author
Francis Weld Peabody
1881–1927
Remembered as one of the great humane voices in American medicine, this Harvard physician paired careful scientific work with a lasting belief that patients should be treated as people, not just cases. His short life left an outsized mark on medical teaching and the ethics of care.
1 Audiobook
Doctor and patient : Papers on the relationship of the physician to men and institutions
by Francis Weld Peabody
About the author
Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1881, Francis Weld Peabody became an American physician, teacher, and researcher whose work was closely tied to Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. He earned his A.B. from Harvard in 1903 and his M.D. in 1907, and he went on to build a reputation both as a gifted clinician and as a thoughtful medical educator.
Peabody was known for research on poliomyelitis and typhoid fever, and he later served as a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. He is especially remembered for the warmth and clarity he brought to bedside teaching, insisting that good medicine required real attention to the person who was ill.
Although he died young in 1927, his influence endured through his writing and the example he set for generations of doctors. He is still widely associated with the enduring ideal that caring for the patient is at the heart of medical practice.