Yale Bulletin and Calendar

February 18, 2005|Volume 33, Number 19

Event will explore work ethic and
legacy of noted neurosurgeon

The life and legacy of a famed neurosurgeon will be explored in a program titled "Working Too Hard and Achieving Too Much: The Cost of Being Harvey Cushing" on Wednesday, March 2.

Dr. Harvey Cushing (1869-1939) has been called the greatest neurosurgeon of the 20th century, both for his pioneering research on brain tumors and pituitary disorders, and for his work training many men and women who went on to become world famous surgeons. A Yale alumnus, he taught at Johns Hopkins and Harvard universities before becoming Sterling Professor of Neurology and director of studies in the history of medicine at the Yale School of Medicine; he is one of the namesakes of Yale's Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library. In addition to his many other achievements, Cushing was the author of a Pulitzer Prize-winning biography on the influential physician Sir William Osler.

"Sir William Osler famously said that the master-word in medicine is work," write the organizers of the March 2 event. "Harvey Cushing M.D. practiced Osler's dictum for a fault and with spectacular success. The price of Cushing's work habits was paid by his family, generations of neurosurgical trainees, perhaps in part by generations of American interns and residents, and not least by John Fulton, his protégé and first biographer."

The featured speaker on March 2 will be Michael Bliss, professor of history at the University of Toronto, whose major new biography on Cushing is forthcoming. In his illustrated lecture, Bliss will consider such topics as the culture of medicine, bon vivantism, empathy and humanity.

His talk will be followed by commentaries on the challenges facing Cushing's modern medical successors in achieving a work-life balance. The featured speakers will be Dr. Dennis D. Spencer, the Harvey and Kate Cushing Professor and chair of neurosurgery, and Naomi Rogers, associate professor of the history of medicine and of women's and gender studies.

The program, which begins at 5 p.m., will take place in the historic home of John Fulton at 100 Deepwood Dr., Hamden. There will be a light dinner break following Bliss' lecture. Space is limited and advanced registration is required. To register, send e-mail to March2@axion.org or call (203) 773-9300, ext. 205.

The event is sponsored by the Axion Research Foundation and Yale's Section of the History of Medicine, and Humanities in Medicine Program.

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Event will explore work ethic and legacy of noted neurosurgeon

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