John William Pierson

John William Pierson

THEY WERE GIANTS OTHA LINTON, MSJ John William Pierson In 1915, after 10 years of general practice in Baltimore, John William Pierson decided that h...

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THEY WERE GIANTS

OTHA LINTON, MSJ

John William Pierson In 1915, after 10 years of general practice in Baltimore, John William Pierson decided that he wanted to take up the fairly new medical specialty of radiology. He expressed his interest to Fred Baetjer, the chief radiologist at Johns Hopkins Hospital. One of the distinctions that made Dr Baetjer a leader in American radiology was his constant willingness to teach short courses for doctors who spent several weeks in his department picking up the basic technology of x-ray imaging and interpretation. So he accepted John Pierson’s expression of interest and gave him a staff appointment as the third radiologist at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Like Dr Baetjer himself and the Hopkins earlier assistant, Charles A. Waters, Dr Pierson received a part-time appointment at the hospital and spent much of his day in a private office, where his x-ray equipment replaced general practice tools. John Pierson was born in Cleveland and came to Baltimore as a child. He graduated from Baltimore City College in 1901 and from the University of Maryland School of Medicine in 1905. Although there were no formal radiology training programs in Baltimore, more than a dozen local physicians had concentrated on radiology and shared their time between hospitals and private offices. Part of the reason Dr Baetjer needed help was that after 15 years of x-ray exposure, he was suffering from skin lesions that led to malignant changes and several amputations. Dr Pierson and most of his

contemporaries had adopted the use of lead shields and had obtained hot cathode x-ray tubes, which came equipped with metal containers that blocked scattered radiation. Dr Pierson covered his own office and frequently Dr Baetjer’s office, and he spent the middle of each working day at Johns Hopkins in a session to read films exposed since the previous day. He also spent part of those sessions instructing visiting physicians and consulting with referring doctors. Dr Baetjer’s health declined during the 1920s, and in 1931, Dr Pierson was designated as the chief of Johns Hopkins radiology. He made no change in his work pattern. But in the early 1930s, he persuaded the medical school to allow the beginning of a radiology residency program. After a short indoctrination period, the residents performed examinations in the mornings and then participated in the midday conference, at which Dr Pierson, Dr Waters, and visiting radiologists interpreted the examinations. Dr Pierson followed his mentor’s example by becoming active in the American Roentgen Ray Society. So did his colleague, Dr Waters, with Dr Waters as president in 1936 and Dr Pierson in 1938. Six years earlier, Dr Pierson had become involved in 2 years of planning sessions, which led to the creation of the American Board of Radiology in 1934. The board was sponsored by the American Roentgen Ray Society, the ACR, the Radiological Society of North America, and the American Radium Society, plus the radiology section of the American Medical Association. Dr Pierson was 1 of 15 found-

© 2009 American College of Radiology 0091-2182/09/$36.00 ● DOI 10.1016/j.jacr.2009.08.009

ing trustees of the new board, representing the American Medical Association section. With the other trustees and some senior radiologists, he was “grandfathered” into the first group of diplomates and examiners for younger candidates who had to pass an oral examination. Dr Pierson remained a trustee for more than a decade and served as president of the board from 1943 to 1946. He continued to examine candidates for the rest of his career. During his years as a visiting professor at Johns Hopkins, he remained active in the American Roentgen Ray Society and other radiology groups. He and his colleagues did very little research. He wrote few papers, but he was a frequent speaker at radiology and other medical meetings on observations about diagnostic studies. He also performed radiation therapy in his private office. Johns Hopkins radiology was a section in the department of surgery. In the late 1930s, members of the Johns Hopkins medical faculty began to urge that radiology be expanded to keep up with growing demands for examinations and to increase their teaching programs. The question of research into radiobiology arose frequently, without any action. Dr Pierson expressed a willingness to continue his parttime responsibilities, but not to accept a full-time appointment and not to start a research program. The situation remained the same as the United States entered World War II. During the war years, the faculty committee decided to recruit an academic radiology professor. But 893

894 They Were Giants

their first candidate, Merrill Sosman of Harvard University and the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston, declined the position. Their second candidate, Russell H. Morgan, who trained at the University of Chicago, was an active officer in the US Public

Health Service. In 1946, after the war ended, Dr Morgan accepted the professorship of radiology and the position of chairman of a separated department of radiology. John Pierson continued his role of conducting the noon conferences and teaching residents dur-

Otha Linton, MSJ, 11128 Hurdle Hill Dr, Potomac, MD 20854.

ing Dr Morgan’s first years of organizing a larger department. He became an emeritus professor in 1949 and eased off from his private practice. But he continued to participate in the noon conferences for several more years. He died in 1960.