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 To
honor four of its surgical pioneers, Howard University Hospital has renamed its
surgical services after doctors whose accomplishments and service stretch back
to the beginnings of the College of Medicine’s training and who have had a
profound impact on the college, the hospital and medicine.
During a ceremony in the
hospital’s Towers auditorium that included numerous standing ovations, Edward
Cornwell III, M.D., FACS, FCCM, Howard University Hospital surgeon-in-chief and
chair of the Department of Surgery at Howard University College of Medicine,
praised the awardees and presented each doctor with a plaque noting his service.
The hospital renamed its
minimally invasive, bariatric, surgical endoscopy and colorectoral cancer
service the Syphax Service after Burke “Mickey” Syphax, M.D., FACS, who in 1937
was one of the first residents trained in the Howard University Department of
Surgery. Dr. Syphax, a faculty member under pioneering surgeon and medical
researcher Dr. Charles R. Drew, was chief of the Division of General Surgery
from 1950 to 1970, where he was primarily responsible for directing the general
surgery residence program. During those two decades, Dr. Syphax trained 61
surgeons and helped train over 90 percent of the surgeons in the metropolitan
Washington, D.C. Because of his superb diagnostic acumen, clinical judgment and
technical dexterity, Dr. Syphax has often been called a “Master of the Abdomen.”
The trauma and acute care
surgery service was renamed the Matory Service after William Earle Matory, M.D.,
FACS, who is known locally and nationally for his contributions to trauma care,
burn care, continuing medical education and as the developer of a number of new
programs at Howard University, including the Family Practice Department and
training program. Dr. Matory served as a pillar of the hospital and the College
of Medicine under three of the hospital’s surgical directors. As professor of
surgery at Howard University College of Medicine, Dr. Matory for 37 years had
full responsibility for the surgery curriculum, which over that period involved
approximately 4,000 students. He was awarded the Student Council Teaching and
Leadership Award in 1962, 1982 and 1984, Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Society
faculty induction in 1983.
The hospital’s
transplantation program will now be known as the Callender Service after Clive
O. Callender, M.D., FACS and former chairman of Howard University’s Department
of Surgery. Dr. Callender helped develop the first minority-directed dialysis
and transplant center and histocompatibility and immunogenetic laboratory in
America. He has worked tirelessly to decrease the disparity rates between black
and white patients for access to transplants by increasing the number of
minority donors and by a health promotion campaign designed to decrease the
number of people who need transplants. He has carried his message on such
television programs as the Oprah Winfrey Show, Dateline, Nightline, CNN News and
CBS Evening News.
Surgical oncology was
renamed the Leffall Service after LaSalle D. Leffall, Jr., M.D., FACS, who has
served as visiting professor and guest lecturer at more than 200 medical
institutions worldwide and has authored or coauthored more than 140 articles and
book chapters. Now in his 47th year as a professor at the Howard
University College of Medicine, Dr. Leffall has taught approximately 5,000
medical students, about three quarters of all of the school’s graduates since it
was founded in 1868, and helped train 260 of the 310 residents trained since the
program’s inception in 1936. Former president of the American Cancer Society,
former chair of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, and currently chair
of the President’s Cancer Panel and C-Change, Dr. Leffall’s professional life
has been devoted to the study of cancer, particularly among African Americans.
Dr. Cornwell said he renamed
the services to focus on the legacy of the hospital’s surgeons.
“I wanted to particularly
bring them to the attention of residents and interns of the future who might not
be familiar with who they are and what they mean to our institution and the
medical community at large,” Dr. Cornwell said. “It is a rich legacy that is
well worth preserving.”
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