Interview with Leon Ginzburg, MD by Albert S. Lyons

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US AA107.INT035

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Interview with Leon Ginzburg, MD by Albert S. Lyons

Date(s)

  • 1988-03-08 (Creation)

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1 cassette

Name of creator

(1898-1988)

Biographical history

"Leon Ginzburg was born in New York City in 1898. He attended DeWitt Clinton High School and received bachelor's and medical degrees at Columbia University. He served on the house staff of The Mount Sinai Hospital and became an Adjunct Surgeon in 1926.
As an Adjunct Surgeon at Mount Sinai, Ginzburg served under the eminent surgeon Dr. A.A. Berg, who charged him and his colleague Dr. Gordon D. Oppenheimer with reviewing surgical specimens in the pathology laboratory. Ginzburg and Oppenheimer developed a particular interest in diseases of the bowel and began a project to describe and categorize their specimens of bowel tumors and strictures. Of the fifty-two specimens they examined, twelve did not fit any previously described pattern of symptoms.
At Dr. Berg's insistence, Ginzburg and Oppenheimer shared their research and a draft paper with Dr. Burrill B. Crohn, an Internist who had been collaborating with Dr. Berg on the treatment of two patients with similar symptoms. Crohn made additions to this paper and presented it to the May 13, 1932 meeting of the Gastroenterology section of the American Medical Association. The paper was later published in the October 15, 1932 issue of JAMA. As Dr. Berg declined to be listed as a co-author of the paper, it was published under the alphabetically listed names of Crohn, Ginzburg and Oppenheimer. Dr. Ginzburg, meanwhile, had presented a paper on his and Oppenheimer's findings to the American Gastroenterological Association on May 2, 1932. This paper was eventually published in the 1932 AGA Transactions and (in expanded form) in the December 1933 Annals of Surgery.
These papers introduced the diagnosis of "terminal ileitis," which was later revised to ""regional ileitis" and eventually to "regional enteritis." Due to Dr. Crohn's activities in presenting the diagnosis to a wide audience of physicians and the fact that his name was first on the paper, "Crohn's disease" became the name by which regional enteritis was commonly known.
In 1937 Ginzburg became an Associate Surgeon at Mount Sinai. He remained on the hospital staff throughout his career. In 1940 he became Surgical Director of the Harlem Hospital. In 1942 he joined the staff of the 3rd General Hospital, the U.S. Army unit affiliated with Mount Sinai. He served in North Africa and Europe and eventually reached the rank of Major. In 1947 he was appointed director of surgery at Beth Israel Hospital in Manhattan, where he served until 1967.
In 1963 Ginzburg received the Jacobi Medallion from the Associated Alumni of The Mount Sinai Medical Center. Two years later he was elected president of the Alumni Association. A gift from the Gaisman family in 1965 established the Ginzburg Surgery Fellowship at Mount Sinai. Catherine Vance Gaisman had been a Mount Sinai nurse who also served in the 3rd General and they remained close. In 1975 he was honored by Beth Israel with the establishment of the annual Leon Ginzburg Lecture.
Late in life Ginzburg became interested in establishing the record of his role in the description of regional enteritis. In 1974 he published a retrospective article, "The Road to Regional Enteritis," in The Mount Sinai Journal of Medicine, and in the years preceding his death he carried on an active correspondence on this subject. Ginzburg died in Manhattan in 1988."

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(1912-2006)

Biographical history

A native of New York City, Albert S. Lyons was born in 1912 and graduated from the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1936. After completing a two-year surgical internship at Beth Israel Hospital, he trained as a surgical resident at Mount Sinai under the tutelage of Dr. John Garlock. He went on to a long career as a surgeon at Mount Sinai, serving as Chief of the Intestinal Rehabilitation Clinic at The Mount Sinai Hospital and as Clinical Professor of Surgery at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. He also maintained a private practice and served as an attending surgeon at several other hospitals, including the Cabrini Medical Center from 1955 to 1978 and the Elmhurst City Hospital from 1966 to 1984.

As Chief of the Intestinal Rehabilitation Clinic, Dr. Lyons played a major role in the establishment of patient self-help groups to help surgical patients cope with the challenges of life after surgery. In 1951 he helped a group of ileostomy patients at Mount Sinai organize a club to boost morale and help one another; nicknamed the “QT Club” after the letters of the surgical wards where patients recovered after their ostomies, the group proved a success, and in 1952 Dr. Lyons published an article on the club in the Journal of the American Medical Association that inspired the formation of similar groups throughout the United States. In 1963, representatives of ostomate self-help groups from across the U.S. and Canada met for the founding convention of the United Ostomy Association (UOA). Dr. Lyons served for many years as the UOA’s Medical Advisor, and when an International Ostomy Association (IOA) was formed in 1978, he served as a member of its medical board. In 1983 he was the first recipient of the Archie Vinitsky Award, the IOA’s highest honor. Throughout his life he gave generously of his time to help ostomy groups across North America and the world.

Dr. Lyons was active in many regional and national professional associations. He was a founding member of the Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract, a Governor of the New York Area of the American College of Gastroenterology, and an active member of the New York Surgical Society. He served from 1963 to 1971 as Chairman of the Public Relations Committee of the New York County Medical Society, from 1971 to 1973 as the Society’s Assistant Secretary, and from 1973 to 1978 as its Secretary. In the early 1970s he chaired the New York State Medical Society’s Ad Hoc Committee to Study Professional Medical Liability Insurance, and in the late 1970s he was active in the American Cancer Society as Chairman of the New York Division’s Committee on Rehabilitation and Service. He was also an active member of the Physicians’ Wine Appreciation Society.

In addition to his surgical and professional accomplishments, Dr. Lyons was a passionate scholar of the history of medicine. During the early years of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine he was an active advocate of a strong role for history in the medical curriculum. He taught seminars in medical history and arranged a regular lecture series that brought many distinguished medical historians to the Mount Sinai campus. He served for many years as President of the Medical Archivists of New York and was President from 1970 to 1972 of the Friends of the Rare Book Room at The New York Academy of Medicine. His involvement with medical history led him to an engagement with the broader historical profession; he was a founding member of the Oral History Association and served as Chairman of its Nominating Committee. In 1978 he published a lavishly illustrated volume, Medicine: An Illustrated History (New York: Harry N. Abrams Publishing), which brought together the work of many scholars to create a comprehensive history of medicine from ancient times to the present.

Dr. Lyons’s interest in medical history led him to establish the Mount Sinai Archives in 1966 so that the history of the Hospital (and, later, of the Medical School) could be preserved for future generations. In 1986 he obtained the approval of the President of Mount Sinai to hire a professional archivist and establish the Archives on a formal basis within the Levy Library.

Following the success of Medicine: An Illustrated History, Dr. Lyons turned his attention to other historical subjects. His interest in pre-scientific methods of medical prognosis led to a broader interest in the enduring human desire to know the future, inspiring him to carry out an extensive study of pre-modern fortunetelling methods such as tarot cards and astrology. In 1991 he published Predicting The Future: An Illustrated History and Guide to the Techniques, a lavish volume in the same format as his previous book on medicine. In correspondence with his agent at Harry N. Abrams Publishing he proposed an ambitious series of illustrated historical volumes covering all the major milestones of human life, including birth, childhood, marriage and death; although none of these books were completed, he accumulated an extensive collection of reference material on these subjects.

After his retirement from surgery, Dr. Lyons stayed active in medicine by working as a reviewer of workmen’s compensation cases while continuing to pursue his interest in history and the Archives. In 1974 he was awarded the Jacobi Medallion by the Associated Alumni of Mount Sinai, which he had served as President in 1969-1970, for his dedication to the Hospital and the School of Medicine. He died in 2006 after over 60 years of service to Mount Sinai.

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Dr. Ginzburg discusses his experiences in Mount Sinai's Third General Hospital during World War II; working at various New York hospitals, especially Beth Israel Hospital; the surgical service at Mount Sinai and the personalities involved; the issue of credit for research on Crohn's disease; anti-Semitism in medical training.

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This material is restricted. Please contact the Archives (MSArchives@mssm.edu) for more information.

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A digital copy is available. Transcript is available.

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Please contact the Archives (MSArchives@mssm.edu) for information regarding copyright.

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