Faculty Bibliography

Dr. [Margaret F. C. Chan] is the first person from China to head a United Nations agency. China has been criticized severely for not sharing information with the world about diseases like influenza and SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome. Asked whether she felt pressure to favor China, Dr. Chan pledged to be fair, transparent and accountable. ''As an international civil servant, I commit to serve the interests of the member states of the organization,'' she said. In recent decades, as progress in medicine raced ahead, resources for public health grew more slowly, leading to greater global imbalances. Some people live longer and healthier lives while others die prematurely from preventable diseases. ''This is not a healthy situation -- for populations or world security,'' Dr. Chan said. Dr. Chan, who most recently was the health organization's assistant director general for communicable diseases, urged the world to remain vigilant against the threat of H5N1 avian influenza. The peak flu season normally occurs during cold weather. ''Complacency is our biggest enemy,'' she said, in preparing for the next influenza pandemic that could be caused by any strain. She said that scientists had not learned enough about the role of migratory birds in spreading avian flu viruses

The physician, Dr. Howard M. Snyder, injected morphine and other drugs, none specific for a heart attack or for Eisenhower's falling blood pressure and irregular pulse. Dr. Snyder, a general surgeon, let Eisenhower sleep until noon at [Mamie Eisenhower]'s family home in Denver where he was staying. Then he called a cardiologist to do an electrocardiogram. Later, the president went by car to a hospital. There, he was largely confined for almost seven weeks to bed, chair rest and limited physical activity. As the son of a radiologist whose office was in our home, I grew up seeing conventional X-rays displayed on my father's light boxes. When I went to London in 1973 to report on the first brain CT scanner, I was astonished to see how it could detect tumors, strokes and other disorders that never could be seen on X-rays. I recalled all the patients with neurological symptoms who had to undergo a special X-ray procedure known as a pneumoencephalogram. In it, a needle was inserted through the back to remove spinal fluid and to inject air to outline structures in the brain. The technique was painful and unable to detect the tiny lesions that are now seen on scans. Then consumerism in medicine grew, more women became doctors, mammography was used more widely along with other advances to detect breast cancer earlier and the government invested more in research on breast cancer. From these changes, doctors began to understand that the cancer was systemic and not confined to the breast. The studies documented that simpler and less disfiguring procedures, often combined with radiation and drugs, were safe treatments

An anxious Katrin DeBakey called two of her husband's colleagues: Dr. Mohammed Attar, his longtime physician, and Dr. Matthias Loebe, who was covering for Dr. George Noon, DeBakey's surgical partner for 40 years. They came to the house quickly. After listening to DeBakey, they shared his suspicion of an aortic dissection

As the son of a radiologist whose office was in our home, I grew up seeing conventional X-rays displayed on my father's light boxes. When I went to London in 1973 to report on the first brain CT scanner, I was astonished to see how it could detect tumors, strokes and other disorders that never could be seen on X-rays. I recalled all the patients with neurological symptoms who had to undergo a special X-ray procedure known as a pneumoencephalogram. In it, a needle was inserted through the back to remove spinal fluid and to inject air to outline structures in the brain. The technique was painful and unable to detect the tiny lesions that are now seen on scans. One of the first articles I wrote for this newspaper, in 1970, was about Lassa fever, a hemorrhagic viral infection discovered in Africa. The virus was isolated from a missionary nurse who flew to New York City from Nigeria for care. She survived. But a researcher at Yale died while trying to identify the virus. Among other new diseases are Marburg, Ebola and Legionnaire's. Still others, like West Nile fever, have moved from one area of the world to another. For decades, the West Nile virus caused outbreaks in Africa and Europe. In 1999, West Nile appeared in the Americas, in New York City. Since then, it has spread widely and quickly through the United States and Canada to cause encephalitis and other problems. The virus that causes AIDS, shown in a computerized model, has infected about 60 million people worldwide since 1981 and claimed the lives of 25 million of them. (Photo by Peter Arnold, from ''Nova'')(pg. F1); One of the first pacemakers from 1958; they were patented in 1962. (Photo by Andrea Mohin/The New York Times); Demonstration of a Computerized Axial Tomography scan. (Photo by Meha Kulyk/Science Photo Gallery); Scan of a normal brain, with structures of the brain, spine and tissues. (Photo by Chad Hunter/for The New York Times); A stent shown over an angioplasty balloon in 2004. (Photo by Boston Scientific Corp., via Bloomberg News)(pg. F6)

Dr. [James L. Pool]'s chart noted that Dr. [Michael E. DeBakey] had said he did not want surgery for his heart ailment.; THE WIFE -- As the hospital ethics committee debated, Katrin DeBakey barged in to demand an immediate operation.; THE FRIEND -- When other anesthesiologists at the hospital balked, Dr. [Salwa A. Shenaq] agreed to step in and do the procedure.; THE PATIENT -- Dr. Michael E. DeBakey, seated, became the oldest patient to benefit from heart surgery he devised. From left are Carlos Hinojosa Salcedo, an aide; [Kenneth Miller], a physical therapist; and Dr. [George P. Noon], Dr. DeBakey's surgical partner. (Photo by Michael Stravato for The New York Times)(pg. A1); BACK AT WORK -- In 1965, Time magazine featured Dr. Michael E. DeBakey and his work in a cover story. Dr. George P. Noon, right, said some doctors were waiting for Dr. DeBakey to die during his heart operation or soon after. ''But he just got better.'' (Photo by Michael Stravato for The New York Times)(pg. A18)

In late afternoon last Dec. 31, Dr. Michael E. DeBakey, then 97, was alone at home in his study when a sharp pain ripped through his upper chest and between his shoulder blades, then moved into his neck. Dr. DeBakey, one of the most influential heart surgeons in history, assumed his heart would stop in a few seconds. An anxious Mrs. DeBakey called two of her husband's colleagues: Dr. Mohammed Attar, his physician, and Dr. Matthias Loebe, who was covering for Dr. George P. Noon, Dr. DeBakey's surgical partner for 40 years. They came to the house quickly. After listening to Dr. DeBakey give a more frank account of his pain, they shared his suspicion of an aortic dissection. Tests showed that Dr. DeBakey had a type 2 dissecting aortic aneurysm, according to a standard classification system he himself had devised years earlier. Rarely did anyone survive that without surgery. Still, Dr. DeBakey says he refused admission to Methodist Hospital, in part because he did not want to be confined, and he 'was hopeful that this was not as bad as I first thought.' He feared the operation that he had developed to treat this condition might, at his age, leave him mentally or physically crippled. 'I'd rather die,' he said

Senator Tim Johnson of South Dakota was showing weakness on his right side on Friday after surgery to relieve bleeding in his brain, his office said, and will remain in the hospital until the swelling in his brain goes down. Doctors said the bleeding was caused by a rare tangling of the blood vessels in the brain, known as a congenital arteriovenous malformation. It affects about 300,000 Americans, but only in about one in 10 cases is there bleeding. About half of those with bleeding end up with almost imperceptible damage, doctors say, and about 10 percent to 20 percent suffer damage so severe they cannot function as they did before the bleeding. Mr. Johnson's initial symptom from the stroke was apparently the speech difficulty he experienced while talking with reporters on Wednesday. Mr. Johnson is sedated, as is standard in care for his type of illness. If the speech difficulty continues after the sedation is lightened, Mr. Johnson may need speech rehabilitation, the statement indicated

Mr. [Tim Johnson], a Democrat from South Dakota, is expected to be in intensive care for several days -- also standard -- while doctors determine if any brain damage occurred that would affect movement or intellectual ability. Admiral [John F. Eisold] and experts not involved in Mr. Johnson's case said it was too early to tell how well he might recover. Admiral Eisold and Mr. Johnson's family have not said where in the brain the bleeding occurred or how large the hemorrhage was, and they have not disclosed other factors that could be important in determining the seriousness of his illness. For example, it is not known whether doctors had previously detected the malformation in Mr. Johnson's brain. Dr. [David J. Langer] said that if Mr. Johnson's condition was deteriorating rapidly, doctors most likely did not have time to obtain critical details from a magnetic resonance imaging scan and probably operated after performing a CT X-ray scan. In general, malformations of the sort that caused Mr. Johnson's stroke are best detected on M.R.I.'s

Precisely when and where grand rounds began is not known. There are many types of rounds where doctors learn from patients. For example, there are the daily working rounds as doctors walk through a hospital to visit and examine patients. In teaching rounds, more senior doctors supervise the work of residents, or house officers, at a patient's bedside or in a clinic. Yet attendance at grand rounds has reportedly declined in recent years. Many subspecialists prefer to attend rounds in their narrower field, and doctors who go to national and international meetings can hear much of the same information that may be later presented in lectures at grand rounds. So Dr. [Francis D. Moore] asked Dr. [Roy Y. Calne], now Sir Roy, to present his findings at a grand rounds session. In his college days, Dr. Moore had been president of The Harvard Lampoon humor magazine. (For full disclosure, years later I was an officer of The Lampoon.) So after Dr. Calne summarized the case, and with Dr. Moore's approval, he invited the patient to join grand rounds

At the same time, the prevalence of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, among young people has declined in eight countries in Africa, showing that prevention efforts can work, UN officials said Tuesday. 'Even limited resources can give high returns when investments are focused on reaching people most at risk and adapted to changing national epidemics, said Dr. Paul De Lay of the international body's AIDS program, known as Unaids. Nevertheless, 'these estimates are amongst the most robust for any disease of global public health importance,' said Dr. Kevin De Cock, the World Health Organization's chief AIDS official. The global death total would be even higher without the efforts undertaken in recent years to provide anti-retroviral therapy to hundreds of thousands of AIDS patients in poor countries, De Cock said. Still, he said, such drug therapy has not reached enough poor people to match the degree of decline in death rates seen in wealthy countries