Robert W. Wilkins
Robert Wallace Wilkins (born December 4, 1906 in Chattanooga , Tennessee , † April 9, 2003 in Newburyport , Massachusetts ) was an American medical doctor who dealt with high blood pressure .
Education and career
Wilkins received a bachelor's degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1928 and worked as a teacher for a year before studying medicine at the University of North Carolina in 1929 and continuing at Harvard Medical School from 1931 . In 1933 he completed his studies as an MD . He then completed specialist training at Boston City Hospital and Thorndike Memorial Laboratories . He could have a scholarship in one year London spend and worked from 1938 at the Johns Hopkins University before him Chester Keefer 1940 as Professor and Head of the Cardiovascular Division at the Evans Memorial Department of Clinical Research and Preventive Medicine of the Boston University School of Medicine took . From 1950 he headed the Council of High Blood Pressure Research there . In 1957 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . From 1960 to 1972 he was Keefer's successor as director of the Evans Memorial Department of Clinical Research and Preventive Medicine , director of the medical faculty and chief physician of the university hospital at Boston University Medical School (later the Boston Medical Center ). He retired in 1972 and lived in Newburyport until his death.
Wilkins was married with two daughters and a son.
Achievements
Around 1950 he introduced reserpine as the first remedy for high blood pressure, an extract from Rauwolfia . In addition, he recognized high blood pressure early on as a dangerous clinical picture which must be countered with medication. Before that, it was predominantly assumed that this was a normal aging process and, on the contrary, a reduction in blood pressure was harmful, since the blood could then no longer be pumped through the narrowed arteries and veins. In 1957 he published a study showing the usefulness of chlorothiazide (Diuril) as an antihypertensive agent.
In the 1950s he introduced his step care method (also called stepped care ) for the treatment of high blood pressure. This method, which is widely used today, adapts the treatment in stages depending on the success of the lower dosage.
During the Second World War he developed pressure equalization suits ( G-Suit ) for fighter pilots and parachute jumps from great heights. In 1958 he received the Lasker ~ DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award for this . 1957/58 he was president of the American Heart Association .
Publications
- Chester S. Keefer; Robert W. Wilkins: Medicine: essentials of clinical practice . Little, Brown, Boston 1970, ISBN 978-0-7000-0183-5 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Published in the New England Journal of Medicine 1953
- ↑ Stepped Care, Medilexicon
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Wilkins, Robert W. |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Wilkins, Robert Wallace (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American medic |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 4th December 1906 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Chattanooga , Tennessee |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 9, 2003 |
| Place of death | Newburyport , Massachusetts |