Jimmie Coker Holland (April 9, 1928 – December 24, 2017) was a founder of the field of

psycho-oncology Psycho-oncology is an interdisciplinary field at the intersection of physical, psychological, social, and behavioral aspects of the cancer experience for both patients and caregivers. Also known as psychiatric oncology or psychosocial oncology, r ...

.National Library of Medicine, Changing the Face of Medicine
Dr. Jimmie C. Holland
Page accessed March 28, 2016 In 1977, she worked with two colleagues to establish a full-time psychiatric service at

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK or MSKCC) is a cancer treatment and research institution in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, founded in 1884 as the New York Cancer Hospital. MSKCC is one of 52 National Cancer Institute� ...

. The program was one of the first of its kind in cancer treatment, and trained its psychologists to specialize in issues specific to people with cancer.

Biography

Born in

Nevada, Texas Nevada ( , unlike the state of Nevada) is a city in Collin County, Texas, United States. The population was 822 at the 2010 census, and 1,314 in 2020. First settled in 1835 by John McMinn Stambaugh and named "McMinn Chapel", the area was settled b ...

, in 1928, Holland earned her medical degree from

Baylor College of Medicine Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) is a medical school and research center in Houston, Texas, within the Texas Medical Center, the world's largest medical center. BCM is composed of four academic components: the School of Medicine, the Graduate Sc ...

in Houston, Texas, in 1952, and received her board certification in psychiatry in 1966. She taught and practiced at the State University of New York, Buffalo, and Montefiore Hospital of

Albert Einstein College of Medicine Albert Einstein College of Medicine is a research-intensive medical school located in the Morris Park neighborhood of the Bronx in New York City. Founded in 1953, Einstein operates as an independent degree-granting institution as part of t ...

in New York City. Holland was chief of the Psychiatry Service, which she helped create, for New York's Memorial Sloan-Kettering (MSK) Cancer Center from 1977 to 1996. Holland held a named chair at MSK, the Wayne E. Chapman Chair in Psychiatric Oncology. During her years at MSK, Holland created the nation's largest training and research program in psycho-oncology. In 1984, she produced for Sloan-Kettering the first syllabus on psycho-oncology and, in 1989, was senior editor of the first textbook on the subject. Holland founded the American Psychosocial Oncology Society (formerly known as the American Society of Psychosocial and Behavioral Oncology/AIDS) in 1980, and co-founded the International Psycho-Oncology Society (IPOS) in 1984. She is also credited with putting psychosocial and behavioral research on the agenda of the

American Cancer Society The American Cancer Society (ACS) is a nationwide voluntary health organization dedicated to eliminating cancer. Established in 1913, the society is organized into six geographical regions of both medical and lay volunteers operating in more tha ...

(ACS) in the early 1980s. She was a co-editor-in-chief of the journal ''

Psycho-Oncology Psycho-oncology is an interdisciplinary field at the intersection of physical, psychological, social, and behavioral aspects of the cancer experience for both patients and caregivers. Also known as psychiatric oncology or psychosocial oncology, r ...

''. The ACS awarded her its Medal of Honor for Clinical Research in 1994. She was elected a Fellow in the

Institute of Medicine The National Academy of Medicine (NAM), formerly called the Institute of Medicine (IoM) until 2015, is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Medicine is a part of the National Academies of Sciences, En ...

of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nat ...

in 1995, and received the Presidential Commendation from the American Psychiatric Association in 2000, among many other awards. Her husband,

James F. Holland James Frederick Holland (May 16, 1925 – March 22, 2018) was an American physician and Distinguished Professor of Neoplastic Diseases at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York. Early in his career, he had worked for the National ...

, was an oncologist and an important figure in the early development of

cancer chemotherapy Chemotherapy (often abbreviated to chemo and sometimes CTX or CTx) is a type of cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs (chemotherapeutic agents or alkylating agents) as part of a standardized chemotherapy regimen. Chemothera ...

. Her interest in the field of psycho-oncology arose in part from discussions with her husband about the patients he treated, and the understanding that arose from those discussions that little was known about the experiences of people with cancer and that little was being done to help people with cancer manage the experience. Holland died of complications of cardiovascular disease on December 24, 2017, at the age of 89.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Holland, Jimmie C. 1928 births 2017 deaths People from Collin County, Texas Physicians from Texas Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center physicians Women medical researchers 20th-century American women scientists Members of the National Academy of Medicine Baylor College of Medicine alumni Baylor University alumni 20th-century American scientists American women psychiatrists American psychiatrists 21st-century American women

Biography

See also

Further reading

References