George Canby Robinson

Background

George Canby Robinson was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of Edward Ayrault Robinson, a business executive, and Alice Canby.

Education

He received the degree of Bachelor of Arts from Johns Hopkins University in 1899.

From 1899 to 1903 he attended the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine under the youthful and inspiring original faculty of that new institution, and received the Doctor of Medicine degree in 1903.

Career

After receiving his Doctor of Medicine degree in 1903 Robinson then spent two years in pathology and two years as resident physician at the Pennsylvania Hospital, followed by a year in Europe, working in physiology in Friedrich Von Muller's clinic in Munich.

After returning to America, Robinson engaged briefly in private practice. In 1910 he accepted the invitation from Rufus Cole, who had been a resident at the Johns Hopkins Hospital during Robinson's student days in Baltimore, to be the first resident physician at the newly opened Hospital of the Rockefeller Institute. At the Institute Hospital he encountered an outstanding scientific atmosphere created by such men as Simon Flexner, Peyton Rous, Alexis Carrel, Jacques Loeb, Samuel J. Meltzer, and Donald Van Sykel.

By 1913, when he left to become associate professor of medicine at Washington University in St. Louis, Robinson was thoroughly imbued with the scientific spirit as applied to the study of disease and was fully prepared to transplant this spirit to the schools of medicine with which he would later be associated. From 1917 to 1920 Robinson served first as acting dean and then as dean at Washington Universiry. His effectiveness in these posts led to his appointment in 1920 as dean and professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University, which had just received money for the building of a hospital and a medical school. While awaiting the opening of the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Robinson served as pro-tempore professor of medicine and director of the department of medicine at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine for one year (1921 - 1922).

When he left Vanderbilt in 1928, the school stood as a tribute to his outstanding skill in the organization of medical institutions and his ability to select gifted young faculty.

In 1928 Robinson became director of the newly created union of the Cornell University Medical College and New York Hospital. Again, he exercised his talents in the construction and organization of a new enterprise and in attracting a distinguished staff. It was a difficult time for the undertaking, however, because of the severe financial stringencies created by the Great Depression. Although all of his goals were not reached at the time, subsequent developments have demonstrated that Robinson's plans for that medical center were built on a sound foundation. In October 1934, Robinson became visiting professor of medicine at the Peiping Union Medical College.

After a year in China, he returned to the staff of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, where he embarked on the study (1936 - 1937) of what he called "the man within the patient. " His work resulted in the publication of The Patient as a Person (1939), a study of the social aspects of illness.

In 1941 Robinson was appointed national director of the blood donor service of the American Red Cross. At the end of World War II, he retired from the Hopkins faculty and became executive secretary of the Maryland Tuberculosis Association.

In 1955 he retired again.

Robinson was also editor in chief of the Journal of Clinical Investigation from its founding in 1924 until 1930 and served as president of the Association of American Physicians in 1933.

His memoirs were published as Adventures in Medical Education (1957).

Robinson lived during a period that has been widely acclaimed as the "heroic age in American medicine. "

Achievements

• In St. Louis, Robinson played a major role in organizing and constructing the teaching program in the department of medicine, particularly from 1917 to 1920, when he served first as acting dean and then as dean. Robinson's early studies were in the bacteriology of meningitis, but his principal research contributions were related to cardiovascular disease. He applied the technique of electrocar-diography to the study of cardiac arrhythmias and developed a method for determination of the blood gases. His later work was mainly in occupational medicine and the relationship between doctor and patient. Robinson lived during a period that has been widely acclaimed as the "heroic age in American medicine. " He stands out as one of the principal architects responsible for the gigantic strides in medical education and research made during that period which marked the creation of medicine's scientific base. He contributed importantly in the four major areas of academic medicine-the care of patients, the pursuit of research, medical education, and the administration of university medical schools and hospitals.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Patient as a Person: a Study of the Social Aspects of Illness

    (arrange a change of climate for the patient)

  • Adventures in Medical Education: A Personal Narrative of the Great Advance of American Medicine (Commonwealth Fund Publications)
  • The therapeutic use of digitalis
  • A glimpse of life in the world to come: Spiritual adventures of a reunited family
  • Dean of the Vanderbilt Medical School From 1920 to 1928
  • Adventures in medical education : a personal narrative of the great advance of American medicine.

Views

He had early recognized the importance of humanism in medicine, and on the years 1936-1937 he embarked on the study of what he called "the man within the patient. " For the next few years he devoted himself wholeheartedly to its study.

Personality

Robinson used his enormous talents and abilities with industry and generosity of spirit. He was perceptive in dealing with people and was keenly aware of the need to develop physicians of character in order to ensure a progressive increase in the quality of medical care.

Connections

On December 7, 1912, he married Marion Boise; they had two children.

Father:

Edward Ayrault Robinson

Mother:

Alice Canby

Wife:

Marion Boise

colleague:

Donald Van Sykel

colleague:

Jacques Loeb

colleague:

Samuel J. Meltzer

colleague:

Peyton Rous

colleague:

Alexis Carrel

colleague:

Simon Flexner