Barron H. Lerner (born 27 September 1960) is an American doctor and historian, who is a member of the faculty at the New York University Langone School of Medicine. He received his M.D. from Columbia in 1986 and his Ph.D. in history from the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...

in 1996. In addition to his research, Lerner practices

internal medicine Internal medicine, also known as general medicine in Commonwealth nations, is a medical specialty for medical doctors focused on the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases in adults. Its namesake stems from "treatment of diseases of ...

and teaches

medical ethics Medical ethics is an applied branch of ethics which analyzes the practice of clinical medicine and related scientific research. Medical ethics is based on a set of values that professionals can refer to in the case of any confusion or conflict. T ...

and the history of medicine.

Early life and education

Lerner was born on September 27, 1960, in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

, to infectious disease doctor Phillip I. Lerner and teacher Ronnie Lerner (née Hober). He was raised in

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

. He graduated from

Hawken School Hawken School is an independent, coeducational, college preparatory day school in Northeast Ohio. Hawken currently has two main campuses, the Lower and Middle Schools in Lyndhurst and the Upper School in Chester Township, plus a third, an ur ...

in 1978, from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

in 1982, and from

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

's medical school in 1986.

Career

His book ''The Breast Cancer Wars: Hope, Fear and the Pursuit of a Cure in Twentieth-Century America'', published in 2001, was cited as an

American Library Association Notable Book American Library Association Notable lists are announced each year in January by various divisions within the American Library Association (ALA). There are six lists which are part of the larger ALA awards structure. * ''ALA Notable Books for Adu ...

the following year. Lerner also received the 2006 William H. Welch Medal of the

American Association for the History of Medicine The American Association for the History of Medicine is an American professional association dedicated to the study of medical history. Background It is the largest society dedicated to medical history in the United States, and the oldest such or ...

for the book; one such Medal is awarded each year to the author or authors of a book of "outstanding scholarly merit in the field of medical history" published during the five calendar years preceding the award. His book ''One for the Road: Drunk Driving Since 1900'', is the first history of drunk driving in America. It was published by

Johns Hopkins University Press Johns Hopkins University Press (also referred to as JHU Press or JHUP) is the publishing division of Johns Hopkins University. It was founded in 1878 and is the oldest continuously running university press in the United States. The press publi ...

in October 2011. Two of Lerner's other books are ''Contagion and Confinement: Controlling Tuberculosis on the Skid Road'' (1998) and ''When Illness Goes Public: Celebrity Patients and How We Look at Medicine'' (2006). Lerner's fifth book, ''The Good Doctor: A Father, a Son, and the Evolution of Medical Ethics'', was published in May 2014. It tells the true story of two doctors, a father and son, who practiced in very different times and the evolution of the ethics, paternalism, and patient autonomy that profoundly influenced health care. The son and father here are Lerner and his father, Phillip I. Lerner. ''The New York Times'' reviewed the book in July 2014, saying, "The Good Doctor is more than a son’s search to understand his father’s actions. It raises pointed questions about his own. Was his father just part of an older generation whose ideas had lost their relevance? Or did the son need to revisit ethical norms he had embraced and taught to thousands of trainees? As he asks, 'Did physicians of my father’s era actually know their patients in a different — and better — way than physicians do today?'" Lerner writes regularly on topics in clinical medicine, bioethics and medical history for ''The New York Times'', ''The Washington Post'', ''Slate'', ''The Huffington Post'' and other publications. He currently teaches courses for the Global Public Health Program at New York University. In addition, he is a physician at Bellevue Hospital. Among Lerner's many contributions to ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' is an August 2011 op-ed piece entitled, "The Annals of Extreme Surgery". It expressed concern over the increasing use of the HIPEC procedure, a controversial treatment for certain cancers. After his 9-year-old nephew Cooper Stock was struck and killed by a taxi in New York City while crossing the street with the right of way, Lerner wrote a piece for ''The New York Times'' blog entitled "Treat Reckless Driving Like Drunk Driving." In it, he notes that reckless driving "is poorly defined in the law, sometimes poorly investigated by police and almost never results in a criminal charge," much like drunk driving was treated in the 1980s. He calls to "make destruction caused by irresponsible driving a true crime." He has

misophonia Misophonia (or selective sound sensitivity syndrome) is a disorder of decreased Distress tolerance, tolerance to specific sounds or their associated Stimulus (psychology), stimuli, or cues. These cues, known as "triggers", are experienced as Dis ...

. He is the author of several articles in the ''

New England Journal of Medicine ''The New England Journal of Medicine'' (''NEJM'') is a weekly medical journal published by the Massachusetts Medical Society. Founded in 1812, the journal is among the most prestigious peer-reviewed medical journals. Its 2023 impact factor was ...

'' and ''

The Lancet ''The Lancet'' is a weekly peer-reviewed general medical journal, founded in England in 1823. It is one of the world's highest-impact academic journals and also one of the oldest medical journals still in publication. The journal publishes ...

'': * Lerner BH. Sins of omission: cancer research without informed consent. N Engl J Med. 2004;351:628-630. * Lerner BH. Last-ditch medical therapy—revisiting lobotomy. N Engl J Med. 2005;353:119-121. * Lerner BH. Remembering Berton Roueche—master of medical mysteries. N Engl J Med. 2005;353:2428-2431. * Lerner BH. Subjects or objects? Prisoners and human experimentation. N Engl J Med. 2007;356:1806-1807. * Lerner BH. When diseases disappear—the case of familial dysautonomia. N Engl J Med. 2009;361:1622-1625. * Lerner BH. "I was the first": revisiting a paediatric heart transplantation. Lancet. 2008;371:1158-1159. * Lerner BH. Curing formerly fatal childhood cancers. Lancet. 2008;371:1655-1656. * Lerner BH. Drunk driving, distracted driving, moralism and public health. N Engl J Med. 2011;365:879-881. * Lerner BH. Days of the giants: remembering Robert F. Loeb. Lancet. 2012;380:798-799. * Lerner BH. Medical Expertise — Balancing Science, Values, and Trust. N Engl J Med. 2024;391:577-579.

References

External links

Faculty information page at New York University

DrBarronLerner.com
*Dr. Lerner o
Twitter
*Dr. Lerner o
LinkedIn
;

Media

The Breast Cancer Wars
Interview with Barron Lerner on

NPR National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

Fresh Air ''Fresh Air'' is an American radio talk show broadcast on National Public Radio stations across the United States since 1985. It is produced by WHYY-FM in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The show's hosts are Terry Gross and Tonya Mosl ...

in 2001.
Learning to Relate to Patients
Interview with Barron Lerner on

All Things Considered ''All Things Considered'' (''ATC'') is the flagship news program on the American network National Public Radio (NPR). It was the first news program on NPR, premiering on May 3, 1971. It is broadcast live on NPR affiliated stations in the United ...

, 2006.
Celebrities and Medical Treatment
Interview with Barron Lerner on

's Talk of the Nation - Science Friday, 9 February 2007.
The Celebrity of Disease
Interview with Barron Lerner in '' U.S. News & World Report'', 5 November 2006 *
The Good Doctor' Puts Past Medical Practices Under an Ethical Microscope
NPR's Fresh Air with

Terry Gross Terry Gross (born February 14, 1951) is an American journalist who is the host and co-executive producer of '' Fresh Air'', an interview-based radio show produced by WHYY-FM in Philadelphia and distributed nationally by NPR. Since joining NP ...

. 13 May 2014.
The Most Unusual Day
Yahoo News. 11 March 2020
Doctor who recovered from coronavirus returns to treat more patients
Interview with Barron Lerner on

CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...

with

Jake Tapper Jacob Paul Tapper (born March 12, 1969) is an American journalist. He is the lead Washington anchor for CNN, hosts the weekday television news show ''The Lead with Jake Tapper'', and co-hosts the Sunday morning public affairs program ''State of ...

. 2020
A Bioethicist on the Vaccine Rollout
WNYC/NPR All Of It with Alison Stewart, 2 March 2021

Contributions & Essays

*Lerner BH

''The New York Times'', 27 June 2006. * Lerner BH

''The New York Times'', 19 April 2005. * Lerner BH

''The New York Times'', 13 December 2005. * Lerner BH

''The New York Times'', 14 March 2006. * Lerner BH

''The New York Times'', 25 March 2008. * Lerner BH

''The New York Times'', 22 April 2008.
Please Stop Making That Noise
''The New York Times, 24 February 2015''
Michael J. Fox: The Impact of a Very Famous Patient Fox

medium.com Medium is an American online publishing platform for written content such as articles and blogs, developed by Evan Williams and launched in August 2012. It is owned by A Medium Corporation. The platform is an example of social journalism, hav ...

9 December 2020
Resisting Public Measures, Then and Nowthehastingscenter.org
2 December 2020
Good history means grappling with people’s complicated legacies

WashingtonPost.com ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

, 21 December 2020 {{DEFAULTSORT:Lerner, Barron H. Living people Columbia University faculty Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons alumni University of Washington alumni 1960 births