Tuesday, June 14, 2005

Eugene A. Stead, Jr., MD Dies at 96
By Pat French

Dr. Eugene A. Stead, Jr., the driving force behind development of the DCRI, has died at the age of 96.

Eugene Stead, Jr., MD 1908 – 2005

Dr. Stead came to DUMC in 1947, accepting the position of chair of the Department of Medicine. He had previously served as the chair of the Department of Medicine and dean of the School of Medicine at Emory University. He stepped down from his Duke post in 1967, but his involvement with Duke continued for another 38 years.

In 1969, Dr. Stead led a group of DUMC statisticians, physicians, and computer programmers in an effort to capture data from patients undergoing coronary angiography, with the goal of using this information to improve the care of future patients. The Duke Databank for Cardiovascular Disease, forerunner of the DCRI, remains the world's oldest and largest database on the outcomes of cardiovascular care.

The DCRI, formally created in 1996, now has more than 850 employees and more than 110 Duke physician-investigators. The group has conducted more than 270 clinical trials and outcomes projects that have involved more than half a million participants around the world.

Dr. Stead was a major force for innovation in medical education in the latter half of the twentieth century. In 1966, for example, he directed a revision of the Duke Medical School curriculum, to include half the requirement of basic sciences and expansion of research time to a full year, a practice unique to Duke at that time. This innovation appears to have been a wise choice: 33 of Stead’s trainees have gone on to lead their own departments of medicine.

Dr. Stead also established the Duke PA program, the first of its kind in the world, to provide staff trained to address a range of patient needs without the time and resources required for traditional medical education. The first three graduates of this program matriculated in 1967. To honor the PA profession and its founder, Dr. Stead's birthday, October 6, is now known as Physician Assistant Day.

Dr. Stead was a past president of the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians and a founding member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Science. He was editor-in-chief of Medical Times, Circulation, and the North Carolina Medical Journal. Among his many awards was the William G. Anlyan, MD, Lifetime Achievement Award from Duke.

Dr. Stead maintained a personal Web site for sharing his thoughts about issues in medicine and life.