- Email: [email protected]
Edward S. Cooper, MD
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Edward S. Cooper, MD Edward S. Cooper, MD, Professorship Chair University of Pennsylvania Medical Center and Health System JNMA is featuring a series on African Americans holding endowed chairs in American medical schools in recognition of the outstanding accomplishments of these very special people. These chairs are usually funded from generous benefactors and may include grateful patients or parents of patients (children), executives from the business world and industry, foundations, anonymous donors and even faculty members. The common denominator amongst these philanthropists is to recognize the institution for the opportunities afforded them in some way as a way of “giving back” to insure that the school can continue to recruit the most talented individuals to the institution.
A professorship chair established at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine for Edward S. Cooper, MD, was endowed with $2 million. This new professorship is in honor of the wonderful physician who has dedicated his life to the field of cardiovascular disease and stroke, while epitomizing excellence in research, teaching, and patient care. Keyword: endowed professorships, African Americans J Natl Med Assoc. 2009;101:276-277 Author Affiliation: Temple University Health System, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Corresponding Author: Donald B. Parks, MD, Professor of Medicine, Temple University Health System, Philadelphia, PA 19132 ([email protected]).
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resent professor of medicine emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center and Health System, Dr Edward Cooper, an alumnus of Lincoln University (PA) and a highest honors graduate of Meharry Medical School, chose in 1949 to take his internship, residency, and cardiology fellowship at the Philadelphia General Hospital (PGH) where, almost 25 years later, he was to become chief of the medical service. He joined the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine—the nation’s oldest medical school—in 1958 and in 1973 became its first African American tenured physician/professor. The early 1950s, however, marked the beginning of Dr Cooper’s life-long commitment to teaching medical students (with special concern for underrepresented minorities), to performing research in the areas of stoke and hypertension (having observed during internship the dramatic proliferation of stroke and cardiovascular-related deaths) and to delivering patient care (with mindful attention to the well-being of the minority community). The promise to “do everything I could to help prevent potential deaths from stroke and cardiovascular disease” arose during a personal health crisis experienced by Dr Cooper during his medical internship. He vowed 276 JOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL MEDICAL ASSOCIATION
that “if I survive, I will repay in kind by searching for and discovering how and why strokes occur…and, then, by doing something about it.” And he did just that. In 1965, with his friend and research partner, James W. West, MD, PhD, Dr Cooper initiated a massive study correlating cardiac hemodynamic studies with cerebral blood flow, sufficiently impressing the National Institutes of Health (NIH) into awarding Cooper and his colleagues $1 million in grant funds for establishment of the Stroke Research Center at PGH, which Cooper cofounded and codirected. “It was at this time,” states Truman G. Schnabel Jr, MD, C. Mahlon Kline professor emeritus at the School of Medicine, “that Ed began to garner the fame he deserved. He is an excellent scientist and, most certainly, led the way in this country in strokerelated research. So much is owed to the work that he has done in this area.” Dr Cooper continues to “keep his promises” by “repaying in kind” to his profession and to his commuVOL. 101, NO. 3, MARCH 2009
Edward S. Cooper, MD
nity. In these years of retirement from the active practice of medicine, Dr Cooper sits on the University of Pennsylvania’s Health Promotion/Disease Prevention Task Force, chairing the Subcommittee on Communities. He also serves on numerous local and national advisory committees, especially at NIH, principally involved in the planning, development, and monitoring of clinical trials related to cardiovascular disease and stroke. Dr Cooper is particularly proud of his contributions as a member of the board of directors of Independence Blue Cross, The Rockefeller University, the American Foundation for Negro Affairs, and the American Academy of Neurology Research and Education Foundation. In 1992, after 30 years of active membership in the American Heart Association (AHA), he was elected the first African American president of that venerable organization. He has chaired the association’s Stroke Council and the committee that produced the AHA’s seminal scientific statement: Cardiovascular Diseases and Stroke in African Americans and Other Racial Minorities. The AHA’s present educational and interactive initiatives relating to stroke are, in many ways, the direct result of Dr Cooper’s creative and purposeful leadership.
JOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL MEDICAL ASSOCIATION
In 1997, Dr Cooper received the Gold Heart Award, the highest honor of the AHA, “given to one…who has rendered distinguished service in advancing the objectives of the [AHA] and for continued and significant contributions over time to the national American Heart Association and its programs.” The mission of an academic medical center is 3-fold: education, research, and patient care. The creation of the Edward S. Cooper professorship at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center affords the institution, other organizations and Dr Cooper’s patients, friends, and colleagues the opportunity to honor this outstanding caregiver, role model, and mentor who has devoted his career to fulfilling Penn’s tripartite mission. Dr Cooper’s example as a clinician, scientist, teacher, and advisor serves as the ideal for what the university has established as the educator/researcher/clinician track, and the professorship will encourage career development along this pathway and in his spirit. The Edward S. Cooper Professorship will support the principles that Dr Cooper and his career exemplify.
VOL. 101, NO. 3, MARCH 2009 277
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Edward S. Cooper, MD Edward S. Cooper, MD, Professorship Chair University of Pennsylvania Medical Center and Health System JNMA is featuring a series on African Americans holding endowed chairs in American medical schools in recognition of the outstanding accomplishments of these very special people. These chairs are usually funded from generous benefactors and may include grateful patients or parents of patients (children), executives from the business world and industry, foundations, anonymous donors and even faculty members. The common denominator amongst these philanthropists is to recognize the institution for the opportunities afforded them in some way as a way of “giving back” to insure that the school can continue to recruit the most talented individuals to the institution.
A professorship chair established at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine for Edward S. Cooper, MD, was endowed with $2 million. This new professorship is in honor of the wonderful physician who has dedicated his life to the field of cardiovascular disease and stroke, while epitomizing excellence in research, teaching, and patient care. Keyword: endowed professorships, African Americans J Natl Med Assoc. 2009;101:276-277 Author Affiliation: Temple University Health System, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Corresponding Author: Donald B. Parks, MD, Professor of Medicine, Temple University Health System, Philadelphia, PA 19132 ([email protected]).
P
resent professor of medicine emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center and Health System, Dr Edward Cooper, an alumnus of Lincoln University (PA) and a highest honors graduate of Meharry Medical School, chose in 1949 to take his internship, residency, and cardiology fellowship at the Philadelphia General Hospital (PGH) where, almost 25 years later, he was to become chief of the medical service. He joined the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine—the nation’s oldest medical school—in 1958 and in 1973 became its first African American tenured physician/professor. The early 1950s, however, marked the beginning of Dr Cooper’s life-long commitment to teaching medical students (with special concern for underrepresented minorities), to performing research in the areas of stoke and hypertension (having observed during internship the dramatic proliferation of stroke and cardiovascular-related deaths) and to delivering patient care (with mindful attention to the well-being of the minority community). The promise to “do everything I could to help prevent potential deaths from stroke and cardiovascular disease” arose during a personal health crisis experienced by Dr Cooper during his medical internship. He vowed 276 JOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL MEDICAL ASSOCIATION
that “if I survive, I will repay in kind by searching for and discovering how and why strokes occur…and, then, by doing something about it.” And he did just that. In 1965, with his friend and research partner, James W. West, MD, PhD, Dr Cooper initiated a massive study correlating cardiac hemodynamic studies with cerebral blood flow, sufficiently impressing the National Institutes of Health (NIH) into awarding Cooper and his colleagues $1 million in grant funds for establishment of the Stroke Research Center at PGH, which Cooper cofounded and codirected. “It was at this time,” states Truman G. Schnabel Jr, MD, C. Mahlon Kline professor emeritus at the School of Medicine, “that Ed began to garner the fame he deserved. He is an excellent scientist and, most certainly, led the way in this country in strokerelated research. So much is owed to the work that he has done in this area.” Dr Cooper continues to “keep his promises” by “repaying in kind” to his profession and to his commuVOL. 101, NO. 3, MARCH 2009
Edward S. Cooper, MD
nity. In these years of retirement from the active practice of medicine, Dr Cooper sits on the University of Pennsylvania’s Health Promotion/Disease Prevention Task Force, chairing the Subcommittee on Communities. He also serves on numerous local and national advisory committees, especially at NIH, principally involved in the planning, development, and monitoring of clinical trials related to cardiovascular disease and stroke. Dr Cooper is particularly proud of his contributions as a member of the board of directors of Independence Blue Cross, The Rockefeller University, the American Foundation for Negro Affairs, and the American Academy of Neurology Research and Education Foundation. In 1992, after 30 years of active membership in the American Heart Association (AHA), he was elected the first African American president of that venerable organization. He has chaired the association’s Stroke Council and the committee that produced the AHA’s seminal scientific statement: Cardiovascular Diseases and Stroke in African Americans and Other Racial Minorities. The AHA’s present educational and interactive initiatives relating to stroke are, in many ways, the direct result of Dr Cooper’s creative and purposeful leadership.
JOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL MEDICAL ASSOCIATION
In 1997, Dr Cooper received the Gold Heart Award, the highest honor of the AHA, “given to one…who has rendered distinguished service in advancing the objectives of the [AHA] and for continued and significant contributions over time to the national American Heart Association and its programs.” The mission of an academic medical center is 3-fold: education, research, and patient care. The creation of the Edward S. Cooper professorship at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center affords the institution, other organizations and Dr Cooper’s patients, friends, and colleagues the opportunity to honor this outstanding caregiver, role model, and mentor who has devoted his career to fulfilling Penn’s tripartite mission. Dr Cooper’s example as a clinician, scientist, teacher, and advisor serves as the ideal for what the university has established as the educator/researcher/clinician track, and the professorship will encourage career development along this pathway and in his spirit. The Edward S. Cooper Professorship will support the principles that Dr Cooper and his career exemplify.
VOL. 101, NO. 3, MARCH 2009 277