Dorothy Hansine Andersen

Dorothy Hansine Andersen

Dorothy Hansine Andersen (born May 15, 1901 in Asheville , North Carolina , † March 3, 1963 in New York City , New York ) was an American pediatrician and pathologist .

Life

Dorothy Hansine Andersen was the daughter of Hans Peter Andersen, a Danish doctor from the island of Bornholm , and his wife Mary Louise Mason. After the early death of her father in 1914, Dorothy, only 13 years old, moved to St. Johnsbury , Vermont with her sick mother . Her mother died six years later of cancer. In 1922 Andersen graduated from Mount Holyoke College , South Hadley, with a bachelor's degree . Shortly thereafter, she began her medical degree at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore . She made her first research under Florence Rena Sabin (1871–1953), a leading scientist in the United States, and later specialized in embryology . In 1926 she received her medical degree and then a surgical internship at the Strong Memorial Hospital of the University of Rochester at Rochester . She taught at Columbia University's medical school in the early 1930s and became a pathologist at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in 1935 . In the following years she conducted extensive studies and research on the disease cystic fibrosis . In the 1940s, she found a diagnostic test that made it possible to begin appropriate treatment and thus extend the lifespan of cystic fibrosis patients. She was also known for her pioneering research in nutrition.

Dorothy Hansine Andersen died of lung cancer on March 3, 1963 at the Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City . She was a heavy smoker all her life.

Awards

Andersen has received numerous awards for her achievements, including the Mead Johnson Award for Pediatric Research (1938), the Borden Award for Research in Nutrition (1948), the Elizabeth Blackwell Award (1954), the Big Heart Award Variety Club of Philadelphia (1963 ), and the Distinguished Service Medal of Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center (1963, posthumously). She was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame for her "indelible influence on society and medicine."

literature

• Familial cirrhosis of the liver with storage of abnormal glycogen. In: Laboratory Investigation , 1956, Volume 5, pp. 11-20.
• Cystic fibrosis of the pacreas and its relation to celiac disease. A clinical and pathological study. In: American Journal of Diseases of Children . Chicago, 1938, Vol. 56, pp. 344-399.

Web links

• Biography - Dorothy Hansine Andersen (English)