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Helen Brooke Taussig and Edwards Albert Park: the early years (1927–1930)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 May 2010

William N. Evans
William N. Evans*
Affiliation:
Children’s Heart Center, Las Vegas, Nevada, United States of America Division of Cardiology, Department of Pediatrics, University of Nevada School of Medicine, Las Vegas, Nevada, United States of America
*
Correspondence to: W. N. Evans MD, FACC Children’s Heart Center, 3006 South Maryland Parkway, Suite 690, Las Vegas, NV 89109, USA. Tel: +702 732 1290; Fax: +702 732 1385; E-mail: WNevans50@aol.com
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Abstract

The conventional history of paediatric cardiology teaches that it was Helen Taussig who founded the cardiac clinic for children at the Harriet Lane Home of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in 1930, when Edwards Park appointed her director of the clinic.1,2 However, the story was more complex than that, and involved the collaboration of institutions and the frustrations, doubts, and passions of both Park and Taussig. In this article, I explore the history in more depth through published works, and material preserved at the McGill University Archives, the Rockefeller Foundation Archives, and the Alan Chesney Medical Archives at Johns Hopkins.

Keywords

Edwards ParkHelen Taussighistory of paediatric cardiologyJohns Hopkins
Type
Original Articles
Information
Cardiology in the Young , Volume 20 , Issue 4 , August 2010 , pp. 387 - 395
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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