Class of 1968 Citations

Henry Masur, MD, ’68, Chief, Critical Care Medicine Department, NIH Clinical Center

Henry in his signature stripped tie.

Background from the NIH website: “Dr. Masur was recruited to NIH to jointly found a new department of critical care medicine and an HIV/AIDS program with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. He became Chief of the Critical Care Medicine Department in 1989. The Critical Care Medicine Department manages the NIH-Clinical Center’s only medical-surgical ICU, emphasizing multidisciplinary care. The department also manages respiratory therapy and the code team. During the past 30 years, the department has attained national and international acclaim for its leadership in areas of sepsis, emerging infections, HIV/AIDS, lung biology and sickle cell disease.”

1. What are the most challenging and most meaningful parts of your work?

Solving scientific problems and clinical diseases are [not only] a challenge in terms of science, but also in terms of translating the science into practical options for real patients and communicating with patients and providers about why they should want to adopt these new drugs and approaches (i.e., communicating clearly about how these new approaches would help them and their communities).

Dealing with people is the most challenging and meaningful part of my work. Understanding how illness affects patients and…how staff react to those patients and those illnesses. Managing a talented staff is a challenge … that I really enjoy: training younger health care providers, and developing an organizational structure that brings out the best in all of our professional colleagues.

2. What do you personally consider to be your greatest accomplishment?

My greatest accomplishment is of course having a wonderful wife and family….and next was getting into Dartmouth.

My next greatest accomplishment was learning how to be a competent and productive physician who hopefully has impact on individual patients and other members of the health care team. The department I lead has trained dozens of prominent leaders in health care: being able to develop others who value all three pillars of medicine – clinical care, research, and teaching – has been especially rewarding.

3. Do you have any fun Dartmouth history to share? (i.e., family ties, etc.)

At Dartmouth, at least in my era in the 1960s, the premed group was well known to each other: we took the same courses and were always worried about how we could all get into medical school. A decade later I was very proud to publish my first major scientific paper as the lead author in the New England Journal of Medicine issue in which the first reports of AIDS were published.  When I opened up the New England Journal to see my wonderful article that I was lead author on…. to my surprise, there was a very similar report from the other side of the country and the senior author was….a Dartmouth classmate who always ranked higher on the tests, and again surpassed me by being senior author on his manuscript while I was still junior.

So, Dartmouth alumni cross paths in many aspects of life but….some of those who were ahead of you in organic chemistry….you never catch up to. At least Andy Saxon ['68 MED'70] and I both shared credit for the first published articles in a peer reviewed journal on AIDS (1981). [We] talked by phone to catch up 13 years after graduation.

4. What was your best (or strangest) memory during your time at Dartmouth?

The power outage (11/9/65) that affected the East Coast, blacked out the campus, and mercifully postponed an organic chemistry test.

5. What is your favorite food? Hobbies?

My Dartmouth roommate taught me to play squash which I still did until Covid arrived. I run to try unsuccessfully to stay in shape (age adjusted).  I still keep my Lionel trains running now that I finally have grandchildren. Food: anything at Nationals Baseball Park.

6. Tell us about your family.

My wife is a nurse from Baltimore who I met at Johns Hopkins during residency. It turned out her best high school friend’s older brother had been in my Dartmouth class.  She has loved working in inner city community health clinics. We put no pressure on our children in terms of what they should do professionally, but medicine must have intrigued at least two of them. The oldest has a doctorate in education and specializes in early childhood development for a nonprofit. The other two went to medical school and are residents in Internal Medicine (Baltimore) and Child Psychiatry (Nashville).  And finally….. two grandchildren in the past two years!