A Student for Life
Harold Joseph Jeghers, M.D. (1904-1990)
by Leonard P. Caccamo, M.D. (1922-2000)
Early Life
Harold Joseph Jeghers was born in Jersey City, New Jersey on September 26, 1904. The family moved to upstate New York, where his father was an owner of several different businesses in the communities of Saugeties and Rosendale. He worked for his father during vacations and for a full year following graduation from high school. During this interval, he was keenly interested in sports and amateur radio, successfully building and operating a "ham" station in the early days of radio.
Dr. Jeghers' membership in the American Radio Relay League, 1924
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
His interest in mechanical and electrical concepts led to his application and acceptance at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York, for the study of electrical engineering. During his sophomore year he came under the influence of an ingenious Englishman, Professor Archie Bray, who had been recruited to Rensselaer to organize a newly established program in premedical education. Under Dr. Bray's direction and close personal contact, Harold Jeghers was persuaded to change his major during his junior year. Ultimately, he became one of two students who received the school's first Bachelor of Science in Biology in 1928.
By graduation, Harold Jeghers was determined to become a physician. His father, with great sagacity, gave him an articulated skeleton as his graduation gift. He was encouraged to spend the summer before medical school living and working in a local hospital as a laboratory technician. The medical staff at this institution, and particularly the chief of pathology, was responsible for providing this future master clinician with a remarkable insight into what lay ahead.
Dr. Thomas Spies,
University Hospitals
Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine
In 1928, he entered Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, Ohio. His unique undergraduate experiences provided the stimulus and discipline for a firm foundation in medical education. During his freshman summer, he was awarded a Crile scholarship in research which resulted in the publication of a scientific paper.[1] Dr. Jeghers demonstrated in his early years of education an academic inclination.
While at University Hospitals, Cleveland, Ohio, Dr. Jeghers was assigned as a clinical clerk to Thomas Spies, M.D. a Fellow in Medicine. Dr. Spies was then actively engaged in unraveling the mystery of pellagra.
Dr. Blankenhorn,
University Hospitals
Dr. Blankenhorn, Professor of Clinical Medicine, greatly influenced Harold Jeghers to become a medical internist. Prior to his medical clerkship, Harold Jeghers had considered becoming a pathologist. Drs. Spies and Blankenhorn encouraged him to read medical journals, to search the medical literature for possible diseases for patients he was treating and to make use of the medical library in these endeavors.
Internship at Boston City Hospital
Dr. Spies imparted to Harold Jeghers the importance of obtaining the best internship possible. He urged him to compete for the university affiliated internships available in Boston. Following approximately one week of oral and written examinations given during April of his senior year, Dr. Jeghers was accepted to the Boston University Medical Service at Boston City Hospital for an eighteen month internship.
At that time, most seniors selected a single year of rotating internship and entered medical practice. Few became specialists. Specialization and certifying boards in internal medicine had not yet developed. While awaiting the start of his internship, he spent five months from August-December 1932 as resident physician for the Mahoning County Tuberculosis Sanitorium, Youngstown, Ohio. In this period he wanted to learn as much as possible about various presentations of tuberculosis.
Mahoning County Tuberculosis Sanitorium, Youngstown, Ohio, 1930s
Dr. Jeghers arrived in Boston in December of 1932 and was became one of the first interns on the newly formed Fifth Medical Service at Boston City Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts. Beginning assignments were in the clinical laboratory, outpatient service, and emergency room. Progressive assignments included the position of senior intern, associate house officer and house officer. These opportunities in medical training were sought by medical school graduates from throughout the nation.
Research Fellowship at Evans Memorial Institute for Clinical Research
Dr. John Foley, Boston City Hospital, encouraged Dr. Jeghers to complete a one year research fellowship at the Evans Memorial Institute for Clinical Research which was affiliated with Boston University. Their collaboration resulted in a publication on Weil's Disease.[2] The Evans Memorial Institute had a small research ward for patients needing special studies. Resident and research fellows received much individual attention and excellent experience. The talents and hard work of Dr. Harold Jeghers captured the attention of the hospital staff and medical faculty alike. In 1936, he was appointed to the faculty of Boston University and to a full-time teaching position at the Boston City Hospital.
Seated on the right, Dr. Harold J. Jeghers,
Boston University
is shown testing students
for night blindness, a risk factor for
automobile accidents
Faculty Appointment at Boston University
In those days, Boston City Hospital was affiliated with three medical schools: Boston University, Harvard, and Tufts and provided a dynamic environment for quality patient care, creative clinical research, and medical education.
During this period, Dr. Jeghers was the only paid full-time teacher at Boston City Hospital. He found the city of Boston a superb place to observe how other medical schools and their affiliated hospitals carried out research, teaching, and quality patient care. He astutely observed that while hundreds of doctors in the city were interested in clinical research, relatively few were interested in the application of research to medical pedagogy.
By that time, Dr. Jeghers had firmly adopted the custom of cutting articles from medical journals, stapling them together. What motivated this activity was the opportunity to utilize this collection in improving clinical teaching demonstrating the Samuel Johnson's proverb: “The next best thing to knowing something is knowing where to find it.”
An original teaching slide of Dr. Jeghers describing development of his personal library
In Dr. Jeghers opinion, the teaching of medical students the ways of proper examination of patients was a way of life. He ultimately gave up the idea of private medical practice and dedicated his career to academic medicine. His conviction to pursuing medical education led him to a career in academic medicine.
In the years that followed, Dr. Jeghers in his customar long white coat became a familiar figure at Boston City Hospital. An avid and tireless reader, his familiarity with the medical literature became encyclopedic. He possessed a natural talent for communicating and applying relevant information at the bedside and conference room. He rapidly rose to the rank of Associate Professor of Medicine in 1942. In that same year he was appointed Physician-in-Chief of the service on which ten years earlier he had served as intern. Dr. Jeghers is well remembered by the many physicians and students who received their training at Boston City Hospital. He is best remembered for his teaching and his commitment to self-education.
Dr. Jeghers' biography continued
1. Stecher RM, Jeghers HJ. The Dextrose Level of the Arterial and Venous Blood in Arthritis, Arch Intern Med. 1931 Nov; 48(1):801-807.
2. Jeghers HJ, Houghton JD, Foley JA. Weil's Disease: Report of a Case with Postmortem Observations and Review of Recent Literature, Arch Pathol. 1935 Sep; 20:447-476.
