William Osler

Sir William Osler, 1st Baronet was born on July 12, 1849 in Bond Head, Canada West (now Ontario), and raised after 1857 in Dundas, Ontario. He has been a doyen in medicine and is often referred to as the Father of Modern Medicine (but Osler believed that Avicenna should hold this honor).

Apart from being an astute clinician and teacher, he is also widely known as historian, classicist, essayist, conversationalist, organizer, manager and author.

He passed away on December 29, 1919 at he age of 70 during the Spanish influenza epidemic; his wife, Grace, lived another nine years. Sir William and Lady Osler's ashes now rest in a niche within the Osler Library at McGill University.

Quotable Quotes

• He who studies medicine without books sails an uncharted sea, but he who studies medicine without patients does not go to sea at all.
• If you listen carefully to the patient they will tell you the diagnosis.

John P. McGovern Academy of Oslerian Medicine

The John P. McGovern Academy of Oslerian Medicine was founded to pay respect to the teaching methods of William Osler. President (past) John Stobo of the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston and Houston physician-philanthropist John P. McGovern both shared a respect for the methods of William Osler, and with $5 million McGovern provided for the William Osler Scholars, who are selected from the faculty of the School of Medicine based on humane, compassionate care and outstanding teaching skills. The members meet about biweekly to discuss ways to integrate the ideals of Sir William Osler into the UTMB hospitals and classrooms, and once every six weeks they meet in a public setting. The scholars serve for five years and they comprise the John P. McGovern, M.D., Academy of Oslerian Medicine. Presently, the UTMB Olserian Scholars are: Jack B. Alperin, M.D., Judith F. Aronson, M.D., Patricia Beach, M.D., Daniel Breitkopf, M.D., Kristene Gugliuzza, M.D., C. Joan Richardson, M.D. and Barbara L. Thompson, M.D.