NLM Announces 2017 Michael E. DeBakey Fellows in the History of Medicine

Posted by Alan Carr on December 19th, 2016 Posted in: Announcements, Education & Training, NLM Resources

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Earlier this year, the National Library of Medicine received a generous gift from The DeBakey Medical Foundation to support enhanced access to the Michael E. DeBakey Archives at the NLM and to establish the Michael E. DeBakey Fellowship in the History of Medicine. Michael E. DeBakey (1908-2008) was a legendary American surgeon, educator, and medical statesman. During a career spanning 75 years, his work transformed cardiovascular surgery, raised medical education standards, and informed national health care policy. He pioneered dozens of operative procedures such as aneurysm repair, coronary bypass, and endarterectomy, which routinely save thousands of lives each year, and performed some of the first heart transplants. His inventions included the roller pump (a key component of heart-lung machines) as well as artificial hearts and ventricular assist pumps. He was a driving force in building Houston’s Baylor University College of Medicine into a premier medical center, where he trained several generations of top surgeons from all over the world.

Following on the first call for applications to the Michael E. DeBakey Fellowship in the History of Medicine, NLM has announced the five 2017 Michael E. DeBakey Fellows. Over the course of the next year, these individuals will undertake their research projects onsite in the History of Medicine Division of the Library, primarily in the Michael E. DeBakey archives, which reflect the vast range of subjects from Michael E. DeBakey’s professional career–from surgery to health care policy, medical libraries and expanding access to medical information, medical technology to medical ethics, military medicine to veteran health, humanitarianism to international diplomacy in the medical arena. The archives contain correspondence, administrative records, diaries, transcripts, publications, speeches, conference and awards material, subject files, photographs, and audiovisual media, which reflect the vast expanse of Dr. DeBakey’s life, achievements, and interests as a world-renowned medical statesman, innovator, and champion of humanitarianism and life-long learning.