Faculty Bibliography

About 1947, the Medical Research Council, the British equivalent of the National Institutes of Health, asked Sir Austin, a professor of medical statistics at the London School of Hygiene, to investigate the causes of lung cancer. Sir [Austin Bradford Hill], who was not a medical doctor. asked Sir Richard to join him. Initially, Sir Richard said that he and most other physicians did not see a link between cigarettes and lung cancer. In fact, Sir Richard said in an interview with this reporter that at first he suspected that the tar used to pave the growing number of roads, or possibly automobile exhaust, were at the root of the lung cancer epidemic. Sir [Harold Himsworth], a physician, was also concerned because the findings were so critically important and unexpected. He demanded that Sir Austin and Sir Richard confirm them in studies elsewhere in England. They did

On April 5, 1951, at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Dennis performed the world's first open-heart operation to be done with a heart-lung bypass machine. The apparatus worked well, but the patient, a six-year-old girl, died because her heart defect, far more complicated than the surgical team had realized, was beyond any repair then possible. In 1945, when Dennis began his research into such an apparatus, surgeons' ability to repair a damaged heart was very limited. Given its dangers, the leading surgeons of the late 19th century had virtually banned efforts at heart surgery. Yet along the way, a few defiant leaders repaired certain types of heart defects in procedures that, Dennis said, 'fired the imaginations of surgeons.'

Indonesian and W.H.O. epidemiologists are trying to determine the original source of infection with the A(H5N1) strain of avian influenza virus. Though it is possible that one family member gave the virus to the others, the source of the first case is not known, the officials said. No one in the family reported any contact with poultry. The World Health Organization, a United Nations agency, has been warning about the potential of the A(H5N1) virus to mutate into a lethal new virus that could cause an epidemic. The deaths of more than 200 million birds in Asia have been attributed to the A(H5N1) virus directly or from culling to prevent its spread, the United Nations has said. Yesterday, news agencies reported that the Indonesian health minister, Siti Fadillah Supari, said lab tests performed in Indonesia and a lab in Hong Kong had confirmed that all three family members had A(H5N1) avian influenza

Chief Justice [William Rehnquist] leaves his home in Arlington, Va., on Friday. Rehnquist remained at work in his chambers at the court Friday, as he has every day since the court finished its term and began its summer recess. J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Dr. Leonard Wartofsky, chairman of the department of medicine at Washington Hospital Center, said that he was 'surprised Mr. [William Rehnquist] has done so well.' Wartofsky, a thyroid cancer specialist, said the chief justice's case was 'a big topic' among thyroid experts. 'It's on people's minds' and 'we talk,' he said

[Jeanna Giese] told her pediatrician, Dr. Howard Dhonau, about the bat shortly before she left Fond du Lac, Dr. Willoughby said. Dr. Dhonau passed on the information to Children's Hospital, where Dr. Willoughby initially was skeptical about the possibility that she had rabies, largely because it is so rare. He learned that laboratory researchers at the Pasteur Institute in Paris had shown that an anesthetic, ketamine, was active against the rabies virus. So Dr. Willoughby proposed giving Jeanna ketamine to induce a deep coma and midazolam, a sedative, to prevent hallucinations. Colour Photo: Rick Wood, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Jeanna Giese greets Dr. Rodney Willoughby Jr. The two made medical history when Jeanna contracted rabies from ...; Colour Photo: ...a bat bite and survived -- the first time anyone has lived through the rare illness without vaccination -- thanks to Willoughby's radical treatment involving a drug regimen that put Jeanna into a coma for a week

Dr. Peter Piot, who directs the United Nations AIDS program, said: ''The epidemic has yet to display a natural saturation point. In Swaziland, the country most affected by AIDS in the world, adult prevalence continues to climb; 42.6 percent of pregnant women there tested positive for H.I.V. in 2004. ''In East Africa, for example, in every big city'' there had been declines in the rates for young people, ''and particularly among women and girls,'' Dr. Piot said in an interview. He cited Addis Ababa, Kigali, Lusaka and Nairobi -- the capitals of Ethiopia, Rwanda, Zambia and Kenya -- largely because they are the places with the most extensive AIDS education and prevention programs, particularly for young people. For the first time, truly comprehensive responses to AIDS, including prevention and treatment, are emerging, Dr. Piot said. ''Iran has one of the best AIDS programs,'' he added, citing in particular its needle-exchange efforts

Surgeons can generally learn the on-pump operation faster than the off-pump technique because it is technically less demanding. Also, the report said, surgeons can generally perform more grafts, if necessary, in an on-pump bypass, and the grafts may stay open longer. A controversy has developed over some evidence that a small but significant number of on-pump bypass patients suffer a degree of cognitive impairment like memory and attention deficits and language problems. Such problems tended to occur less among patients whose bypasses were performed with the beating-heart technique compared with the stopped-heart technique, the team said. The extent of the decrease was not detailed. The most conclusive benefit of off-pump over on-pump operations was for patients who had deposits of calcium in their aortas, the body's main artery. When surgeons clamp the aorta in the on-pump technique, small pieces can break off to cause disabling and fatal strokes

The scientists analyzed the genetic makeup of patients taking warfarin in clinics at the University of Washington in Seattle and Washington University in St. Louis and found that they fell into three dosing groups -- low, intermediate and high. The genetic variations identified in the study correlated with the grouping, suggesting the findings hold promise for simplifying warfarin therapy, the scientists reported in The New England Journal of Medicine. The scientists identified genetic variations, matched them to the doses warfarin patients were taking, and found that patients with a particular variation of the gene usually took similar doses of warfarin. The VKORC1 gene accounted for 25 percent of the overall variation in warfarin doses in the studies -- what Dr. [Mark J. Rieder] said he believes is the largest genetic variation affecting warfarin

Dr. [Sandra J. Horning], who practices and does research on lymphomas at Stanford, wanted to be a doctor since she was 14. Her father died of cancer when she was 21 and a medical student. Her mother has survived two types of cancer. That family experience ''helped me in a way understand and perhaps be better prepared to deal with some of the emotional issues that are related to cancer diagnosis, treatment and survival,'' Dr. Horning said. ''But at the same time I thought about my career,'' Dr. Horning said. ''Medicine is more than a career. For me it is a passion.'' As an oncologist, she was better informed than other people. Still, she said, she sought opinions from breast cancer specialists elsewhere, and she avoided directing her care. So she bought a wig. Her patients, friends and family, said Dr. Horning, who is a blond, ''saw me as a redhead.'' Dr. Horning said that in caring for patients she placed communications at the top of the list. The reason, she said, is that while she was training to become an oncologist, a patient told her that whenever Dr. Saul A. Rosenberg, Dr. Horning's mentor, entered the room, his presence made that seriously ill patient feel better