Mark W. Geraci, MD
When Mark W. Geraci, MD, moved to Denver to complete his pulmonary and critical care training at the University of Colorado 21 years ago, he joined an institution focused on developing the careers of academic pulmonary physicians interested in education, research and clinical care.
“I knew that the university was regarded as one of the top pulmonary and critical training programs and divisions in the country. While we have a lot of good competition, people from around the country and the world are referred here,” said Dr. Geraci, who is now head of the Division of Pulmonary Sciences and Critical Care Medicine, professor of medicine, director of the translational medicine program and co-director of Colorado Clinical and Translational Science Institute, all at the University of Colorado in Denver.
The substantial concentration of pulmonary physicians and scientists has roots that date back more than 100 years. Dr. Geraci shared some of the many highlights of this history.
Early Years
Gerald Webb, MD, and James Waring, MD, were the two tuberculosis specialists who in 1924 founded the largest TB sanatorium in the country, the Webb-Waring Lung Institute in Colorado Springs. As a medical student, Dr. Waring contracted TB. He interrupted his education at Johns Hopkins University and moved to Colorado to recuperate under the care of Dr. Webb. He later earned his medical degree from the University of Colorado and was the chair of the Department of Medicine from 1933 to 1948.
“At the time, no one was sure why people got better when they came to Colorado,” Dr. Geraci said. “They thought it might be the good air of Colorado, but we now know that several different factors helped their recoveries, the most important being vitamin D, because of the intense sunlight exposure here, and the second being lower oxygen levels.”
The belief that ultraviolet light kills the TB organism led city planners to build Denver on a grid that to this day maximizes sun exposure on city streets, he added.
In a span of 23 years—from 1930 to 1953—Drs. Webb and Waring, along with Colorado’s Henry Sewall, MD, a TB researcher and clinician, and Florence Sabin, MD, a preeminent basic science investigator, would win the American Lung Association’s Edward Livingston Trudeau Medal. The medal, which is presented each year at the ATS International Conference, recognizes lifelong major contributions to the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of lung diseases through leadership in research, education or clinical care.
Under the second chair of medicine, Gordon Meiklejohn, MD, who served from 1951 to 1975, Roger Mitchell, MD, was recruited in 1955 as the first director of the Division of Pulmonary Sciences and Critical Care Medicine, a post he held until 1970. He won a Trudeau Medal in 1980.
While the division then focused on the development of clinician investigators, its emphasis shifted in 1970 to one of training for academic careers and leadership roles in academic pulmonary medicine.
Modern Era
Boulder born and raised, Thomas Petty, MD, was named division head in 1971. A graduate of the medical school and former trainee under Dr. Mitchell, he led the division at a time when university physicians made a number of major discoveries.
Henry Claman, MD, who is now emeritus faculty, discovered that the human immune system must have two lymphocytes, T-cells from the thymus and B-cells from the bone marrow, in order to form the antibodies for immunity from infectious diseases. Dr. Petty and Dave Ashbaugh, MD, were the first to identify and define acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).