Research Holds Promise for a Better Life
I read with much interest your report of research on bipolar
disorder (Winter 2001), and I wanted to express my deep appreciation
for the efforts of the scientists involved. My son was diagnosed
with bipolar disorder about two years before he committed suicide
at the age of 21. I feel that there is still a great stigma
related to mental illness, and obtaining treatment is burdened
with so many obstacles that victims and their families often
do not seek or benefit from treatment.
I hope that someday the findings of dedicated scientists such
as Dr. Jon-Kar Zubieta and his colleagues at the University
of Michigan will enlighten all of us, and create a better life
for those afflicted with mental illness. I am a nurse in an
emergency department in Arizona (my husband did his pediatric
residency at U-M), and besides my own sad experience, I see
daily the devastation that this disorder places upon so many
people. Good luck in your future research.
Valinda Walter
Tempe, Arizona
Contributions Overlooked
Thank you for the article highlighting our research on the
health care experiences of African Americans in Southeast Michigan
(Winter 2001). Unfortunately, it failed to recognize the contributions
of George Myers, Ph.D., program manager of the Survey Research
Center at U-M’s Institute for Social Research, who served
as project coordinator and research investigator.
Dr. Myers helped establish the support of the African American
community in Detroit and collected and organized all of the
oral histories, with the help of Ron Amos and other members
of our research team; our project would not have been possible
without him. I also want to recognize the essential contributions
of the 41 individuals who contributed their personal stories,
making our collection one of the largest of its kind in the
world. Many of your readers may recognize the eight narrators
who are graduates of the University of Michigan, including five
graduates of the Medical School. Our Web site (http:// www.med.umich.edu/haahc)
includes biographies, brief audio clips from the oral histories,
a bibliography, and pictures of the 18 black hospitals in Detroit
that made it the “Black Hospital Capital” in the middle
of the 20th century.
This research is an excellent example of what can be accomplished
when the University and the community work together. We hope
that it will serve as a model for other University-community
collaborations.
Norman L. Foster, M. D.
Professor of Neurology
“I thought I had done an excellent job...”
I recently read “How It Was Then” (Fall 2000) and
it reminded me of an episode I had as a freshman student with
Professor Bradley Patten during the 1950-51 school year. Professor
Patten was a very proud man who was world-renowned at the time
for his definitive work, The Embryology of the Pig. He taught
histology as well as embryology, and most of us medical students
were rather cowed by this imposing man. He threw a quiz one
day asking us to draw and delineate the histology and growth
changes of an extremity bone (I believe it was the humerus).
Even though I wasn’t much of an artist, I thought I had
done an excellent job in my drawing and labeling. To my amazement,
I got the blue book back a few days later with a 6, the best
score being 10.
I was crushed and a bit irate. I bravely told my buddies that
I was going to approach “Bradley” to see if he wouldn’t
reconsider or at least explain my poor mark. They warned me
against doing it, but I wouldn’t listen. I knocked on his
office door and with much trepidation walked in. He said, “What
can I do for you, son?” I showed him my blue book and asked
him whether or not he had mistakenly given me a 6 __ . He looked
it over, leaned back in his chair, seemed to inflate his body
and said: “Son, when I marked this exam, I must have just
finished a delicious dinner with a fine glass of wine. Because
if I wasn’t in such a good mood, you never would have gotten
a 6 __ — it would have probably been a 4 or 5. So, if I
were you, son, I’d take this blue book and leave this room
as quickly as possible.”
That was the first and last time I ever questioned a grade.
Fred Horwitz (M.D. 1957)
Ellenville, New York
Zina, not Abraham
While I was delighted to read your account of the Medical School’s
Sesquicentennial’s grand finale celebration (“Sesqui-Finale,”
Winter 2001), there was a glaring error I feel compelled to
correct with great haste.
The article graciously mentioned the lecture I gave on the
history of the University of Michigan Medical School but erroneously
adduced its title, “An Example Worthy of Imitation,”
to the famous [Abraham] Flexner Report on Medical Education
of 1910. The quote was actually from a report by Dr. Zina Pitcher
to the U-M Board of Regents dated January 9, 1848, urging them
to establish a first-rate medical school that would be “an
example worthy of imitation.” Indeed, this touches on the
main point of why Michigan is a great medical school —more
than half a century before national reforms in medical education
were developed, quality medical education was of critical importance
to the founders and faculty of our medical school.
I only regret I did not bring along a test question or two
with me to the Sesquicentennial Celebration to ensure the quote’s
author, Dr. Pitcher, stayed correctly in your reporter’s
memory. I can, of course, recommend some excellent reading materials
if you need a refresher course!
Howard Markel, M.D., Ph.D.
(M.D. 1984)
George E. Wantz Professor of the History of Medicine
Director, Historical Center for the Health Sciences
A Factual Error
I read with interest the excellent Winter 2001 issue of Medicine
at Michigan. I am delighted with this high-quality publication
and look forward to being able to contribute to subsequent issues.
I would like to correct, however, a factual error in the Medical
Center Alumni Society Hall of Honor. John Floyd Holt, M.D.,
died in 1996 rather than 1991 as listed on page 27.
N. Reed Dunnick, M.D.
Professor and Chair,
Department of Radiology
Ann Arbor
Huggins and Nesbit Were Contemporaries
The commendable Winter 2001 issue of Medicine at Michigan made
a mistake regarding the surgical trainee of Drs. Cabot and Coller,
Charles B. Huggins. Dr. Huggins did not train in urology under
Dr. Reed Nesbit, they being contemporaries and roommates. While
Dr. Huggins held Dr. Nesbit in great esteem and friendship,
the urologist who trained them both was probably Edward Cathcart
(M.D. 1921), who later went into practice in Detroit at Harper
Hospital.
Just below the paragraph about Dr. Huggins there is one about
Dr. Edgar Kahn who also was a contemporary of Dr. Huggins. Dr.
Horace Davenport, in his book University of Michigan Surgeons,
describes these two aspiring surgeons operating on a dog as
things were turning into disaster, commiserating that they would
never be surgeons. How wrong they were!
Jack D. McCarthy, M.D.
(Residency 1959)
Albuquerque, New Mexico
[Thanks to the astute observations of our readers, the MCAS
Hall of Honor, from which the Medicine at Michigan text was
derived, is being corrected.]
What a Great Privilege It Was
In the Winter 2001 edition of Medicine at Michigan, the Medical
Center Alumni Society Hall of Honor helped me realize what a
great privilege it was to be a student at the University from
1946-50. I was a student of 32 of the 76 members listed. What
a powerful statement about the teachers of that era! Most, if
not all of them, were nationally recognized as leaders in their
respective fields. What an honor it is to have known these great
people of medicine.
One of these men, Carl V. Weller, M.D., was my mentor. He made
it possible for me to stay at the University through his generosity.
I worked at his home for two years or more. I was gardener,
houseman, chauffeur and anything else he and his wife wished
me to be. The last thing he asked me to do was drive an automobile,
loaded with everything imaginable, to Boston where his son,
Thomas Huckle Weller, was a researcher and eventually a recipient
of a Nobel Prize in medicine.
Dr. Weller kept after me with my grades and made me apply for
scholarships. Little did I know at that time that he was on
the scholarship committee. Without those scholarships, it would
have been impossible for me to continue at Michigan. The University
of Michigan School of Medicine has been, is, and hopefully always
will be one of the top schools in the country. I am proud to
be an alumnus.
John H. Varney
(M.D. 1950)
Middletown, Ohio
A Paradigm Shift
I have a different interpretation than Dr. Hamburger (Letters,
Winter 2001) about your choice to publish the experience reported
by Harry J. Schmidt, M.D., in “How It Was Then” (Fall
2000).
My belief is that to publish both Dr. Schmidt’s and Dr.
Hamburger’s observations indicates openness and an obvious
paradigm shift to what I consider better now than it was in
the 1950s. Arbitrary discrimination at Michigan may not have
passed completely, but it is obviously diminished if it is clearly
recognized and reported.
Open discourse on this subject is refreshing. Had you failed
to publish either submission, an opportunity for amelioration
would have been lost.
Edward N. Willey
(M.D. 1958, Residency 1963)
St. Petersburg, Florida
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