Mary Ellen Avery's Research Career - Remembrance of Things Past

Abstract

Mary Ellen Avery's research is recognized as a milestone in biomedical research. She had discovered the underlying cause of hyaline membrane disease, surfactant deficiency, fostering ever more vigorous efforts to reduce neonatal mortality in the burgeoning practice of Neonatology. Neonatology is the only clinical discipline that began as an experiment, making it a model for biomedical research. Avery knew that the concerted effort to treat preterm newborns could potentially do more harm than good, violating her oath to Hippocrates, if not held to the highest scientific standards. She remained true to that pledge throughout her career, as recounted in this Review.

Keywords: Mary Ellen Avery; evidence-based medicine; leadership; lung surfactant; respiratory distress syndrome.

Figure 1

The Joint Program in Neonatology (JPN), 1984, in front of the Administration Building (Building C), Harvard Medical School. In 1984, on the 25th anniversary of the publication of the Avery and Mead paper, members of the Joint Program in Neonatology, which Dr. Avery had created in 1974, gathered for a group picture with her in front of the administration building at Harvard Medical School. Those in attendance were clinicians, clinician-scientists, and basic scientists alike as the embodiment of Dr. Avery’s eternal effort “to do no harm.”