Priscilla White

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Priscilla White (born March  17, 1900 in Boston , †  December 16, 1989 in Ashland , Massachusetts ) was an American diabetologist . For many years she served as head of the children's and youth department at the Diabetes Clinic in Boston founded by Elliott P. Joslin and as a professor at Harvard University and Tufts University .

Her scientific and medical interests focused in particular on diabetes mellitus during pregnancy and in childhood . Her most important achievement is the increase in the survival rate of newborn children of diabetic mothers at the Joslin Clinic from around 54 percent in the 1920s to around 97 percent at the end of the 1970s.

Life

Priscilla White was born in Boston in 1900 and began studying liberal arts at Radcliffe College in Cambridge, Massachusetts after graduating from high school in 1917 . Two years later she moved to Tufts University , where she studied medicine until 1923 and graduated third in her class. 1924, two years after the introduction of insulin in the treatment of diabetes mellitus by Frederick Banting and Charles Best , she went to the by Elliott P. Joslin -led diabetes clinic at the New England Deaconess Hospital in Boston.

Almost from the start, Joslin, whose dealings with her White described in her memoirs as a pronounced father-daughter relationship, gave her responsibility for the diabetic mothers and children cared for by the clinic. In 1932 she published her first important monograph with the work “Diabetes in Childhood and Adolescence” after she had previously written the chapter on diabetes mellitus during pregnancy in the fourth edition of Joslin's “The Treatment of Diabetes mellitus”.

In addition to running the Children's and Youth Department at Joslin Clinic , Priscilla White has taught at both Harvard University and Tufts University as an assistant professor of medicine. She has advised a number of other hospitals in and around Boston. In the course of her career, she has cared for around 2,200 births to diabetic mothers and over 10,000 children with diabetes. She herself remained unmarried and childless and retired in 1975. In 1989 she died in Ashland as a result of a heart attack .

Scientific and medical work

Priscilla White has been engaged in a wide variety of clinical research activities, with a particular focus on improving the survival rate of newborn children from diabetic mothers. In Joslin's clinic this was 54 percent in the 1920s and had risen to 97 percent by the late 1970s. In this regard, Priscilla White recognized in particular the importance of a strict adjustment to a non-diabetic metabolic situation throughout pregnancy and, if necessary, early delivery .

Her second important contribution to diabetology is a classification she designed for diabetes during pregnancy depending on the age of onset and the duration of the disease, as well as the occurrence of arteriosclerosis , kidney complications and diabetic retinopathy . This classification, known as the White Classification of Diabetic Pregnancies , was widespread and made it possible to estimate the course of the disease and the probability of survival of newborn children of diabetic mothers and thus the individual adjustment of appropriate measures during pregnancy.

In addition, she dealt with the heritability , the course and treatment of diabetes mellitus in children as well as the psychosocial aspects of the disease. In the area of basic research , she particularly supported investigations into curing diabetes mellitus through islet cell transplantation .

Awards and recognition

The Middlebury College , Tufts University and the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania awarded Priscilla White, the honorary doctorate . She was appointed a Fellow (FACP) by the American College of Physicians , the professional association for internists in the USA . She was the first woman to give the Banting Memorial Lecture at the University of Toronto in 1960 . In the same year, she was also the first woman to be awarded the Banting Medal , the American Diabetes Association's highest scientific honor, for her extensive and long-term services in the field of diabetology . The annual Priscilla White Lecture organized by the Joslin Clinic and the Medical Faculty of Harvard University is named after her .

Works (selection)

  • Diabetes in Pregnancy. In: Elliott Joslin (Ed.): The Treatment of Diabetes mellitus. Fourth edition. Philadelphia 1928, pp. 861-872
  • Diabetes in Childhood and Adolescence. Philadelphia 1932
  • On the Inheritance of Diabetes Mellitus. In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . 19 (6) / 1933, pp. 631-635
  • Diabetes mellitus: Handbook for Physicians. New York 1956 (as co-author)
  • Classification of Obstetric Diabetes. In: American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology. 130/1978, pp. 228-230

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME White, Priscilla
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American diabetologist
DATE OF BIRTH March 17, 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH Boston
DATE OF DEATH December 16, 1989
Place of death Ashland, Massachusetts