Osler, << OHS luhr, >> Sir William (1849-1919), was a Canadian physician and one of the greatest medical educators. His brilliant teaching and informal and genial personality greatly influenced many of his students. Through his students, Osler influenced medicine in English-speaking countries throughout the world.
One of Osler’s most notable contributions to medicine was the organization of a clinic at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. It became the model for modern medical education in the United States. Osler strongly favored using “the patient for a text,” and he perfected the method of teaching that encourages students to become actively involved in patient care and learn the art of medicine at the bedside.
Osler discovered the presence in the bloodstream of what later were called disks, or blood platelets. See Blood (Platelets) . Among his many scientific papers are important studies of the heart and research on typhoid fever, pneumonia, malaria, infant mortality, and other medical and public health problems. He also helped found the Association of American Physicians in 1886 and the National Tuberculosis Association (now the American Lung Association) in 1904.
His writings.
Osler wrote Principles and Practice of Medicine in 1892. For many years, it was a standard textbook in the United States. In 1897, a member of John D. Rockefeller’s philanthropic staff read the book and was inspired by the potential of medical research, especially in microbiology. This incident led to the founding of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research in 1901. Osler’s humanistic essays were collected in Aequanimitas (1904) and An Alabama Student (1908).
His life.
Osler was born on July 12, 1849, in Bondhead, Ontario, Canada. He graduated from McGill University in 1872. He served at McGill from 1875 to 1884 as a lecturer in physiology and as professor of medicine. In 1884, he became clinical professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He was appointed professor of medicine at the new Johns Hopkins University four years later. At the same time, he was made physician-in-chief to the new hospital there. Osler went to Oxford University in 1905 as regius professor of medicine, one of the most prestigious medical positions in the United Kingdom. He became a baronet in 1911. He helped organize the British medical profession during World War I to meet the war emergency. He died on Dec. 29, 1919.
