Washington University School of Medicine Oral History Project Washington University School of Medicine Bernard Becker Medical Library
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John D. Davidson

Interviewer: William R. Massa  
Date: May 13, 1977
Identifier: OH032
Approximate Length: 62 min.
Biographical Information: Physician, born 1927. Davidson received his medical degree from the Washington University School of Medicine in 1952. In 1957 he joined the clinical faculty of the school. Davidson became director of the Division of Hyperbaric Medicine, St. Luke’s Hospital, in 1974.
Summary: Davidson discusses his experiences as a medical student at Washington University School of Medicine, his internship at St. Louis City Hospital, and his fellowship in Cardiology at the National Heart Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, which involved the study of hypertension. Davidson discusses research at St. Luke’s Hospital on treatments to decrease the amount of heart damage after a heart attack. Davidson also discusses changes in medical education from the late 1940s/early 1950s to the mid-1970s, and medical malpractice insurance and Medicaid problems facing physicians in the 1970s.

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