The School of Medicine will pay tribute to its outgoing dean, Dr. Gerard N. Burrow, with a symposium titled "Medical Education and Patient Care at Yale: On the Cusp of the 21st Century."
The symposium will take place 3-5 p.m. on Monday, June 2, in Rm. 216 of the Jane Ellen Hope Building, 315 Cedar St. It is open to the Yale medical center and University communities, as well as invited New Haven area guests. A reception will follow in the Medical Historical Library.
After completing his five-year term on July 1, Dr. Burrow will become special adviser on health affairs to President Richard C. Levin. He will write a book on the history of Yale medicine, one of a series of six books that have been commissioned for the 300th anniversary of Yale in the year 2001. In addition to developing Yale's global stature, he will be spending more time teaching and interacting with students in his new post as professor of medicine and of obstetrics and gynecology.
In honoring Dr. Burrow, the medical school will recognize his long association with the school and his contributions to it. He graduated from the school in 1958, and in 1992 became its 14th dean. He completed his internship and residency training at Yale- New Haven Hospital in 1966, serving as chief resident 1965-66, and then became a Yale medical school faculty member. In 1976, Dr. Burrow moved to Canada, where he gained extensive experience in the Canadian health-care system. He was physician-in-chief at Toronto General Hospital and the Sir John and Lady Eaton Professor and chair of the department of medicine at the University of Toronto. He then served as vice chancellor for health sciences and dean of the School of Medicine at the University of California at San Diego before returning to Yale.
An endocrinologist and past president of the American Thyroid Association, Dr. Burrow specializes in thyroid disease. In his research on the thyroid, he has concentrated on how the growth of the gland is controlled. His clinical interests have centered on thyroid disease in pregnant women, particularly the treatment of hyperthyroidism.
During his deanship, Dr. Burrow recruited several department chairs and key faculty members; created an ombuds office and new school-wide offices focusing on multicultural affairs and on international health; established an educational programmatic partnership between the School of Medicine and Career High School; reorganized the school's central administration; and conducted a significant capital campaign for the school, successfully raising more than $280 million in five years.
Symposium topics and the Yale medical faculty speakers will be:
"Four Views of the Yale System: A Delicate Balance" -- Dr. Robert H. Gifford, professor of medicine and associate dean for education and student affairs.
"The Silk Scarf: Reflections on Clinical Education over Four Decades" -- Dr. Thomas P. Duffy, professor in the department of medicine and in the Cancer Center.
"Academic Values in the Era of Managed Care" -- Dr. Joseph B. Warshaw, professor and chair of the pediatrics department and deputy dean for clinical affairs.
The afternoon symposium will be moderated by Dr. Lawrence S. Cohen, the Ebenezer K. Hunt Professor of Medicine, cardiology, and special adviser to the dean, and Dr. Donald J. Cohen, the Irving B. Harris Professor of Child Psychiatry, professor of pediatrics, psychiatry and psychology, and director of the Yale Child Study Center.