George A. Schumacher

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George Adam Schumacher (born September 12, 1912 in Trenton New Jersey , † March 24, 2008 in Shelburne , Vermont ) was an American neurologist who was involved in the development of early diagnostic criteria for multiple sclerosis , the Schumacher criteria .

Life

George A. Schumacher was the son of Austro-Hungarian immigrants to the USA . He graduated from Pennsylvania State University (bachelor's degree in 1932) and Cornell University Medical College (graduated in medicine in 1936). This was followed by six years of assistantship at various hospitals. From 1942 he took part in the Second World War in Western Europe as a medical officer , most recently in the rank of major . After retiring from the military in 1946, he became an associate professor of neurology at Cornell University and headed the neurology department at Bellevue Hospital in New York City . During this time he worked under Harold Wolff in headache research. In 1950 he became a professor of the newly established Department of Neurology at the University of Vermont College of Medicine in Burlington , Vermont . After a sabbatical at the University of Alaska in 1967, he resigned as a professor and was Professor of Neurology in Burlington until his retirement in 1978.

Schumacher was married to Isobel Donnelly († 1995) from 1940, and the marriage resulted in two daughters and two sons.

Scientific activity

Schumacher's scientific interest was particularly in multiple sclerosis (MS). As chairman of the Panel on the Evaluation of Experimental Trials of Therapy in Multiple Sclerosis , he was instrumental in developing recommendations for conducting therapy studies. In this context, diagnostic criteria for the disease were also proposed, which were used as Schumacher criteria (1965). Aspects of today's MS diagnostic criteria (McDonald criteria), such as the definition of a disease flare-up and the concept of local and temporal dissemination, go back to the Schumacher criteria.

Publications (selection)

  • George A. Schumacher: Multiple Sclerosis. In: Postgraduate Medicine. May 27, 1960, pp. 569-580, doi : 10.1080 / 00325481.1960.11712912 .
  • George A. Schumacher, Gilbert Beebe, Robert F. Kibler, Leonard T. Kurland, John F. Kurtzke , Fletcher McDowell, Benedict Nagler, William A. Sibley, Wallace W. Tourtellotte, Thomas L. Willmon: Problems of Experimental Trials of Therapy in Multiple Sclerosis: Report by the Panel on the Evaluation of Experimental Trials of Therapy in Multiple Sclerosis. In: Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 122, 1965, pp. 552-568, doi : 10.1111 / j.1749-6632.1965.tb20235.x .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Obituary: George A. Schumacher . In: The Burlington Free Press . Burlington, Vermont, March 37, 2008, p. 16.
  2. ↑ a b R. W. Hamill, JF Kurtzke: George A. Schumacher, MD, FAAN (1912-2008). In: Neurology. 72, 2009, p. 954, doi : 10.1212 / 01.wnl.0000344570.90113.07 .
  3. ^ Cornell Alumni News , Vol. 55, Number 8, Jan 1951, p. 256.
  4. ↑ George A. Schumacher, Gilbert Beebe, Robert F. Kibler, Leonard T. Kurland, John F. Kurtzke , Fletcher McDowell, Benedict Nagler, William A. Sibley, Wallace W. Tourtellotte, Thomas L. Willmon: Problems of Experimental Trials of Therapy in Multiple Sclerosis: Report by the Panel on the Evaluation of Experimental Trials of Therapy in Multiple Sclerosis. In: Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 122, 1965, pp. 552-568, doi : 10.1111 / j.1749-6632.1965.tb20235.x .
  5. ↑ O. Aktas, MP Wattjes, M. Stangel, H.-P. Hartung: Diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis: Revision of the McDonald Criteria 2017. In: Der Nervenarzt . 89, 2018, pp. 1344-1354, PMID 29876600 , doi : 10.1007 / s00115-018-0550-0 .
personal data
SURNAME Schumacher, George A.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schumacher, George Adam (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American neurologist
DATE OF BIRTH September 12, 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH Trenton New Jersey
DATE OF DEATH March 24, 2008
Place of death Shelburne , Vermont