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This oral history interview was conducted with Dr. Alfred Gras on September 23, 2005 by Jessica Roseberry.
Duration: 00:20:00
Gras discusses his renaissance of interest in his own receipt of penicillin as medical student; notes from his father's journal about the event; Mary Poston; David Tillerson Smith; sulfonamides; his near death and miraculous recovery from bilateral staphylococcal pneumonia from use of penicillin; availability of penicillin at the time; Dr. Edward Levy and Dr. John Peck setting up penicillin drip; Dr. Levy and Dr. Peck telling him he was receiving a "vitabrew " in his leg; vein problems due to the treatment; further use of the penicillin extracted from his urine; obtaining the penicillin; his lack of having heard about penicillin; write-up of case in New England Journal of Medicine; cost (none) of his experimental penicillin versus estimated cost of same amount ($10,000); coming to Duke Medical School; lack of event status of the incident among his peers; cessation of penicillin due to complications from intravenous delivery; and further career. Includes a master and use audio cassette tapes and a transcript, which is available both in print and digitally.

Dr. McCarty speaks about how she came to know Dr. Grace Kerby; Dr. Kerby as her mentor and colleague; Dr. Kerby as a stalwart of Duke's Department of Medicine; others' impressions of Dr. Kerby gathered from Dr. McCarty's own oral research about Kerby; Dr. Kerby's educational background; Dr. Kerby doing clinical trials in the 1950s; Dr. Kerby as director of house staff scheduling in Duke's Department of Medicine; Dr. Kerby's importance to the Department of Medicine; Dr. Kerby's publications; Dr. Kerby's thoroughness; Dr. Kerby's hearing loss in one ear; misunderstandings about Dr. Kerby due to her hearing loss; others' memories of Dr. Kerby (Dr. William Stead, son of Dr. Eugene Stead, and Dr. Ralph Snyderman); Dr. Kerby as wearing a short white intern's coat as opposed to a long physician's coat; Dr. Kerby sharing equipment; Dr. Kerby's background in athletics; misunderstandings about Dr. Kerby due to her reticent nature; misunderstandings about Dr. Kerby due to other causes; Dr. Kerby's enjoyment of life; Dr. Kerby's hobbies; Dr. Kerby having cancer at the end of her life; Dr. Kerby's research; and Dr. Kerby's legacy.

Dr. Wicker speaks about her doctorate of adult education; thinking about Duke since leaving due to a restructuring layoff in 2000; her family background; her interest in becoming a nurse; attending Lincoln Hospital School of Nursing; diploma programs as prevalent at the time she received her education; the Lincoln program being available to African-Americans; the creativity within the Lincoln program since it was underfunded; the camaraderie in the program; Duke's involvement in the Lincoln program; working at Moses Cone Hospital in Greensboro, North Carolina; working towards her master's degree at North Carolina Memorial Hospital; being a black registered nurse [RN] when most other black nurses were licensed practical nurses [LPNs] and most other RNs were white women; physicians noticing her after the white LPNs because she was black; this being the impetus for her to attain her bachelor's degree in nursing; attaining a master's in nursing supervision; approaching Wilma Minnear [director of nursing services at Duke Hospital] in 1973 for a position; teaching at North Carolina Central University for a year; working at Duke as supervisor of the Outpatient Department; being the first African-American nursing supervisor at the hospital; her deep interest in staff development; supervising nurse managers; expectation that the nurse was the handmaiden to the physician; Dr. Wicker as trying to counter that expectation in those whom she supervised; programs she initiated as supervisor of the Outpatient Department; discovering that she had hired two union plants; supervising in the emergency room; a challenging person she supervised in the emergency room; the emergency room as not her area of expertise; Wilma Minnear asking her to be the supervisor of nursing services for Duke Hospital South; her original hesitation at the offer because of her small children at home; the internship program where interns could work with nurses; overlap at times between nursing services and Duke School of Nursing; the restructuring of hospital administration after Wilma Minnear left; Duke Hospital South as having more black nursing administrators and supervisors than Duke Hospital North; rumors of discontent about nurses at Duke Hospital South, and that discontent being trivial; the retreat about the reorganization of Duke Hospital North and South nursing leadership in Williamsburg, Virginia.; being more dictated to than asked for her opinion at the retreat; being asked to choose an assistant, but being told that her decision was not correct; writing a letter after being told that she could not make this decision; black nurses as not being able to obtain positions; a blue ribbon committee looking into this problem; her letter to the blue ribbon committee; her interactions with the blue ribbon committee; her work in creating the Hospital Career Development program; transitioning into a career development role; her excitement in that program; new administration not valuing the program; her being given a pink slip; her processing being given a pink slip after all her years of contribution to Duke; other contributions she had made to Duke; having no contact with Duke until the invitation to participate in the oral history interview; things she has done since leaving Duke; working on the history of Lincoln Hospital project; that project not being completed; changes in nursing; Brenda Nevidjon; wanting to have a conversation with Dr. Ralph Snyderman before leaving but being denied that opportunity; positives and negatives of Duke culture.

Ms. Nichols speaks about growing up in rural North Carolina; her family structure; her aunt as a matriarch; her marriage and move to Durham; her husband's desertion of new family; her financial situation; public housing; Operation Breakthrough; her complaints to the Housing Authority over living conditions; eviction; other struggles; fighting eviction; suing the Housing Authority; others' help in taking care of children; the media attention over the lawsuit; studies to be a licensed practical nurse (LPN) at Duke Hospital; her work on the cardiac intensive care unit; other possible opportunities for upward mobility at Duke; application to physician assistant (PA) program; her rejection from and ultimate acceptance into the program; balancing her work as an LPN and studies in PA program; teaching without a degree; requirements of the LPN program; her personal motivation to succeed; work as an LPN; studies to be physician assistant; classmates in third physician assistant class; her treatment by classmates as the only female and only African-American in class; her work in Lincoln Hospital; the current status of Lincoln Community Health Center; her upcoming presentation to county commissioners on behalf of Lincoln Community Health Center; working at Duke; Dr. Harvey Estes; the treatment of African-Americans at Duke Hospital before the integration of the wards; the integration of the wards; the previous integration of the CCU (cardiac care unit) before the official integration of the wards; the current status of family land; the support of others throughout her career; the subtle discrimination against her as an African-American; the interactions between nurses and physicians assistants; teaching; her daughter running for district court judge; her own remarriage; her second husband's support; her family; balancing her family life and her career; her contributions as a physician assistant to the profession.

This oral history interview was conducted with Joanne A. P. Wilson on May 24, 2007 by Jessica Roseberry as part of the Women in Duke Medicine Oral History Exhibit.

Duration: 02:03:39

Dr. Joanne A. P. Wilson discusses the importance of recognizing history; her own background; parochial school; being an undergraduate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; medical school at Duke; house staff training at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital; being a woman and minority in some of these situations; her faculty position at the University of Michigan; the new maternity leave policy at Michigan; the lack of adjustment on the tenure clock for faculty having children at Michigan; her return to Duke in 1986; being among the first wave of African-Americans to graduate from Duke Medical School; working a summer program at Duke in the 1970s to help disadvantaged students become interested in medicine; the lack of North Carolinians at Duke; her community service work during medical school; her medical school class's interest in community service work and in activism; her own children's community service work; her current community service work; the spirit of activism on campus (during her medical school years) as opposed to an earlier spirit of unrest; her treatment as an African-American as a medical student; the importance of expecting excellence of young people; assumptions made when people do see African-American role models in medicine; attracting attention as one of the few African-American medical students; the increase in the number of African-American medical students upon her return to the faculty in 1986; the slow nature of medicine to change due to length of schooling; Dr. Grace Kerby; being the second female in the department to be appointed a full professor, after Grace Kerby; Dr. Charles Johnson, early African-American faculty member; her field of gastroenterology; the few numbers of women in the specialty when she began; changes in this trend; common conditions in gastroenterology; patients who stand out in her mind; her enjoyment of the field; seeing patients over time; her husband staying at the VA Hospital over time; balancing family life; the importance of working towards this balance; creative ways she and her family have achieved this balance; her children's activities and accomplishments; managing over commitment; the importance of being an example to young people; her daughter finding some of the difficulties of volunteerism in complicated situations; her research in the past; her lack of time currently to do research; clinical research studies; her strong science background being a help in clinical research studies; the importance of understanding the clinical significance of statistical findings; the enjoyment of, but less time to do, teaching at Duke; being awarded the Trailblazers Award from the Student National Medical Association; her impact on the medical center; the desire that anyone can have access to medical education; her efforts to stress the importance of nondiscrimination; medical school dean Sanders Williams's actions to get more women and minority medical students at Duke; the importance of reaching children early; the importance of algebra; other women at Duke; the importance of receiving mentorship from other places if you don't see people who look like you around you; her inspiration coming from female family members; the male doctors who helped her; and the project for which the Duke Medicine Archives is interviewing her. The transcription of this interview was made possible by a grant from the Josiah Charles Trent Memorial Foundation. Includes 2 master CDs, 2 use CDs, and 1 transcript.

This oral history interview was conducted with Dr. Philip H. Pearce on May 25, 2007 by Jessica Roseberry as part of the Women in Duke Medicine Oral History Exhibit.

Duration: 01:42:03

During the interview Pearce discusses beginnings of his interest in medicine; Air Force leadership coercing him to choose obstetrics and gynecology; medical school at Duke; residency at Duke; his rotation with Dr. Eleanor B. Easley; Easley starting a physician partnership with Dr. Richard Pearse (no relation) during World War II; Easley's hardworking nature; Easley's intelligence; Easley having to prove herself as a woman physician; the good reputation of the Durham Women's Clinic; Pearce's choice to join Durham Women's Clinic instead of staying at Duke; the partnership affiliation with Watts Hospital; partners' appointments at Duke Hospital; the eventual competitive relationship with Duke's Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology; some women choosing Durham Women's Clinic even when their health plan restricted them to Duke; Easley's business acumen; Pearse's lack of business acumen; Pearse's persona; Easley sometimes scolding Pearse; Pearse's expertise at hypnotism; other partners in the clinic using hypnosis, although not to as great effect as Pearse; Easley's relationships to patients; Easley's frankness with patients about health issues; Dr. Robert Ross; Easley advocating to the legislature for the legalization of safe abortions; Easley potentially performing abortions; Nancy Carreras, a nurse midwife hired by Easley; the practice's tendency to adopt progressive methods; Easley's tendency to adopt progressive methods; Easley as a speaker on sex education; the payment system at the Durham Women's Clinic set up by Easley; other partners in the clinic; Easley never having children in order to commit to her profession; her husband, Dr. Howard Easley; the Easley's donation of land to the Eno River Association; Easley's encouragement of young doctors; Easley's encountering opposition to abortion; working at Lincoln Hospital and the Salvation Army Home for unwed mothers; changes in the field; women as ob-gyn physicians; some people's confusion between Dr. Philip Pearce's name and Dr. Richard Pearse's.

This oral history interview was conducted with Dr. Walter J. Pories on July 30, 2020 by Taylor Patterson as part of the Dr. David Sabiston Oral History Project.

Duration: 00:42:39

During the interview, Pories discusses his early life; education; decision to enter the medical profession; his career; how Sabiston helped him recruit for the Department of Surgery at the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University (ECU) when it first started; Sabiston's contributions to the field of surgery through his skill as a surgeon, training surgeons, and his leadership in the American College of Surgeons; and other memories of Sabiston and his wife, Aggie. Digital files include transcript (DOCX), interview (MP3), consent form (PDF), and TXT files.

This oral history interview was conducted with Dr. Nelson Jen An Chao on March 25, 2021 by Joseph O'Connell as part of the Department of Medicine's Oral History Project.

Duration: 00:44:48

During the interview, Chao discusses his upbringing in Brazil, his reflections on his medical training, his observations on transplant as a complex medical issue, and a description of his work leading the Duke Global Cancer Program. The themes of these interviews include leadership, equity in medicine, cancer treatment, and stem cell transplantation. Digital files include interview metadata and transcript (PDF), interview with stereo (WAV), interview with mono (MP3), image (PNG), consent form (PDF), and TXT files.

This oral history interview was conducted with Dr. Kevin L. Thomas on March 18, 2021 by Joseph O'Connell as part of the Department of Medicine's Oral History Project.

Duration: 00:48:27

During the interview, Thomas discusses his path to academic medicine, his experiences as a Resident and later Chief Resident at Duke, the intersections of his clinical and research portfolio, and how he approaches leadership and issues of bias and equity in medicine. The themes of these interviews include cardiology, medical training, and diversity, equity, and inclusion. Digital files include interview metadata and transcript (PDF), interview with stereo (WAV), interview with mono (MP3), images (JPEG), consent form (PDF), and TXT files.

These oral history interviews were conducted with Dr. Thomas M. Bashore on October 12 and 16, 2020 by Joseph O'Connell as part of the Department of Medicine's Oral History Project.

Duration: 00:30:42 (interview 1)

Duration: 01:25:24 (interview 2)

During the interviews, Bashore discusses his discusses his interest in visuals and history related to medicine, his pedagogical approach, and his thoughts on program leadership and restructuring. The themes of these interviews include cardiology, medical training, and collaboration in medicine. Digital files include interview metadata and transcript (PDF), interviews with stereo (WAV), interviews with mono (MP3), image (PNG), consent form (PDF), and TXT files.

This oral history interview was conducted with Dr. David L. Simel on March 5, 2021 by Joseph O'Connell as part of the Department of Medicine's Oral History Project.

Duration: 01:07:46

During the interview, Simel discusses his early experiences in and around medicine, his research in clinical exam and diagnostic tools, and his work at the Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center and as Vice-Chair for Veterans Affairs in the Department of Medicine. The themes of this interview include veterans' health, medical training, hematology-oncology, and general practice medicine. Digital files include interview metadata and transcript (PDF), interview with stereo (WAV), interview with mono (MP3), image (JPG), consent form (PDF), and TXT files.

This oral history interview was conducted with Dr. Carla W. Brady on March 30, 2021 by Joseph O'Connell as part of the Department of Medicine's Oral History Project.

Duration: 01:09:16

During the interview, Brady discusses her work with liver transplantation, her development of a hepatology clinic which is focused on the needs of pregnant women, her reflections on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on her work, and her leadership work as a member of Duke's Academic Council's Executive Committee (ECAC). The themes of this interview includes transplant hepatologist, gastroenterology, women in medicine and as patients, and clinical care. Digital files include interview metadata and transcript (PDF), interview with stereo (WAV), interview with mono (MP3), images (JPG), consent form (PDF), and TXT files.

This oral history interview was conducted with Dr. Marilyn J. Telen on April 21, 2021 by Joseph O'Connell as part of the Department of Medicine's Oral History Project.

Duration: 01:08:12

During the interview, Telen discusses her path to medicine after a first career in nonfiction publishing, her relationship with mentors and research collaborators at Duke, and her thoughts on the history of women in medicine. The themes of this interview includes medical training, hematology, and academic medical research. Digital files include interview metadata and transcript (PDF), interview with stereo (WAV), interview with mono (MP3), images (JPG), consent form (PDF), and TXT files.

These oral history interviews were conducted with Dr. Joseph O. Moore on November 6 and 9, 2020 by Joseph O'Connell as part of the Department of Medicine's Oral History Project.

Duration: 01:12:14 (interview 1)

Duration: 01:12:53 (interview 2)

During the interviews, Moore discusses the advent of the specialization of hematologic oncology, Moore's early experiences that inspired his interest in medicine as a career, changes in Duke's facilities and programs over his tenure, and developments in cancer treatment. The themes of these interviews include medical training, the history of Duke Medical Center, and hematologic oncology. Digital files include interview metadata and transcript (PDF), interviews with stereo (WAV), interviews with mono (MP3), image (JPG), consent form (PDF), and TXT files.

This oral history interview was conducted with Dr. Pamela S. Douglas on September 23, 2020 by Joseph O'Connell as part of the Department of Medicine's Oral History Project.

Duration: 00:42:28

During the interview, Douglas discusses her career trajectory, her work in protocols and standards related to echocardiography and imaging technologies, and how she has contributed to efforts related to diversity and burnout in the field of cardiology. The themes of these interviews include medical standards, heart disease, and diversity and inclusion in medicine. Digital files include interview metadata and transcript (PDF), interview with stereo (WAV), interview with mono (MP3), image (JPG), consent form (PDF), and TXT files.

This oral history interview was conducted with Dr. Ann J. Brown on April 27, 2021 by Joseph O'Connell as part of the Department of Medicine's Oral History Project.

Duration: 01:01:50

During the interview, Brown discusses her educational background, her development of a women's health series, importance of having women in leadership roles in academic medicine, leadership work within the Duke University School of Medicine, current conversations in academic medicine about work/life balance and appropriate work environments, and the impact of systemic bias on research into women's health. The themes of this interview include endocrinology, faculty affairs and development, and gender in medicine. Digital files include interview metadata and transcript (PDF), interview with stereo (WAV), interview with mono (MP3), an image (JPG), consent form (PDF), and TXT files.

This oral history interview was conducted with Dr. Rodger A. Liddle on February 24, 2021 by Joseph O'Connell as part of the Department of Medicine's Oral History Project.

Duration: 01:12:42

During the interview, Liddle discusses his research in measuring CCK (cholecystokinin, a gut hormone) levels, his thoughts on connections between enteroendocrine cells and the nervous system, and conducting laboratory research during the COVID-19 pandemic. The themes of this interview includes gastroenterology, academic medical research, the social life of medicine, and medical training. Digital files include interview metadata and transcript (PDF), interview with stereo (WAV), interview with mono (MP3), images (JPG), consent form (PDF), and TXT files.

This oral history interview was conducted with Dr. Diana B. McNeill on March 1, 2021 by Joseph O'Connell as part of the Department of Medicine's Oral History Project.

Duration: 00:53:46

During the interview, McNeill discusses the treatment of diabetes and the idea of "Type 3" support people surrounding people with diabetes, McNeill's experiences related to work-life balance for physicians, her leadership of the Internal Medicine Residency Program, and the work of Duke AHEAD to support faculty during the COVID-19 pandemic. The themes of this interview includes diabetes and diabetes in pregnancy, maternity leave policies in medicine, mentorship, and faculty development. Digital files include interview metadata and transcript (PDF), interview with stereo (WAV), interview with mono (MP3), images (PNG), consent form (PDF), and TXT files.

This oral history interview was conducted with Dr. Eddie L. Hoover on June 25, 2019 by Emily Stewart as part of the Dr. David Sabiston Oral History Project.

Duration: 00:45:34

During the interview, Hoover discusses his early life; education; how he joined the medical profession; what it was like to be Black at the time Duke was starting to integrate its schools and facilities; the need for and starting the Society of Black Academic Surgeons; and his memories of Sabiston including his flawless memory, his meticulous nature, his love of the history of surgery, his dress code, his focus on research, and his desire to train academic surgeons who were going to teach the next generation of surgeons. Digital files include transcript (DOCX), interview (MP3), consent form (PDF), and TXT files.

This oral history interview was conducted with Dr. Allan H. Friedman on May 14, 2019 by Susannah Roberson as part of the Dr. David Sabiston Oral History Project.
Duration: 00:17:24
During the interview, Friedman discusses his early life; educational background; how he decided to become a surgeon; how he came to Duke; his residency at Duke, including his first meeting with Sabiston for his interview; working with the first female intern in the Department of Surgery, Isabelle (Fader) Richmond; how Sabiston was able to attract the best house staff because of his national reputation; his relationship with Sabiston as it evolved through Friedman's residency to his faculty appointment and Sabiston moved from being a mentor to being a friend; and how Sabiston influenced Friedman's research and his career at Duke. Digital files include transcript (.DOCX), interview (.WAV), and consent form (.PDF).