Dr Eugene A Stead visiting professor series

Eugene Anson Stead Jr. (October 6, 1908 in

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,71 ...

– June 12, 2005) is best known as a

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

, medical educator, and

research Research is "creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge". It involves the collection, organization and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular attentiveness t ...

er. He served on the faculties at Harvard, Emory (where he received a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...

and

MD degree MD, Md, mD or md may refer to: Places * Moldova (ISO country code MD) * Maryland (US postal abbreviation MD) * Magdeburg (vehicle plate prefix MD), a city in Germany * Mödling District (vehicle plate prefix MD), in Lower Austria, Austria People ...

), and

Duke Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of Royal family, royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, t ...

universities. His research in the 1940s paved the way for

cardiac catheterization Cardiac catheterization (heart cath) is the insertion of a catheter into a chamber or vessel of the heart. This is done both for diagnostic and interventional purposes. A common example of cardiac catheterization is coronary catheterization t ...

in medicine today. He is the founder of the

physician assistant A physician assistant or physician associate (PA) is a type of mid-level health care provider. In North America PAs may diagnose illnesses, develop and manage treatment plans, prescribe medications, and may serve as a principal healthcare prov ...

(PA) profession.

National PA day A physician assistant or physician associate (PA) is a type of mid-level health care provider. In North America PAs may diagnose illnesses, develop and manage treatment plans, prescribe medications, and may serve as a principal healthcare prov ...

is celebrated in many places on October 6th to commemorate the day the first class of PAs graduated from Duke University in 1967 (it also happens to be Dr. Stead's birthday).

Postgraduate work

In 1967, he graduated the first class of physician assistant students from Duke University's PA program. He interned in internal medicine and surgery at the

Peter Bent Brigham Hospital Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) is the second largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School and the largest hospital in the Longwood Medical Area in Boston, Massachusetts. Along with Massachusetts General Hospital, it is one of the two fo ...

in Boston, Massachusetts and also at Cincinnati General Hospital and

Boston City Hospital The Boston City Hospital (1864–1996), in Boston, Massachusetts, was a public hospital, located in the South End. It was "intended for the use and comfort of poor patients, to whom medical care will be provided at the expense of the city, and . ...

.In Boston, Eugene Stead and

Paul Beeson Paul Beeson, B.S.C. (16 November 1921 – 19 July 2001) was a British cinematographer. He was initially at Ealing Studios before going on to work on films for various other companies. He worked on over three hundred feature films, including 74 ...

(b. 1908) both trained under

Soma Weiss Soma Weiss (January 27, 1898 – January 31, 1942) was a Hungarian-born American physician. Early life Soma Weiss was born in 1898 in Bistriţa, Transylvania, Austro-Hungarian Empire. He studied physiology and biochemistry in Budapest. Immediate ...

. His educational philosophy placed emphasis on knowing how to look up information for "just in time" delivery rather than memorizing volumes of information only to forget it before needed. The niche that he envisioned for PAs was that most

health care Health care or healthcare is the improvement of health via the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in people. Health care is delivered by health ...

encounters do not require extensive training and that superior medical care can be delivered by relieving the burden of mundane medical encounters by training PA professionals to know when to seek additional input. He wanted all PAs to be required to have mentoring relationships with

Physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

s to ensure access to a larger body of medical knowledge.

Beliefs

Dr. Stead had high hopes for

distance education Distance education, also known as distance learning, is the education of students who may not always be physically present at a school, or where the learner and the teacher are separated in both time and distance. Traditionally, this usually in ...

in medical education. He believed and talked regularly about the "politics of medical education" and believed that distance education could replace the first two years of medical school. After studying at home and passing national boards, he believed that medicine could be taught in the clinics and offices of private practices. While he worked and helped build the medical education institutions, he had some disdain for the way they practiced and acted as gatekeepers to the medical profession.

Medical Positions

*Chair Dept. of Medicine, Emory University (1942-46) *Dean of the School of Medicine, Emory University (1945-46) *Chair Dept. Of Medicine, Duke University (1947-1967)

Sources

*https://web.archive.org/web/20060926160931/http://www.pahx.org/archives_detail.asp?ID=149 - Contains digital photos of letters written by Eugene A. Stead Jr.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stead, Eugene A. 1908 births 2005 deaths American cardiologists Duke University faculty Duke University alumni Emory University alumni Emory University faculty Harvard University faculty Emory University School of Medicine alumni Physicians of Brigham and Women's Hospital Members of the National Academy of Medicine

Postgraduate work

Beliefs

Medical Positions

See also

Sources

References