Helen B. Taussig is remembered in medicine for work that altered practice rather than merely argument.
The record lists Helen B. Taussig as Jewish-American cardiologist (1898-1986).
Helen B. Taussig was born at Cambridge in 1898. Her recorded nationality is United States. She trained at Boston University and Harvard Medical School.
Around the turn of the twentieth century, laboratory medicine, vaccines and public health began to change mortality at population scale.
The recorded fields of work are pediatrics and cardiology.
Most medical progress is invisible: it shows up as an illness that no longer kills anyone.
Recognition followed: Elizabeth Blackwell Medal (1982), Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award (1954), Feltrinelli Prize (1954) and Presidential Medal of Freedom (1964).
That the work was done from United States matters: hospitals, training and research funding are unevenly distributed, and they decide which questions can be asked.
Helen B. Taussig died in 1986, aged 88. What survives is the change in practice, which is how a medical life is actually measured.
Achievements
- Elizabeth Blackwell Medal — 1982
- Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award — 1954
- Feltrinelli Prize — 1954
- Presidential Medal of Freedom — 1964
- Carl-Ludwig Honorary Medal — 1967
- Fields: pediatrics and cardiology
