David Hurwitz (physician)
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David Hurwitz | |
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| Born | August 18, 1905 |
| Died | February 22, 1992 (aged 86) |
| Known for | Community Hospital Teaching & Diabetes Research |
David Hurwitz (18 August 1905 – 22 February 1992) was an American physician, professor of medicine, and researcher in the field of diabetes mellitus, considered "the father of the community hospital teaching concept".[1]
Born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1905, David Hurwitz was a graduate of Boston English High School and Harvard College and graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1929. He interned at Boston City Hospital under such medical luminaries as George Minot (1934 Nobel laureate), Edwin Locke, Soma Weiss, William Bosworth Castle and Maxwell Finland.[2][3] Hurwitz joined the teaching staff of Harvard Medical School in 1931 as a research fellow in obstetrics and was appointed clinical professor of medicine in 1967.
Community Hospital Teaching
Hurwitz served as Mount Auburn Hospital's first director of medical education, establishing ties with Harvard Medical School and solidifying Mount Auburn's status as a teaching hospital during his tenure as Chief of Medicine from 1951-1970. In the process, Hurwitz established the institutional prototype of a community teaching hospital.[4] Hurwitz's vision was "to combine the special qualities of the community hospital with the excellence of Harvard Medical School to create the concept of the community/teaching hospital."[5]
As Hurwitz explained in 1963:
- However important the specific advances in medical services at the hospital may be, the most important development is the climate for learning which has been engendered among the staff. All of us are perennial students and a good hospital should provide a good environment for this purpose.[6]
Among Hurwitz's innovations was having full-time subspecialists with offices in the hospital, available for emergencies and teaching needs, rather than off-site as was then the practice.[7] Hurwitz was also instrumental in breaking down town/gown barriers in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with a noted ability to work in both the academic and the community/private practice environments.[8] Mount Auburn Hospital's auditorium was named in honor of Hurwitz in 1984[9] as was an annual lecture series.[10]