History

The Pathology Department at the Brigham and Women's Hospital traces its root to the founding of the Boston Lying-in Hospital in 1832, the Free Hospital for Women in 1875 and Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in 1913. 

The Women's and Perinatal Division

The Pathology Services at Boston Lying-in and Free Hospital are the forerunners of the Women and Perinatal division.  Each of these has a glorious history of its own and has made a wide range of contributions in both Gynecologic and Obstetric pathology including: the first detailed morphologic descriptions of early human development (Hertig), the first classifications of trophoblastic neoplasia (Hertig, Gore, Driscoll), the detailed descriptions and documentation of placental development (Benirschke), the CIN classification for early cervical neoplasia (Richart), and the first association between a human papillomavirus (HPV-16) and high grade CIN (Crum), just to name a few.  In the last 60 years, under the direction of Drs. Arthur Hertig, John Craig, Shirley Driscoll and currently Dr. Christopher Crum, it has trained many past and future leaders in their fields.

Peter Bent Brigham Hospital

The early scene of the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital (PBBH) was dominated by one giant figure in surgery - Harvey Cushing, who almost single-handedly created the field of modern neurosurgery.  Like many surgeons of his time, Dr. Cushing and his associates (most notably Drs. Louis Eisenhardt and Percival Bailey) handled and examined the resection specimens themselves.  Dr. William Thomas Councilman served as the first pathologist-in-chief.  Dr. Councilman had arrived in Harvard Medical School earlier in 1892 and was an expert in the study of amebiasis, diphtheria, smallpox and yellow fever.  His vivid morphologic description of changes seen in the liver of yellow fever lives on today as "Councilman bodies".  Dr. Councilman was also a gifted horticulturist and has always found time to care for his beautiful garden outside his office.

The Wolbach years

Dr. S. Burt Wolbach, the famed researcher and bacteriologist, succeeded Councilman as the second Shattuck professor and the pathologist-in-chief for the hospital from 1917 until 1947.  Among Dr. Wolbach's numerous contributions to the understanding of pathologic basis of diseases, the discovery of the causative agents for Rocky mountain spotty fever and typhus as rickettsial organisms which bear his name (Wolbachiae) remains the most significant.  Dr. Wolbach also served as the chairman of pathology at the Harvard Medical School and spent most of his time doing research there.  He would come to the hospital once a day to mentor the chief resident who then taught other junior residents.  Dr. Wolbach was known to be an avid outdoor sportsman, horse-rider, hunter and fisherman, and always wore a fresh red carnation in the buttonhole during lectures to medical students.  His independent wealth was also said to help the pathology department to thrive through hard times.

Post-war era

Dr. Gustave Dammin became the pathologist-in-chief in 1952, 5 years after Wolbach's departure.  Gus, as he was fondly known by his friends and colleagues, soon became one of the important members of the team that performed the first successful kidney transplant in 1954.  He made seminal observations in the early days of organ transplant pathology and contributed to the understanding of mechanism of organ and tissue rejection.  Dr. Dammin's service in the Armed Forces Epidemiological Board and the various national and international pathology societies brought him to travel extensively around the globe.  Continued from the interest in tropical parasitic diseases which he studied during his world war II service in Burma, he studied many infectious diseases, especially of gastrointestinal origin.  Later in his life, he was involved in the study of Lyme disease and babesiosis, two diseases endemic to Nantucket Island where his wife was born. Dr. Andrew Spielman, discoverer of the deer tick that transmits the organisms that cause both diseases, later named the deer tick Ixodes dammini in Dr. Dammin's honor.  During Dr. Dammin's tenure, the department resided in the Tackaberry building on Shattuck Street. Some of the most senior members of the department including Drs. Mac Corson, Franz von Lichtenberg, Geraldine Pinkus, William Schoene, Nora Galvanek, and the late Piero Paci all joined during this period.

The legacy of Ramzi S. Cotran

Dr. Ramzi Cotran, the Frank S. Mallory Professor of Pathology, was selected to succeed Dr. Dammin in 1974.   Under Dr. Cotran's stewardship, the pathology department saw its most explosive growth.  An accomplished researcher in his own right, Dr. Cotran was a visionary leader who saw great value in interdisciplinary collaboration and believed in the importance of bridging clinical service and research.  He set out to build a truly integrated academic pathology department and succeeded because of his charisma, leadership, warmth, skills, intellect and devotion.  His deliberate recruitment of young investigators in the early to mid-70's, including Drs. Venkatachalam, Abbas, Rennke, Gimbrone, Madara, Pober, Davies, Bevilacqua, and Collins, helped to establish the Brigham and Women's Hospital at the forefront of experimental pathology, and, in particular, the newly evolving field of vascular biology.  Dr. Cotran presided over several mergers of the Harvard teaching hospitals and later the formation of the Partners HealthCare with Massachusetts General Hospital.  At each step along the way, his grace and truthfulness helped to pave a smooth transition in each of these complex processes.  Dr. Cotran's influence reached far beyond the department and set the course for academic pathology in the US.  The best-selling pathology textbook that he co-authored with Dr. Stanley Robbins (The Robbin's Pathologic basis of diseases) became the "bible" of pathology for medical schools around the world.  Dr. Cotran was a tireless and legendary mentor to all his staff, trainees, friends and colleague.  He established a standard that everyone associated with department will forever try to model.  With more than 15 past and current departmental chairs and deans being his former Brigham associates, his spirit and legacy is likely to last well into the next few decades.

The first decade in the new Millenium

Dr. Michael Gimbrone, the first Ramzi S. Cotran Professor of Pathology, began his tenure as the chairman in 2002.  Dr. Gimbrone is a world-renowned researcher in vascular biology and leads an active center for vascular biology program.  Under Dr. Gimbrone's guidance, the clinical laboratories and blood bank services became part of a unified department.  A new surgical pathology information system went live in 2004.  Center for Molecular Oncologic Pathology (CMOP), a joint venture with Dana Farber Cancer Center dedicated to translational research, was formed in 2007.  A new Center for Advanced Molecular Diagnostics (CAMD) opened in May of 2008 in the Carl J. and Ruth Shapiro building and brought together cytogenetics and molecular diagnostics under one state-of-the-art laboratory.  Laboratory automation for the Clinical Chemistry was brought on-line in 2009 and hematology followed in 2011.  The long-time home of the BWH pathology, the second and the third floors of the Amory building, underwent a multi-million dollars total renovation and re-design during Dr. Gimbrone's tenure.  In 2012, the inauguration of the Ramzi Cotran conference room completed this multi-year process.  

Present and the future

March 1 2012 marked the arrival of Dr. Jeffrey A. Golden as the second Ramzi S. Cotran Professor of Pathology and the new Chairman of the department.  Dr. Golden brought with him a sense of vibrancy, transparency, optimism and new directions.   With Dr. Golden's leadership, the department strives to continue to attract the best and the brightest to pursue excellence in clinical service, biomedical research and education and training.

Reference:

1. M Gimbrone, E Barsamian, E Braunwald, M Karnovsky, V Kumar, J Longtine, S Robbins, R Sackstein, F von Lichtenberg. Memorial Minute: Ramzi S. Cotran, Harvard Gazette, July, 2003.  

2. F von Lichtenberg. 5th Gustave J. Dammin Lecture, Dec 5th, 2005.

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