Founders of pediatric pathology: Arthur James McAdams

摘要

Arthur James (Jim) McAdams chaired the Division of Pediatric Pathology at Cincinnati Children's Hospital from 1962 until 1995 during a period of unprecedented expansion in the mission of the Cincinnati Children's Hospital and its associated Research Foundation.Jim briefly was attracted to work in Cincinnati with Ben Landing, who was the first pathologist to be recruited to the Cincinnati Children's Hospital. Jim departed shortly to his native California for a leadership position at the Oakland Children's Hospital, and then was invited to return to Cincinnati when Ben vacated the Midwest in 1961 to seek his fortune in Los Angeles, CA. The pathology division (a component of the Research Foundation then and now) at the time of Jim's arrival had its dwelling in a small wing that had been designed by Landing as an addition to the original Research Foundation building endowed and constructed in 1931. This new space was devoted to anatomic pathology only, as the clinical labs at that time were fragmented and under the leadership of academic pediatricians, as would continue to be the case, effectively, though increasingly anomalously, for the next 35 years. During this period, Jim expertly guided the pathology group and the tissue laboratory that supported its functions, as its work expanded in harmony with the steady growth and expansion of Cincinnati Children's Hospital in both the clinical and research spheres. A tradition of excellence had been established by Landing during the formative 5 years of Ben's tenure. Subsequently, under Jim's much longer leadership, the pathology division gained enormously in strength through increasingly successful recruitment of faculty and fellows (35 under his mentorship). The result was steady collaborations with a small but very high-quality clinical faculty and, as times changed, with newly recruited scientists in the emerging field of developmental biology.