Deuschle, Kurt W.

Considered by many to be the “Father of Community Medicine,” Kurt W. Deuschle served as Chairman of Mount Sinai’s Community Medicine Department from 1968 until 1990, when Philip Landrigan M.D. took over as Chairman. Deuschle remained on faculty as a Distinguished Service Professor of Community Medicine until his death in 2003.

Deuschle was born in 1923, and his family emigrated from Germany to the United States the following year. They settled in Baden, Pennsylvania, where Deuschle spent his childhood. At the age of eighteen, Deuschle went to Kent State University, graduating cum laude in 1944. That same year he began medical school at the University of Michigan and graduated four years later.

Deuschle’s first professional experience after his residency at SUNY Syracuse proved pivotal. From 1952-1954, he worked in the United States Public Health Service as Chief of the tuberculosis program at the Navajo Medical Center in Fort Defiance, Arizona. During this time he developed his concept of community health programs and was involved in the first field trials of the tuberculosis drug Isoniazid. Drawing from this experience he co-authored The People’s Health: Anthropology and Medicine in a Navajo Community with medical anthropologist, John Adair. Published in 1970, the book was considered a major contribution to medical anthropology and Navajo health. Following his time in the U.S. Public Health Service, Deuschle went on to be the director of the Navajo-Cornell Field Health Research Project, where he worked with Walsh McDermott M.D. and John Adair.

In 1960 Deuschle created the first U.S. Department of Community Medicine at the University of Kentucky School of Medicine. Under Deuschle’s leadership, the Department was committed to improving rural health. Known as the “Kentucky Model,” the University of Kentucky’s Community Medicine Department was much admired by likeminded medical professionals and inspired other universities to develop their own community medicine programs.

In 1968, with the opening of the Medical School imminent, the first Chairman of the Department of Community Medicine at Mount Sinai, George W. James M.D., who was also Dean of the School, recruited Deuschle to take his place as Chairman. James had only intended to serve as Chairman long enough to get the Department running. And so, in a move that would take him from the health problems of rural Appalachians to those of inner city residents, Deuschle was named Chair of the Mount Sinai Department of Community Medicine in 1968. In 1973, his position was endowed and his title became the Ethel H. Wise Professor and Chairman of the Department of Community Medicine.

As the first full-time Chairman, Deuschle played a large role in shaping the research focus and mission of the young department. Many of these interests, not surprisingly, revolved around the local community of East Harlem. Additionally, Deuschle’s interest in international medicine also influenced the work of the Department. Once the Department was settled, Deuschle established a Division of International Medicine, led by Samuel Bosch, MD, that worked with local physicians to create or improve health programs in several countries including Nigeria, China, Vietnam, Turkey, Columbia, Jamaica, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and the People’s Republic of China.

During his career, Deuschle was actively involved with a large number of professional associations. He served on the World Health Organization’s Expert Advisory Panel on Professional and Technical Education of Medical and Auxiliary Personnel from 1972-1977, and was an early member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, elected in 1971, the second year of the program. Deuschle was also involved in local health issues, serving on the New York City Board of Health from 1982-1989. Taking his leadership position at Mount Sinai very seriously, Deuschle sat on 28 internal boards and committees during his career at the school, including the Presidents Advisory Group, the Executive Faculty Board, the Affirmative Action Committee, and the Ethics Committee.

In honor of his dedicated service to the profession, Deuschle received several awards and prizes. The 1975 Award for Excellence in Domestic Health from the American Public Health Association citation includes these lines: “Perhaps because he seems to see opportunity in each situation and potential in every person, he continues to lead at the cutting edge of major innovations, yet retains the respect and esteem of his co-workers. We look with wonder and admiration upon this uncommon man and…his singular contributions to the advance of American public health.” Later awards include the Mayor’s Award of Honor for Science and Technology in 1989 and the Duncan Clark Award from the Association of Teachers of Preventive Medicine in 1990. Mount Sinai also honored Deuschle with the Jacobi Medallion from the Mount Sinai Alumni Association in 1989 and the Alexander Richman Commemorative Award for Humanism in Medicine in 1991.

Deuschle published over 100 journal articles during his career. Generally, these works centered on issues such as Navajo health, community medicine education, health manpower, health care delivery, and international health. He also published fourteen books and monographs including The People’s Health (1970) about the Navajo-Cornell Health Project, Health Manpower Planning in Turkey: An International Research Case Study published by Johns Hopkins Press in 1968. Drawing from his experience studying health care delivery in Harlem, in 1972 Deuschle also contributed a chapter in an edited volume entitled A Health Care Plan for East Harlem- Now.

Upon his retirement in 1990, two graduates wrote appreciatively of Deuschle’s leadership: “Kurt’s grace and wisdom, his insight, kindness, and humor, his loyalty to and his intense concern for and understanding of his students and colleagues are, if not unique, at least rare features for a professor, or even a civil servant…He has enabled his students to see their patients in the context of a community. ”

Following a battle with Parkinson’s disease, Deuschle passed away on February 10, 2003.

Library of Congress Name Authority File

Koplan, Jeffery P. and Stephen B. Thacker. “Kurt W. Deuschle: The Clinician in the Community.” The Mount Sinai Journal of Medicine. Vol. 59 No. 6 November 1992.

http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n87840518