DAVID ROTHMAN

ROTHMAN--David. The Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University mourns the loss on August 30, 2020 of David J. Rothman, PhD, Bernard Schoenberg Professor of Social Medicine, Professor of History, and Director of the Division of Social Medicine and Professionalism in the Department of Medical Humanities and Ethics at Columbia University. Trained at Columbia and Harvard in history and appointed Professor of History at Columbia in 1971, Dr. Rothman became internationally known for his studies of American institutions of asylum, incarceration, and health care. In 1983, the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia recruited Dr. Rothman as founding Director of the medical school's visionary Center for the Study of Society and Medicine and the inaugural Bernard Schoenberg Professor of Social Medicine. Immersing himself in the workings of medicine, he accompanied physicians and surgeons on their rounds and into their operating rooms, bringing the same piercing interrogative mind to medicine that had powered his rise in social history. He made indelible contributions to the field of bioethics, critiques of human experimentation, the ethics of organ transplantation, medicine's relationships with politics and industry, and technological transformations of health care. The Center expanded in 2003 to include the Institute on Medicine as a Profession, sponsored by the Open Society Institute, to study the lapses and ideals of professionalism in medicine. Dr. Rothman had a profound influence on the practice of medicine: he both saw its failings and loved it for the grandeur and promise of its work. Despite his work on the most challenging issues, he was consumed with the discovery, the vision, the powers of the search of the mind. We extend our condolences to Dr. Rothman's wife Sheila, daughter Micol, and son Matthew as well as to his many colleagues at Columbia and throughout the world who benefited from his knowledge and wisdom. We will do our best to continue to grow the extraordinary legacy he has left for us. Anil Rustigi, MD, Interim Dean of the Faculties of Health Sciences and Medicine Lee Goldman, MD, Dean Emeritus of the Faculties of Health Sciences and Medicine Columbia University Irving Medical Center