Interview, July 22, 2019

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Materials are available at the Duke University Medical Center Archives Reading Room.

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Creator:

Snyderman, Ralph.

Scope and content:

This oral history interview was conducted with Dr. Ralph Snyderman on July 22, 2019 by Dr. Justin Barr as part of the Dr. David Sabiston Oral History Project.

Duration: 00:56:09

During the interview, Snyderman discusses his early life; decision to become a doctor; education; how he came to Duke for his residency; leaving Duke to fulfill his service obligation during the Vietnam War at the National Institute of Health; his career at Duke as a physician scientist; leaving Duke for Genentech, an emerging leader in the field of biotechnology; coming back to Duke as chancellor at the urging of his friend, Robert Lefkowitz, who was on the search committee; working as chancellor and moving to a higher position than the department heads he worked for as a resident and faculty member; the Department of Medicine and the Department of Surgery's influence over the Private Diagnostic Clinic (PDC); changes implemented at the PDC; changes implemented at the medical center to incorporate a referral system; the Department of Community and Family Medicine (now Duke Family Medicine and Community Health); working with Sabiston on the Department of Surgery's budget; Snyderman's working relationship with Sabiston as one that was respectful, honest, and engaging; memories of the Sabiston's Christmas parties; the strengths Sabiston brought to the Department of Surgery; Walter E. Campbell's book "Foundations for Excellence" written to celebrate to 75th anniversary of the medical center; experiences with Drs. Robert Lefkowitz, Joseph Greenfield, William Anlyan, and E. Harvey Estes; remaining in contact with Sabiston after retirement and as his health declined; and other memories of Sabiston. Digital files include transcript (DOCX), interview (WAV), consent form (PDF), and consent form addendum (DOCX).

Processing information:

Material in this series was processed using AXAEM's Electronic Records Processing module, which incorporates Bagger as a way to package electronic files with technical metadata. Captured digital content was ingested into AXAEM, where ClamAV Anti-Virus software detected and cleaned any computer viruses. The cleaned files were saved on the Duke University Medical Center Archives' secure server with a regular backup schedule. Includes 8 files totaling 77.9 MB that are available for research: Accession A2020.052 (8 files totaling 77.9 MB).

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