Dateline DFCI
The Nathan years at Dana-Farber — A reshaping of mission and identity
Before he was named president of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute — before he became a renowned hematologist and trainer of hematologists at Children's Hospital, before he entered medical school, before, in fact, he entered college — David G. Nathan, M.D., had become a member of the Institute and Jimmy Fund family.
He loves to regale visitors — with a smile at the irony of events — with stories of how his uncle, Lou Gordon, helped create the Jimmy Fund in the late 1940s. Gordon, a member of the Variety Club of New England, his partner, Arthur Lockwood, and other club members persuaded the area's theatre-owners — flush with postwar profits — to create a charity for patients at the Children's Cancer Research Foundation established in 1947 by Sidney Farber, M.D. The charity, so named to protect the anonymity of one of Dr. Farber's young patients, has been a mainstay of the Institute ever since.
January 1997 — Kicking off the celebration of Dana-Farber's 50th anniversary, David G. Nathan, M.D. (right), cuts a cake with (left to right): Trustees David Auerbach and Richard Morse; Physicianin-chief emeritus Emil Frei III, M.D.; President emeritus Baruj Benacerraf, M.D.; and Lou Gorman, former general manager of the Boston Red Sox.
The irony of the story is that although Nathan would attend Dana-Farber-affiliated Harvard Medical School, join the medical staff of Children's Hospital in 1963, and become chief of the Division of Hematology and Oncology at Children's and Dana-Farber a decade later, he didn't assume the presidency of Dana-Farber until he was 65 years old — and about to retire from any administrative duties. The call that caused him to revise his plans and take the helm of the Institute came after an incident that brought national attention to the problem of medical errors.
Months before Nathan was asked to become DFCI president in late 1995, there had been revelations that two Dana-Farber patients had received substantial overdoses of chemotherapy in 1994. Both the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations and the state Department of Public Health launched investigations into the Institute's patient-care policies and procedures.
"Taking the job was a very easy decision," Nathan says. "I had respected and admired Dana-Farber for many years and was given the opportunity to develop a fine pediatric program here by [physician-in-chief emeritus] Tom [Emil] Frei and [president emeritus] Baruj Benecerraf. And [Dana-Farber trustee] Dick Smith asked me to do it; one doesn't say no to Dick Smith and the Board of Trustees of DFCI. Yes, the times were difficult, but a career in academic medicine is never easy."
