- Email: [email protected]
Jordan Matthew Phillips, MD: Visionary, founder of the American Association of Gynecologic Laparoscopists, organizational genius
Journal of Minimally Invasive Gynecology (2007) 14, 536 –537
Jordan Matthew Phillips, MD: Visionary, founder of the American Association of Gynecologic Laparoscopists, organizational genius Ronald E. Batt, MD From the School of Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, New York. During the second half of the twentieth century Jordan M. Phillips, MD, recognized the potential of laparoscopy to revolutionize gynecologic surgery. Before systems analysis was applied to medicine, he realized that ad hoc training of the thousands of practicing gynecologists in the proper performance of this minimally invasive procedure could not replicate the supervised training available in residency programs. Phillips used his extraordinary organizational skills to found the American Association of Gynecologic Laparoscopists (AAGL) in 1971. Single handedly he organized the First International Congress on Gynecologic Laparoscopy in Las Vegas, Nevada, November 1972. More than 1000 physicians from 50 countries attended. Patrick Steptoe of England discussed in vitro fertilization, and Hans Frangenheim of Germany demonstrated the first direct inspection of human ovulation by laparoscopy. Subsequently, Phillips met with Jacques Rioux of Quebec, Louis Keith of Chicago, and Richard Soderstrom of Seattle, to create the membership of AAGL (personal communication, May 26, 2004, and August 31, 2005). The First International Congress of Gynecologic Laparoscopy sponsored by the American Association of Gynecologic Laparoscopists was held in New Orleans, Louisiana, in November 1973. Phillips then proceeded to develop nationwide AAGL-sponsored postgraduate The author has no commercial, proprietary, or financial interest in the products or companies described in this article. Corresponding author: Ronald E. Batt, MD, Department of Gynecology-Obstetrics, Woman and Children’s Hospital, 219 Bryant Street, Buffalo, New York 14222. E-mail: [email protected] Submitted February 15, 2007. Accepted for publication February 24, 2007.
1553-4650/$ -see front matter © 2007 AAGL. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jmig.2007.02.011
courses with skilled teachers to systematically train practicing gynecologists in the safe performance of diagnostic and simple operative laparoscopy. The first postgraduate course was held at the University of California, Irvine, in 1974.1 Ever aware of quality patient care, between 1975 and 1997, he participated in 21 membership surveys of frequency and complications of various diagnostic and operative endoscopic procedures.2,3 Phillips adopted an “open door policy” at the early annual clinical meetings of the AAGL; abstracts were not subject to peer review. All physicians who submitted abstracts were considered faculty and assured a place on the program; this policy permitted many foreign physicians to attend AAGL meetings in the United States who needed programmatic participation for travel approval and support. Phillips’ innovative policy also opened AAGL meetings to new and at times controversial ideas; indeed, so many abstracts were submitted that often only 5 minutes could be allotted for some presentations, yet all ideas were heard and debated. Subjected to peer review, the best articles were subsequently published in the Journal of Reproductive Medicine from 1974 to 1993 and after November 1994 in the society’s own journal, The Journal of the American Association of Gynecologic Laparoscopists (now the Journal of Minimally Invasive Gynecology). Early on, Phillips invited master microsurgeons from Canada, South Africa, the United States, and Australia to teach the principles of microsurgery in postgraduate workshops, thereby raising the standard of gynecologic surgical care.4,5 As endoscopic instrumentation improved, he organized increasing numbers of AAGL-sponsored workshops to teach advanced laparoscopic surgical techniques, documenting the advances in a number of books on endoscopy
Batt
Jordan Matthew Phillips, MD
and microsurgery that were produced by academic publishers or the AAGL itself.6 –9 Inevitably, Phillips became the American ambassador of endoscopy and microsurgery in Europe, Asia, South America, Africa, and Australia.10 He spoke in Hungary, East Germany, Finland, Mexico, Taiwan, and many other countries. However, he exerted his greatest influence internationally as chairman of conferences in Tunisia, Canada, Japan, Brazil, West Germany, Australia, Thailand, Indonesia, the Soviet Union, South Korea, Spain, France, Venezuela, Germany, India, Israel, Hong Kong, Singapore, Italy, Russia, and the People’s Republic of China. In all, Phillips visited more than 100 countries to demonstrate the benefits of gynecologic laparoscopy Phillips developed a special indissoluble bond with the Chinese people and their culture in the People’s Republic of China. He performed the first laparoscopy in China in 1979, introducing this diagnostic and therapeutic procedure for the ultimate benefit of 20% of the world’s population. He personally operated in more than 200 hospitals and conducted conferences with many “Teaching and Training Groups” between 1980 and 1987.11,12 Phillips organized and chaired the First Chinese International Congress of Obstetrics and Gynecology held in Beijing, June 18 –21, 1985. Before her death in 1983, Dr. Lin Qiao Zhi, the preeminent Chinese professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Peking Union Medical Hospital, compared Jordan M. Phillips to Norman Bethune.11 In China, Bethune is celebrated as a national hero. He was a Canadian surgeon and humanitarian who worked frantically to “train ‘peasant boys’ to become nurses and doctors” to provide medical services to Mao’s army fighting the Japanese during the Sino-Chinese War. Bethune died of septicemia in 1939 from a cut on his finger sustained “during a hurried operation on the battlefield.”12 In China, Phillips is often referred to as the American Bethune. In 1981, Phillips and his wife, Mary Zoe Phillips, founded Medical Books for China International, with headquarters at AAGL in Santa Fe, California. Together, they shipped sixty-eight 20-ton containers of educational material to more than 1000 Chinese medical libraries in hospitals and medical schools (personal communication, August 31, 2005). In the company of his wife, Phillips visited China 78 times, traveling the length and breadth of that vast country, sending back his famous “one-word” postcards from 76 cities to mark their progress. In 1991, the Minister of Public Health, People’s Republic of China, awarded Phillips the China Health Medal for his outstanding contribution to the development of China’s medical and health services, and in 2002 Phillips received the International Friendship Award, China’s highest award to foreign specialists who have improved relationships between their countries and made outstanding contributions to the modernization of China.11 For his tireless efforts on behalf of the Chinese people, the People’s Republic of China nominated Jordan Phillips for
537 the Nobel Peace Prize, not once or twice but four times, in 1988, 1989, 1995, and 1996. Phillips’s last visit to China took place in late 2004 (personal communication, September 22, 2005). At the onset of the third millennium, the American Association of Gynecologic Laparoscopists was so well recognized worldwide that 70% of submissions to the Journal came from outside the United States, confirming the global membership and visions of the organization. To reflect this reality, the name of the organization was officially changed to the familiar AAGL, with the appropriate motto: “advancing minimally invasive gynecology worldwide.” Phillips’ ideas and creation had matured to a robust, self-sufficient global organization with membership from the four corners of the earth, the fulfillment of 30 years of unremitting hard work.13 Reminiscent of the United States presidential election of 1800, the transfer of leadership and power from Phillips to his successors was remarkably successful.14 After an unbelievably active career in medicine, Phillips retired in 2000 as Founder of the AAGL and Chairman Emeritus of the Board of Trustees.
References 1. Postgraduate Course, Gynecological Laparoscopy: Diagnostic and Operative, University of California, Irvine; Irvine, California, March 1974. 2. Hulka JF, Omran KF, Phillips JM Jr, et al. Sterilization by spring clip: a report of 1000 cases with a 6-month follow-up. Fertil Steril. 1975; 26:1122–1131. 3. Hulka JF, Levy BS, Luciano AA, Parker WH, Phillips JM. 1997 AAGL membership survey: practice profiles. J Am Assoc Gynecol Laparosc. 1998;5:93–96. 4. Phillips JM. AAGL workshop for laparoscopy and microsurgical repair of the fallopian tube. Irvine, California, April 6-9, 1977. 5. Phillips JM. Sixth Advanced Workshop of Microsurgery in Gynecology and Eleventh Annual Basic Workshop of Microsurgery in Gynecology, April 10-13, 1986. University of California, Irvine; Irvine, California. Both workshops included live laser surgery. 6. Phillips JM, Gynecologic Laparoscopy: Principles and Techniques. New York: Stratton Intercontinental Book Corporation; 1974. 7. Phillips JM, Microsurgery in Gynecology. Downey, CA: AAGL; 1977. 8. Phillips JM, Endoscopy in Gynecology. Downey, CA: AAGL; 1978. 9. Phillips JM, Microsurgery in Gynecology II. Downey, CA: AAGL; 1981. 10. Batt RE. Jordan M Phillips, MD–Postdoctoral educator-at-large. J Reprod Med. 1992;37:626 – 628. 11. Tianjin Daily, Tianjin, People’s Republic of China, Friday, October 25, 2002. (English translation.) 12. Stewart R. The Mind of Norman Bethune. Markham, Ontario: Fitzhenry and Whiteside Limited, 2002. Book review by Jun Yan. American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy; www.ajhp.org/cgi/ content/full/62/4/438-a. (accessed 9/5/2005). 13. Phillips JM. The revolution in gynecology: celebrating 30 years with the AAGL. J Am Assoc Gynecol Laparosc. 2002;9:6 – 8. 14. Cappon LJ, The Adams-Jefferson Letters: The Complete Correspondence Between Thomas Jefferson and Abigail and John Adams. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1987.
Jordan Matthew Phillips, MD: Visionary, founder of the American Association of Gynecologic Laparoscopists, organizational genius Ronald E. Batt, MD From the School of Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, New York. During the second half of the twentieth century Jordan M. Phillips, MD, recognized the potential of laparoscopy to revolutionize gynecologic surgery. Before systems analysis was applied to medicine, he realized that ad hoc training of the thousands of practicing gynecologists in the proper performance of this minimally invasive procedure could not replicate the supervised training available in residency programs. Phillips used his extraordinary organizational skills to found the American Association of Gynecologic Laparoscopists (AAGL) in 1971. Single handedly he organized the First International Congress on Gynecologic Laparoscopy in Las Vegas, Nevada, November 1972. More than 1000 physicians from 50 countries attended. Patrick Steptoe of England discussed in vitro fertilization, and Hans Frangenheim of Germany demonstrated the first direct inspection of human ovulation by laparoscopy. Subsequently, Phillips met with Jacques Rioux of Quebec, Louis Keith of Chicago, and Richard Soderstrom of Seattle, to create the membership of AAGL (personal communication, May 26, 2004, and August 31, 2005). The First International Congress of Gynecologic Laparoscopy sponsored by the American Association of Gynecologic Laparoscopists was held in New Orleans, Louisiana, in November 1973. Phillips then proceeded to develop nationwide AAGL-sponsored postgraduate The author has no commercial, proprietary, or financial interest in the products or companies described in this article. Corresponding author: Ronald E. Batt, MD, Department of Gynecology-Obstetrics, Woman and Children’s Hospital, 219 Bryant Street, Buffalo, New York 14222. E-mail: [email protected] Submitted February 15, 2007. Accepted for publication February 24, 2007.
1553-4650/$ -see front matter © 2007 AAGL. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jmig.2007.02.011
courses with skilled teachers to systematically train practicing gynecologists in the safe performance of diagnostic and simple operative laparoscopy. The first postgraduate course was held at the University of California, Irvine, in 1974.1 Ever aware of quality patient care, between 1975 and 1997, he participated in 21 membership surveys of frequency and complications of various diagnostic and operative endoscopic procedures.2,3 Phillips adopted an “open door policy” at the early annual clinical meetings of the AAGL; abstracts were not subject to peer review. All physicians who submitted abstracts were considered faculty and assured a place on the program; this policy permitted many foreign physicians to attend AAGL meetings in the United States who needed programmatic participation for travel approval and support. Phillips’ innovative policy also opened AAGL meetings to new and at times controversial ideas; indeed, so many abstracts were submitted that often only 5 minutes could be allotted for some presentations, yet all ideas were heard and debated. Subjected to peer review, the best articles were subsequently published in the Journal of Reproductive Medicine from 1974 to 1993 and after November 1994 in the society’s own journal, The Journal of the American Association of Gynecologic Laparoscopists (now the Journal of Minimally Invasive Gynecology). Early on, Phillips invited master microsurgeons from Canada, South Africa, the United States, and Australia to teach the principles of microsurgery in postgraduate workshops, thereby raising the standard of gynecologic surgical care.4,5 As endoscopic instrumentation improved, he organized increasing numbers of AAGL-sponsored workshops to teach advanced laparoscopic surgical techniques, documenting the advances in a number of books on endoscopy
Batt
Jordan Matthew Phillips, MD
and microsurgery that were produced by academic publishers or the AAGL itself.6 –9 Inevitably, Phillips became the American ambassador of endoscopy and microsurgery in Europe, Asia, South America, Africa, and Australia.10 He spoke in Hungary, East Germany, Finland, Mexico, Taiwan, and many other countries. However, he exerted his greatest influence internationally as chairman of conferences in Tunisia, Canada, Japan, Brazil, West Germany, Australia, Thailand, Indonesia, the Soviet Union, South Korea, Spain, France, Venezuela, Germany, India, Israel, Hong Kong, Singapore, Italy, Russia, and the People’s Republic of China. In all, Phillips visited more than 100 countries to demonstrate the benefits of gynecologic laparoscopy Phillips developed a special indissoluble bond with the Chinese people and their culture in the People’s Republic of China. He performed the first laparoscopy in China in 1979, introducing this diagnostic and therapeutic procedure for the ultimate benefit of 20% of the world’s population. He personally operated in more than 200 hospitals and conducted conferences with many “Teaching and Training Groups” between 1980 and 1987.11,12 Phillips organized and chaired the First Chinese International Congress of Obstetrics and Gynecology held in Beijing, June 18 –21, 1985. Before her death in 1983, Dr. Lin Qiao Zhi, the preeminent Chinese professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Peking Union Medical Hospital, compared Jordan M. Phillips to Norman Bethune.11 In China, Bethune is celebrated as a national hero. He was a Canadian surgeon and humanitarian who worked frantically to “train ‘peasant boys’ to become nurses and doctors” to provide medical services to Mao’s army fighting the Japanese during the Sino-Chinese War. Bethune died of septicemia in 1939 from a cut on his finger sustained “during a hurried operation on the battlefield.”12 In China, Phillips is often referred to as the American Bethune. In 1981, Phillips and his wife, Mary Zoe Phillips, founded Medical Books for China International, with headquarters at AAGL in Santa Fe, California. Together, they shipped sixty-eight 20-ton containers of educational material to more than 1000 Chinese medical libraries in hospitals and medical schools (personal communication, August 31, 2005). In the company of his wife, Phillips visited China 78 times, traveling the length and breadth of that vast country, sending back his famous “one-word” postcards from 76 cities to mark their progress. In 1991, the Minister of Public Health, People’s Republic of China, awarded Phillips the China Health Medal for his outstanding contribution to the development of China’s medical and health services, and in 2002 Phillips received the International Friendship Award, China’s highest award to foreign specialists who have improved relationships between their countries and made outstanding contributions to the modernization of China.11 For his tireless efforts on behalf of the Chinese people, the People’s Republic of China nominated Jordan Phillips for
537 the Nobel Peace Prize, not once or twice but four times, in 1988, 1989, 1995, and 1996. Phillips’s last visit to China took place in late 2004 (personal communication, September 22, 2005). At the onset of the third millennium, the American Association of Gynecologic Laparoscopists was so well recognized worldwide that 70% of submissions to the Journal came from outside the United States, confirming the global membership and visions of the organization. To reflect this reality, the name of the organization was officially changed to the familiar AAGL, with the appropriate motto: “advancing minimally invasive gynecology worldwide.” Phillips’ ideas and creation had matured to a robust, self-sufficient global organization with membership from the four corners of the earth, the fulfillment of 30 years of unremitting hard work.13 Reminiscent of the United States presidential election of 1800, the transfer of leadership and power from Phillips to his successors was remarkably successful.14 After an unbelievably active career in medicine, Phillips retired in 2000 as Founder of the AAGL and Chairman Emeritus of the Board of Trustees.
References 1. Postgraduate Course, Gynecological Laparoscopy: Diagnostic and Operative, University of California, Irvine; Irvine, California, March 1974. 2. Hulka JF, Omran KF, Phillips JM Jr, et al. Sterilization by spring clip: a report of 1000 cases with a 6-month follow-up. Fertil Steril. 1975; 26:1122–1131. 3. Hulka JF, Levy BS, Luciano AA, Parker WH, Phillips JM. 1997 AAGL membership survey: practice profiles. J Am Assoc Gynecol Laparosc. 1998;5:93–96. 4. Phillips JM. AAGL workshop for laparoscopy and microsurgical repair of the fallopian tube. Irvine, California, April 6-9, 1977. 5. Phillips JM. Sixth Advanced Workshop of Microsurgery in Gynecology and Eleventh Annual Basic Workshop of Microsurgery in Gynecology, April 10-13, 1986. University of California, Irvine; Irvine, California. Both workshops included live laser surgery. 6. Phillips JM, Gynecologic Laparoscopy: Principles and Techniques. New York: Stratton Intercontinental Book Corporation; 1974. 7. Phillips JM, Microsurgery in Gynecology. Downey, CA: AAGL; 1977. 8. Phillips JM, Endoscopy in Gynecology. Downey, CA: AAGL; 1978. 9. Phillips JM, Microsurgery in Gynecology II. Downey, CA: AAGL; 1981. 10. Batt RE. Jordan M Phillips, MD–Postdoctoral educator-at-large. J Reprod Med. 1992;37:626 – 628. 11. Tianjin Daily, Tianjin, People’s Republic of China, Friday, October 25, 2002. (English translation.) 12. Stewart R. The Mind of Norman Bethune. Markham, Ontario: Fitzhenry and Whiteside Limited, 2002. Book review by Jun Yan. American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy; www.ajhp.org/cgi/ content/full/62/4/438-a. (accessed 9/5/2005). 13. Phillips JM. The revolution in gynecology: celebrating 30 years with the AAGL. J Am Assoc Gynecol Laparosc. 2002;9:6 – 8. 14. Cappon LJ, The Adams-Jefferson Letters: The Complete Correspondence Between Thomas Jefferson and Abigail and John Adams. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1987.