WORCESTER MEDICINE
Editorial The Power in Our Past
Dr. Leonard Morse, MD: Sherlock Holmes Meets Public Health
Dale Magee, MD
Cameron G. Thomson, MD, BS
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24/7 news cycle we may be so caught up the overwhelming flow of information that we lose sight of the big picture. We rarely have a chance to reflect on how much has been accomplished by those who came before us. Worcester in general, and the Worcester District Medical Society in particular, have been home to health care professionals that have made breakthrough discoveries, established institutional innovation and demonstrated remarkable insight and character. We have much to be proud of. We have a chance to look back in this issue of Worcester Medicine, thanks to our dedicated authors. Part of our roles as physicians is to look beyond the guidelines and the routine and detect the exception to the rule or the unsolved problem. Who better to illustrate this than Leonard Morse and his record of solving obscure problems in infectious disease? And when it comes to seeing the future of health care delivery, John Meyers provides a great example with his vision of integrated care, taking the broader view of dealing with not only illness but health maintenance. Imagine the Massachusetts Medical Society without the New England Journal of Medicine! You don’t have to, thanks to the insight of Homer Gage. May Selona Holmes was the vision of the dedicated physician functioning in a system that offered little to woman physicians. She took what she was able to get and ran with it. Nearly a decade before the Massachusetts Medical Society allowed admission of women physicians, the Worcester District addressed the “woman problem” with a favorable, if not enthusiastic, resolution to allow their admittance, a first step in getting us to the majority of medical students being women today. And, in Howard Beal we see a heroic character that saw a compelling role for the physician in the execution of war, a compulsion to help mitigate the injuries while feeling that there were instances when the violence was necessary to bring the peace. Bringing his power to heal to the battlefield was his way of aiding in what he felt was a just war. Outside of our medical society, we see Clara Barton and the development of the Red Cross, which remains a staple in our emergency preparedness. Whether it is maintaining a safe blood supply or responding to environmental disasters, the Red Cross is a vital part of our community. Finally, we have Charlie Monahan, experienced in practicing pharmacy as well as running a pharmacy operation. He brought his entrepreneurial skills to the Mass College of Pharmacy (now a university), and the result energized both the College and downtown Worcester. Take a moment to see these individuals whose energy, foresight, intelligence, and dedication contributed so much to making our world better. Let them inspire you to do more. +
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in medicine having served as president of both the WDMS and MMS, as well as Commissioner of Public Health of Worcester. However, there is another side of Leonard Morse, whose clinical and deductive skills rival those of Sherlock Holmes. As an infectious disease expert, Dr. Morse was drawn to investigating outbreaks of unusual infectious diseases. One such investigation, for instance, piqued his interest when 16 UMass Memorial Hospital employees and patients developed Salmonella gastroenteritis. He observed that those affected had either recently eaten or worked in the hospital cafeteria, so he reviewed the daily lunch menus for a potential source. His investigation led him to discover that the cafeteria workers customarily enriched the ice cream with frozen, unpasteurized egg yolks, which, upon culturing, were found to be massively contaminated with numerous disease-causing bacteria, including Salmonella. Per Dr. Morse’s request, the hospital mandated rectal cultures of all hospital employees and patients and found that 167 individuals were primarily infected by the soiled ice cream. In his case report detailing the outbreak, Dr. Morse emphasized the importance of pasteurizing all dairy products, a controversial idea at the time. Another case involved six ICU patients who simultaneously developed Klebsiella septicemia. He cultured every surface imaginable and found that the hand lotion in the unit was overwhelmingly contaminated. To his horror, he discovered providers inadvertently spread Klebsiella to the sickest patients, one of whom ultimately died. In his concise yet effective case report, he discussed the dangers of hospital-acquired infections and emphasized the need for appropriate antisepsis.
JULY / AUGUST 2021
eonard morse is well known as a leader
