bank
Born on June 3, 1904, in Washington, D.C., Charles Richard Drew was an African-American surgeon and medical scientist with a special interest in blood transfusion. . He developed advanced blood storage techniques that were used to develop large blood banks during World War II. Dr. Drew also developed blood sleds, which at the time were simply trucks that held refrigerators of blood.
Dr. Drew has improved the blood collection process by providing a centralised location where donors can go to donate. He also tested each blood plasma before shipping and tried to ensure that only qualified personnel handled the plasma to avoid contamination. His work became the starting point for what became the American Red Cross Blood Bank.
Daniel Hale Williams, MD: First Successful Open Heart Surgeon
Daniel Hale Williams was born on January 18, 1856, in Hollidaysburg, PA. Despite the hardships of the era and racial prejudice, Dr. Williams, an African-American, became a surgeon. He also performed the first documented successful pericardial surgery to repair a wound in the United States. Dr. Williams founded the Provident Hospital and Training School, Chicago, IL, the first unsegregated hospital in the United States and an affiliated school of nursing for African Americans. It was the first hospital in the country to have African Americans own and run it; it is now known as the Provident Hospital of Cook County.
Elizabeth Blackwell, MD: The First Woman Physician in the United States
Elizabeth Blackwell was born on February 3, 1821, near Bristol, England. She became the first female doctor in the United States. She moved to Cincinnati, OH, in 1832 and graduated first in her class on January 23, 1849. During medical school, Dr. Blackwell faced many obstacles because she was a woman, including discrimination. He was often forced to sit apart in lectures and prevented from participating in certain laboratories. For daring to deviate from the norm as a woman, the locals frequently shunned her.
After opening her own clinic in New York, where she specialised in treating poor women, Dr. Blackwell founded the New York Hospital for Poor Women and Children. In 1868, Dr. Blackwell opened a women’s medical college at the New York Hospital and helped found the National Health Society in London, England. Dr. Blackwell has worked throughout her life to bring equality to women in the medical field.
Sir Alexander Fleming, MD: Discovered Penicillin
Sir Alexander Fleming was born in Ayrshire, Scotland, on August 6, 1881, and served in World War I as a captain in the Army Medical Corps. Dr. Fleming was particularly interested in the natural bactericidal properties of antiseptics and blood. In 1921, he discovered the bacteriolytic substance lysozyme in tissues and secretions. In 1928, he accidentally discovered penicillin while researching the influenza virus. He left a staph culture on a plate and noticed it went mouldy. The mould created a bacteria-free circle around itself. After further study of that culture, he found that it could inhibit the growth of staphylococci at dilutions up to 800-fold and that it was part of the Penicillium notatum family. He called it “penicillin,” and the rest is history.
Edward Jenner, MD, FRS, FRCPE: Discovered Vaccines
Born on May 17, 1749, in Berkeley, Gloucestershire, Edward Jenner was an English physician and scientist who pioneered the world’s first vaccine. against advanced smallpox. Often called the “Father of Immunology,” Dr. Jenner and his work are said to have “saved more lives than the work of any other person.” In fact, smallpox caused about 10–20 percent of deaths in its time. By 1979, the World Health Organisation had declared smallpox eradicated from the world.
Michael Ellis DeBakey, MD: A Pioneer in Cardiovascular Surgery
On September 7, 1908, Michael Ellis DeBakey was born to Lebanese Christian immigrants in Lake Charles, LA. During a career spanning more than 75 years, Dr. DeBakey was one of the world’s leading cardiovascular surgeons. He has operated on more than 60,000 patients, including presidents and celebrities. In 1932, Dr. DeBakey developed the components that became part of the first heart-lung machine. In the 1950s, he developed plastic tubes to repair blood vessels that were used to prevent recurrence of stroke, kidney failure, and limb revascularization.His surgical innovations revolutionised cardiovascular procedures, including coronary artery bypass grafting, carotid endarterectomy, artificial hearts and ventricular assist devices. Dr. DeBakey was a noted pioneer in the use of Dacron grafts for vascular repair. DeBakey’s Dacron Graft is used worldwide today, including for the surgical repair of aortic aneurysms, which Dr. DeBakey himself underwent at the age of 97. In 1963, Dr. DeBakey installed the first artificial pump to help a damaged heart. Not surprisingly, Dr. DeBakey’s awards were numerous and included the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the National Medal of Science and the Congressional Gold Medal. Dr. DeBakey died in 2008 at the age of 99.
Helene D. Gayle, MD: HIV/AIDS Research, Public Health
Helene D. Gayle was born on August 16, 1955, in Buffalo, NY. Dr. Gayle has become one of the leading experts on HIV/AIDS. With a special interest in the impact of AIDS on children, youth and families, he has extensively researched the global consequences of HIV/AIDS. Dr. Gayle, who began her career at the CDC as an epidemic intelligence officer, is lauded as a physician, scientist, leader and global nurse and was named one of Forbes’ “100 Most Powerful Women.” His contribution to the research, control and prevention of HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases, such as tuberculosis, was significant. Dr. Gayle also served in distinguished positions such as assistant surgeon general and rear admiral in the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps.
Virginia Apgar, MD: Inventor of the Apgar Score
Born in 1909, Virginia Apgar developed the Apgar score, the first standardised measurement to assess newborn movement after leaving the uterus The Apgar Score, which was initially abandoned, is now used worldwide to assess a newborn’s heart rate, respiratory effort, muscle tone, reflexes and color on a scale of 0–2, with a combined composite score immediately after birth. Currently, 1-minute and 5-minute Apgar scores are standard and accepted as predictors of neonatal survival and neurodevelopment. Dr. Apgar made many contributions to the field of obstetric anaesthesia and demonstrated the relationship between infant Apgar scores and the effects of labour, delivery, and maternal anaesthesia. With Duncan Holaday, MD, and Stanley James, MD, he developed new methods for measuring blood gas and serum anaesthesia levels and discovered that low blood oxygen levels and highly acidic blood were associated with low Apgar scores. Dr. Apgar and his colleagues showed that cyclopropane anaesthesia given to labouring mothers can cause low Apgar scores in babies. She was also the first woman to achieve a full professorship at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York, NY.
Georges Mathé, MD: Cure Found for Leukaemia
Georges Mathé was born on July 9, 1922, in Sermages, France. In preclinical studies of bone marrow transplantation, he showed that donor cells survived and proliferated only in recipients who were first irradiated to neutralise the immune system. Although conducting such studies in clinical trials was problematic, fate offered Dr. Mathe an opportunity to prove his theory in 1958. Several Yugoslav physicists were exposed to radiation during the nuclear accident. Dr. Mathé infused them with donor marrow and saved all but one from radiation poisoning.As a result, Dr. Mathé became one of the first doctors to perform an allogeneic human bone marrow transplant and essentially discovered a cure for leukaemia. In 1963, Dr. Mathé cured a leukaemia patient with a bone marrow transplant. He later defined graft-versus-host disease, a secondary illness that frequently follows transplantation, and came to the conclusion that the patient’s autologous cells were the target of an immune response by the donor’s bone marrow cells.
Helen Brooke Taussig, MD: Pioneer in Paediatric Cardiology
Helen Brooke Taussig, born May 14, 1898, in Cambridge, MA, is considered the founder of the field of paediatric cardiology. His pioneering work, Congenital Malformations of the Heart, was published in 1947. He developed the concept of the Blalock-Thomas-Taussig shunt method, which successfully prolongs the survival of children born with the tetralogy of Fallot, one of the main causes of blue baby syndrome.
Dr. Taussig was also known for his work to ban thalidomide, which caused severe birth defects in babies whose mothers took it during pregnancy. He admitted to Congress that he banned thalidomide and as a result, it was banned in both the United States and Europe. Dr. Taussig also worked to promote the use of X-rays and fluoroscopy in combination for less invasive monitoring of heart and lung changes in infants. In 1960, Dr. Taussig became the first female president of the American College of Cardiology.
