The early years of coeducation at the Yale University School of Medicine.

The Yale School of Medicine began accepting women as candidates for the degree of medicine in the fall of 1916. This decision was consistent with the trend in medical education at the time. While Yale was not the first prestigious Eastern medical school to admit women, joining Johns Hopkins (1893) and the University of Pennsylvania (1914), it was not one of the last. Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons admitted women a year later, but Harvard Medical School held out until 1945. The years 1916--1920 saw the number of women enrolled in medical school almost double. Yale''s decision to admit women seems to have been made with little resistance from the faculty. The final decision was made through the encouragement and financial help of Henry Farnam, a professor of economics at Yale, who agreed to pay for the women''s bathrooms. His daughter, Louise, was in the first class of women. At graduation she was awarded the highest scholastic honors, the Campbell Gold Prize. From Yale she travelled to the Yale-sponsored medical school in Changsha, China, where she became the first female faculty member, a position she held for twelve years. The impressions of Ella Clay Wakeman Calhoun, the only woman to graduate in the second class of women, are presented here. Since 1916 the Yale School of Medicine has undergone extensive physical and philosophical changes, developments in which women have participated.     

Reflections on a Life in Biomedicine: Leading Change

Dr. Elizabeth Nabel delivered the following presentation as the Lee E. Farr Lecturer on May 7, 2013, which served as the culmination of the annual Student Research Day at Yale School of Medicine. Dr. Nabel is President of the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Her lecture to Yale medical students portrayed her own personal and professional journey through medicine as a series of opportunities. Dr. Nabel focused on the roles and responsibilities of physicians to recognize need and to make change through focused advocacy.     

Dr. David Rimm is interviewed by Feras Akbik

Dr. David Rimm, MD PhD, is a professor of Pathology at the Yale University School of Medicine specializing in developing quantitative, diagnostic techniques. His lab recently engineered a fluorescence-based algorithm, Automated Quantitative Analysis (AQUA), to analyze tissue microarrays in the hope of moving toward personalized medicine and diagnoses.     

Yellow ooze

This is a piece from the annual Yale Internal Medicine Residency Program's Writers' Workshop, which began in 2003. Abraham Verghese and Richard Selzer, among the best known physician-writers in the United States, have served as workshop leaders, teaching the craft of writing to more than 35 residents. In designing the workshop, Anna B. Reisman, assistant professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at the Yale University School of Medicine and VA Connecticut Health Care System, and Dr. Asghar Rastegar had the goal of making participants better physicians by providing a creative outlet for reflection.The stories and essays written by the Writers' Workshop participants present a range of experiences, real and imagined, and take readers deep into the minds of young doctors trying to make sense of what they do.     

The apology

This is the second issue featuring a selected piece from the Yale Internal Medicine Residency Program's Writers' Workshop. The annual workshop began in 2003. Abraham Verghese and Richard Selzer, among the best known physician-writers in the United States, have served as workshop leaders, teaching the craft of writing to more than 35 residents. In designing the workshop, Anna B. Reisman, assistant professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at the Yale University School of Medicine and VA Connecticut Health Care System, and Dr. Asghar Rastegar had the goal of making participants better physicians by providing a creative outlet for reflection.The stories and essays written by the Writers' Workshop participants present a range of experiences, real and imagined, and take readers deep into the minds of young doctors trying to make sense of what they do.     

Reflections of a member of the bicentennial class on the Bicentennial Symposium

This perspective piece explores what it means to be a first-year medical student at Yale School of Medicine during its bicentennial year. At first, it seemed like a hefty burden to bear. However, upon listening to Dr. Eric Kandel speak at the Bicentennial Symposium at Yale on April 28, 2011, it became clear what it means to be a part of the future of science and medicine at Yale.     

The pneumococcus and some men who came to Yale: the Dorothy M. Horstmann Lecture.

Yale has been fortunate indeed to have had Dorothy Horstmann as a member of its faculty for all but one of the last 50 years. It has had also the wisdom to take cognizance of her value as an individual and of her contributions to biomedical science and human welfare on two occasions in recent years. Her studies of poliomyelitis, hepatitis, and rubella, executed with perceptiveness, rigor and modesty, have benefited countless numbers; and for her many achievements all are in her debt. I am beholden to her colleagues for this opportunity to pay tribute to a wise and gracious friend. In casting about for a subject befitting this occasion, the thought occurred that it might be of interest to examine the contributions of some former and present members of Yale''s faculty to the subject of a group of infections still endemic in all human societies, namely those caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae or the pneumococcus. The list is doubtless not exhaustive but includes such notables as Winternitz, Blake, Paul, Trask, Eaton, and Beeson of former days, as well as reflecting ongoing investigations today by Eugene Shapiro and his colleagues. In reviewing some of this earlier work, it will be my endeavor to place it in the context of contemporary understanding. In the interest of some semblance of order, the material will be examined in topical rather than in chronological order, dealing with bacteriologic and immunologic, pathogenetic, therapeutic, and prophylactic considerations in that sequence.     

Progress in complementary and alternative medicine research: Yale Research Symposium on Complementary and Integrative Medicine

Integrative Medicine at Yale and the Yale Center for Continuing Medical Education (CME) sponsored the Yale Research Symposium on Complementary and Integrative Medicine in March 2010 at the university's School of Medicine. Delivering the keynote address, Dr. Josephine P. Briggs, Director of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), highlighted recent progress made in the field of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM).     

In memoriam Dr Marlene Deluca

The untimely death of Marlene DeLuca in 1987 has deprived the scientific community of an outstanding expert on bioluminescence. Earlier in that year she was honoured as thethirty-ninth recipient of the Otto Mitchell Smith Lectureship Award at Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma. On 20 March 1987 Dr DeLuca presented a scientific lecture entitled ‘Firefly Luciferase-Mechanism of Action, Cloning, and Expression of the Active Enzyme’ and a popular lecture at the banquet that evening entitled ‘Light and Life’. She was selected for her excellence in research, her oral presentation ability, and her personableness. Marlene was the first woman so honoured. To honour Dr Otto M. Smith the Alpha Delta Chapter of Phi Lambda Upsilon, a national chemistry honorary organization, inaugurated The Otto Mitchell Smith Lectureship in 1948 at Oklahoma State University. Former awardees include Nobel Laureates H. C. Brown, Stanford Moore, and Arthur Kornberg and the following prominent biochemists/molecular biologists: Robert A. Alberty, University of Wisconsin; Daniel E. Koshland, Brookhaven National Laboratory; Sol Spiegelman, University of Illinois; Carl Djerassi, Stanford University; and John T. Edsall, Harvard University. The lectureship honours Dr O. M. Smith, who was Director of the Research Foundation, professor, and Head of the Departments of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. As a tribute to Dr DeLuca's outstanding contibution to bioluminescence we reproduce here the edited text of her Otto Mitchell Smith Lectureship and a selected bibliography of her work on firefly bioluminescence.     

Sowing the seeds for a career in medicine: reflections and projections

Dr. George Lister delivered the following presentation as the Lee E. Farr Lecturer on May 8, 2011, which served as the culmination of the annual Student Research Day at Yale School of Medicine. He is the Chair of Pediatrics at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School and Pediatrician-in-Chief at Children's Medical Center of Dallas. In his lecture to the medical students, who had just completed their research theses, Dr. Lister discusses his own work on sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), demonstrating the complexity of clinical research and proving insight into the traits required of physician scientists. Committed to medical education and recognized by several awards for his mentorship, he ends the talk by imparting valuable advice on future physicians.     

Dr. Haifan Lin. Interviewed by Han Lee and Rachel Rosenstein

Dr. Haifan Lin is professor of Cell Biology at Yale University, where he studies the mechanism of stem cell self-renewal in fruit flies, mice, and human cancer cells. Recently named director of the Yale Stem Cell Center, Dr. Lin has made seminal contributions to the stem cell field, most notably his demonstration of the stem cell niche theory using the fruit fly model, his discovery of the PIWI/AGO gene family that is essential for stem cell division in diverse organisms, and his recent finding of a group of small RNAs called PIWI-interacting, or piRNAs, which may play a crucial role in stem cell proliferation and germline development. Dr. Lin’s work on piRNAs was recognized by Science Magazine as a top scientific breakthrough of 2006. Recently, the Lin lab has begun exploring the role of these molecules in stem cell division and oncogenesis.     

Four Children and Yale: The Making of a Human Geneticist: The Grover Powers Lecture 2014

Dr. Leon E. Rosenberg delivered the following presentation as the Grover Powers Lecturer on May 14, 2014, which served as the focal point of his return to his “adult home” as a Visiting Professor in the Department of Pediatrics. Grover F. Powers, MD, was one of the most influential figures in American Pediatrics and certainly the leader who created the modern Department of Pediatrics at Yale when he was recruited in 1921 from Johns Hopkins and then served as its second chairman from 1927 to 1951. Dr. Powers was an astute clinician and compassionate physician and fostered and shaped the careers of countless professors, chairs, and outstanding pediatricians throughout the country. This lectureship has continued yearly since it first honored Dr. Powers in 1956. The selection of Dr. Rosenberg for this honor recognizes his seminal role at Yale and throughout the world in the fostering and cultivating of the field of human genetics. Dr. Rosenberg served as the inaugural Chief of a joint Division of Medical Genetics in the Departments of Pediatrics and Internal Medicine; he became Chair when this attained Departmental status. Then he served as Dean of the Medical School from 1984 to 1991, before he became President of the Pharmaceutical Research Institute at Bristol-Myers Squibb and later Senior Molecular Biologist and Professor at Princeton University, until his recent retirement. Dr. Rosenberg has received numerous honors that include the Borden Award from the American Academy of Pediatrics, the McKusick Leadership Award from the American Society for Human Genetics, and election to the Institute of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences.     

"C.-E.A. Winslow and the early years of public health at Yale, 1915-1925"

C.-E.A. Winslow was the first chairman of the Department of Public Health at the Yale University School of Medicine. This paper considers the development and changing agenda of his department, the structure of Yale University, and the maturation of public health as a discipline. Winslow's successes and failures are discussed as they relate to Yale and external societal influences.     

Book Review Essay: Mary Angela Uwalaka. Ọfọ: Its Juridical and Linguistic Potency. Ibadan, Afrika-Link Books, 1996. 69 pages

Rev. Mother (Dr.) Mary Angela Uwalaka was a distinguished and devoted religious woman linguist. Her major area of research was Igbo syntax, where she made tremendous contributions, through published texts and scholarly articles towards the development of a unified Igbo language and the field of Linguistics. As a renowned scholar, her research interest was not limited to Linguistics only. In the words of Prof. Ben Elugbe, her colleague at the University of Ibadan where Mother Uwalaka worked until her demise in January 7 2007, she also “found time and ability to work and publish in the areas of religion and Igbo culture.” Ọfọ: Its Juridical and Linguistic Potency, which we shall review here, is an evidence that Uwalaka’s interests extended to other areas of Igbo studies, apart from the Igbo language.     

Jelena Krmpotić-Nemanić (1921-2008): contributions to human neuroanatomy

Jelena Krmpoti?-Nemani? (1921-2008) was a world-famous anatomist, internationally distinguished otolaryngologist, a member of the Croatian Academy of Sciences & Arts and appreciated professor at the School of Medicine University of Zagreb. The founding influence in her scientific career came from her mentor Drago Perovid who was a student of Ferdinand Hochstetter, the leading authority in the field of human developmental neuroanatomy and embryology. Such an influence was obviously important in early shaping of the research agenda of Jelena Krmpoti?-Nemani?, and it remains important in a long series of studies on developing human telencephalon initiated by Ivica Kostovi? and his collaborators - with an always present and active support of Jelena Krmpoti?-Nemani?. The aim of this mini review is to briefly describe her numerous contributions to the anatomy of the human peripheral and central nervous system.     

Pediatric grand rounds: a tribute to Norman J. Siegel, M.D

At ceremonies held in Baltimore Maryland on May, 4, 2002, Dr. Howard A Pearson, Professor of Pediatrics, was awarded the John A. Howland award of the American Pediatric Society, probably the most prestigious award of American Pediatrics. Dr. Pearson had been nominated for the award by Dr. Norman Siegel. The Department of Pediatrics Grand Rounds on Wednesday noon, October 26, 2002 was originally scheduled as a repetition of the presentation by Dr. Siegel and the acceptance by Dr. Pearson for those who could not be in Baltimore. However; in a number of meetings, unknown to Dr. Siegel, it was unanimously decided that it would be very appropriate to instead honor him as he stepped down from his position as Vice- and Interim Chairman of Pediatrics, and to formally thank him for his long and faithful service to the Department of Pediatrics, the Yale University School of Medicine, and the Yale New Haven Hospital.     

How ultrasound first came to new England

Diagnostic ultrasound came to Yale in the 1960s and was first developed in Glasgow and London. This story tells us that ultrasound was well-established in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Yale University School of Medicine in the Yale-New Haven Hospital by 1970. By then it had caught up with the pioneers in New York, Denver, and even Glasgow.     

Beyond the white coat ceremony

Note from Anna B. Reisman, Co-Director, Yale Internal Medicine Residency Writers’ Workshop, Assistant Professor, Department of Internal Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine and VA Connecticut Health Care System: This issue inaugurates a new feature: selected writings from the Yale Internal Medicine Residency Program’s Writers’ Workshop. The annual workshop began in 2003. Abraham Verghese and Richard Selzer, among the best known physician-writers in the United States, have served as workshop leaders, teaching the craft of writing to more than 35 residents. In designing the workshop with my co-director, Dr. Asghar Rastegar, our aim was to make participants better physicians by providing a creative outlet for reflection. The tempo of a resident’s day is typically furious — one patient dies, perhaps, another sickens, a third refuses a necessary procedure, a fourth’s wife cries inconsolably at the bedside — with no time in between to ponder what happened, much less what it meant to the patient or to the resident and how it might shape the way the resident practices medicine in the future. Without time to muse about the experience, many residents take the easy road: They emotionally detach. Writing, we believe, can be an antidote to this tendency. The exercise of writing not only makes us empathic; it also sharpens our diagnostic skills. One of the keys to compelling writing is attention to detail: the nervous twitch of an old man’s eye muscles or the decayed front teeth of a young woman, a former crack addict. Such details not only make our writing come alive but also sensitize us to our patients’ plights and sharpen our diagnostic skills. The stories and essays written by the Writers’ Workshop participants present a range of experiences, real and imagined, and take us deep into the minds of young doctors trying to make sense of what they do.     

The William Allan Memorial Award. Presented to Elizabeth F. Neufeld, Ph. D., at the annual meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics Detroit, September 29-October 2, 1982

The opportunity for this presentation provides me with three gratifications. The first and most important is that the scientist being honored is Elizabeth Neufeld. The second is the honor bestowed upon me by being selected to introduce Dr. Neufeld. Finally, the preparation of this introduction has provided me with the opportunity to reconstruct a scientific career from its beginnings to its present exciting momentum, an exercise in which I was helped with great enthusiasm by a number of people who have known Liz during the various phases of her scientific life. I am particularly pleased to note that our awardee is the product of that unique breeding ground of success stories, the special New York education system. After arriving in New York in 1940 at the age of 12 from Paris, a refugee from Nazi persecutions in Europe, Liz Neufeld, like so many other young refugees at the time, qualified for one of the specialized schools in New York--the Hunter College High School. From there she went to Queens College, one of the major high-quality free institutions of higher learning of the New York City college system, and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1948. Obviously turned on to a scientific career, she successfully applied for a research assistantship at the Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine, where she worked with the first of her mentors, Dr. Elizabeth Russell, to this day her good friend and enthusiastic admirer. Her first publications are derived from that experience and are concerned with hematologic genetics of mice.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

The 2007 anatomy ceremony: a service of gratitude: I: collected experiences

Yale University medical and PA students, classes of 2010 and 2008 respectively, express their gratitude in a compilation of reflections on learning human anatomy. In coordination with the Section of Anatomy and Experimental Surgery at the School of Medicine, the Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine encourages you to hear the stories of the body as narrated by the student.