Mary Ellen Beck Wohl (June 12, 1932 - October 9, 2009) was Chief of the Division of

Respiratory Disease Respiratory diseases, or lung diseases, are pathological conditions affecting the organs and tissues that make gas exchange difficult in air-breathing animals. They include conditions of the respiratory tract including the trachea, bronchi, bro ...

s at

Children's Hospital Boston Boston Children's Hospital formerly known as Children's Hospital Boston until 2012 is a nationally ranked, freestanding acute care children's hospital located in Boston, Massachusetts, adjacent both to its teaching affiliate, Harvard Medical Sch ...

(a teaching hospital of

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), and served as Associate Director of the General Clinical Research Center until 2002. Since the 1962, when she first joined the staff at Children's Hospital, Wohl specialized in the respiratory diseases of children. She was also a leader in the field of clinical research on cystic fibrosis. She developed a number of techniques to evaluate the function of the lungs in young children and is the author of many research papers in this field.

Early life and education

Mary Ellen Beck Wohl was born in

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on June 12, 1932. Her mother Ellen Manning Beck was a surgical nurse. Her father, Claude Beck, was a surgeon and professor of cardiovascular surgery at

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(later Case Western Reserve University). Beck is known for performing the first defibrillation in 1947. Wohl graduated '' magna cum laude'' from Radcliffe College in 1954 with a bachelor of arts degree. She studied history and literature at Radcliffe but also took pre-med courses. Wohl decided against getting a Ph.D. in history and instead went to medical school at

Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons (VP&S) is the graduate medical school of Columbia University, located at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan. Founded ...

. Beck graduated with her M.D. in 1958. She then took an internship at

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Career

Wohl became a junior assistant resident in pediatrics at Babies' Hospital in New York City in 1959. She became senior assistant resident in 1961. In 1962, Wohl took a fellowship in medicine at Children's Hospital Boston and research fellowship in

physiology Physiology (; ) is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a sub-discipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out the chemical ...

at the

Harvard School of Public Health The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health is the public health school of Harvard University, located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. The school grew out of the Harvard- MIT School for Health Officers, the nation's firs ...

. She came to Boston as her husband, Dr. Martin J. Wohl, was completing his senior residency at Massachusetts General Hospital. In 1980, Wohl was named Chief of the Division of Respiratory Diseases at Boston Children's Hospital. She was head of the hospital's Cystic Fibrosis Center from 1985 to 2002. She trained 60 fellows in

pediatric Pediatrics ( also spelled ''paediatrics'' or ''pædiatrics'') is the branch of medicine that involves the medical care of infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. In the United Kingdom, paediatrics covers many of their youth until the ...

pulmonology in the program she founded and developed. In 2002 she retired from the hospital and was named Division Chief emerita. Wohl was a member of the

American Thoracic Society The American Thoracic Society (ATS) is a nonprofit organization focused on improving care for pulmonary diseases, critical illnesses and sleep-related breathing disorders. It was established in 1905 as the American Sanatorium Association, and ...

and the American Academy of Pediatrics and served on committees for both societies. She also served on the editorial board of the '' American Review of Respiratory Diseases''. She held visiting professorships at universities in Colombia, Australia, and

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. Wohl served on a number of national and regional committees as well as the board of advisors at Harvard Medical School. From 1993 to 1996 she was a member of the faculty council overseeing the Promotions and Reappointments Committee addressing issues concerning

women in medicine The presence of women in medicine, particularly in the practicing fields of surgery and as physicians, has been traced to the earliest of history. Women have historically had lower participation levels in medical fields compared to men with occu ...

. Concerned that women today face challenges she never knew of, Wohl stated that she was especially grateful for the opportunities she had early in her career. Beginning with modest ambitions to work alongside her husband and balance a fulfilling career with raising a family, Wohl eventually became a leader in the field of children's respiratory disease and the use of clinical trials in cystic fibrosis research. Born during the Great Depression and attending medical school in the 1950s, Wohl believed she "profited so much from not being visible for many years in the career I had chosen... I was able to progress at my own pace in a field I developed."Wohl Biography & Interview
''Changing the Face of Medicine'', NLM

Awards

* Edwin L. Kendig Award from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Chest Physicians, 2002 (for outstanding achievements in pediatric pulmonology) Mary Ellen Beck Wohl
"'Biography'"
National Library of Medicine *

Lifetime Achievement Award, 2001Mary Ellen Wohl
"'I Remember...' A Tribute to Jere Mead"
American Thoracic Society * Distinguished Alumna Award, 1986,

Laurel School Laurel School is a private school for girls in Shaker Heights, Ohio, United States. It was established in 1896 by Jennie Prentiss and operates on two campuses; the Lyman Campus in Shaker Heights and the Butler Campus in Novelty. Notable alumnae ...

* Her biography was included by the

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in a list of persons that have "Changed the Face of Medicine".

Significant papers

Wohl authored over 60 papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals. The impact of these papers has been considerable: according to the Web of Science several have been cited in dozens, sometimes even hundreds, of other scientific publications. * HJ. Fuchs ''et al.'' (Wohl, corresponding author), "Effect of Aerosolized Recombinant Human DNase on Exacerbations of Respiratory Symptoms and on Pulmonary Function in Patients with Cystic Fibrosis", ''New England Journal of Medicine'', v.331, n.10, pp. 672–3 (Sept. 8 1994).

References

* Dyer, D.; Feig, S.; Schalick, Walt O; editors, ''Transcripts of Interviews with Mary Ellen Wohl ...'' (medical history interviews, Harvard, 2001)

Notes

External links

Mary Ellen Wohl papers, 1962-2005. H MS c154. Harvard Medical Library, Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine.''Journal of Applied Psychology''''Am. J. Respir. Crit.''

* ttp://jap.physiology.org/cgi/content/abstract/65/2/822 ''Journal of Applied Physiology'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Wohl, Mary Ellen 1932 births American pulmonologists Radcliffe College alumni Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons alumni Harvard Medical School faculty 2009 deaths