I had a chance to study at the Jackson Memorial Hospital/University of Miami School of Medicine, twice during my professional formation as a Consultant Physician in Endocrinology. I was there as an External Medical Student while reading Medicine in London and then again a most memorable educational period in Endocrinology (also bits of Neuro Opthalmology). I am so grateful for JMH and UM School of Medicine.
I benefitted by following a giant in Clinical Medicine, who was the Professor Consultant in the ward for General Medicine patients and being a teaching hospital catering for indigent patients, a wide spectrum of diseases were seen and treated and healed.
That giant was Dr Julio Ferreiro, from whom thousands of students learned Clinical Medicine. I still recall his pontifications in his thick cuban accented English: he was a master of differential diagnosis.. of thicker bone density in the lower back, prolonged p-q interval in lateral leads of an EKG..the fact that I can still recall these things, shows how impressed we were, starting our clinical careers. Muchas Gracias, Dr. Ferreiro.
Many years later, I was able to visit his alma mater, Hospital Universitario General Calixto Garcia in Havana. I imagined him walking around the hallowed halls of knowledge and was greatly honoured to have met dr San Martin who remembered his class mate Julio very well.
I am so glad to have been a student of Dr Julio Ferreiro, a physician with encylopaedic knowledge of Clinical Medicine.
I was very lucky that during my medical school days and soon afterwards, I was able to travel a fair bit around the world and listened keenly to stories of legendary teachers.
Prof. Leo Shamroth, the head of Medicine at Bardgwanath Hospital in Jo'burg in South Africa had written a short book on ECG which was very popular with medical students all over the world. I had met some of his students from WitsMed and they extolled his teaching.
In the same hemisphere, Michael Gelfand had a gigantic reputation and he devoted his entire life to the medical care in Salisbury/Harare, in Southern Rhodesia/Zimbabwe.
When I was a junior doctor in Melbourne, the professor in charge was Dr Richard Larkins, an incredibly knowledgeable clinician in addition to being a basic scientist. I am grateful to have been his student.
So, it looks like that at each of the great medical centres in the world, there are stellar clinicians. D. Geraint James who was married to the Hepatology Dame Sheila Sherlock had a great reputation among students of General Medicine, in London.
Why did I think of Julio today?
A friend of mine called to ask for some help in diagnosis of a member of her family. It was very obvious from the beginning that it would be a diagnostic dilemma. It gave me a chance to read a vast array of subjects in Medicine (I am a specialist physician in Endocrinology) outside the field of my specialization but I always have had special interest in Renal Diseases and Rheumatological diseases.
The patient/friend is at a teaching hospital and had the pleasure of talking to the junior doctor taking care of him. Once again, I was back in the shadow of Julio, listening to him and realizing how important are your teachers when you are entering this labyrinth of Medicine, getting larger day by day.
Muchas Gracias, Julio..
