Vanderbilt University School of Medicine Dean Steven Gabbe, M.D., presented the 22nd annual Priscilla White Lectureship on Metabolism March 10 at the Joslin Diabetes Center, formerly Joslin Clinic, at the Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston.
Priscilla White, M.D., pioneered the treatment of diabetes in women and children with the newly available hormone insulin while working with Elliot Joslin, M.D., in the world's first diabetes care facility, later known as the Joslin Clinic.
By the time of White's retirement, the fetal survival rate for women with diabetes in the Joslin Clinic had risen from 54 percent to 97 percent.
She was Gabbe's personal diabetes physician when he was an Obstetrics and Gynecology resident in Boston.
Four Nobel Laureates have delivered the lecture bearing White's name. Gabbe's 2006 lecture was titled “Can Mentors Prevent and Reduce Burnout in New Department Chairs? Results from a Prospective, Randomized Pilot Study.”
White, who died in 1989, was an assistant professor of Medicine at Harvard and Tufts University Medical Schools.
She was director of the youth division at Joslin Clinic and held medical positions at Faulkner Hospital and the Hospital for Women in Boston.