Legal Commentary

Dr. Michael DeBakey, R.I.P.

By Tom Kirkendall

Dr. Michael DeBakey (previous posts here), who was one of the most influential men in Houston's history, died late Friday at the age of 99. Two of the Chronicle's finest reporters -- Science reporter Eric Berger and Texas Medical Center reporter Todd Ackerman -- provide this outstanding article on Dr. DeBakey's remarkable life, and Eric provides an audio file of his 2005 interview of Dr. DeBakey here. The New York Times' article on Dr. DeBakey's death is here.

As with my late father, Dr. DeBakey was one of the leaders of a talented generation of post-World War II doctors who embraced the optimistic view of therapeutic intervention in the practice of medicine, which was a fundamental change from the sense of therapeutic powerlessness that was widely taught to doctors by their pre-WWII professors. As noted earlier here and here, that seismic shift in medicine has changed the course of human history.

But the tremendous impact that Dr. DeBakey had on medicine is exceeded by the massive effect that he had on Houston. When Dr. DeBakey accepted the president's position at Baylor College of Medicine a few years after the end of World War II, the Texas Medical Center was a sleepy regional medical center. Over the next two decades, Dr. DeBakey was one of the key leaders who transformed the Medical Center into one of the largest and best medical centers in the world. Dr. DeBakey was the catalyst who established the culture within the Texas Medical Center of cutting-edge research, productive competition but also widespread collaboration, quality care for patients and good, old-fashioned hard work that attracted the best and brightest physicians and teachers from around the world to the Medical Center. This massive importation of intellectual capital to Houston over the last 60 years of Dr. DeBakey's life generated enormous wealth and benefits for Houston. Today, the medical facilities of the Texas Medical Center are the largest aggregate provider of jobs in the Houston area, even greater than the local jobs provided by the energy industry.

That's quite a legacy in my book.

Full post as published by Houston's Clear Thinkers on July 13, 2008 (boomark / email).