Fordtran, J: Memoir of an Academic Gastroenterologist

As a public health officer on the Navajo reservation and later while working with Franz Ingelfinger in Boston to become a gastroenterologist, Dr. Fordtran conceived of and developed an accurate method for measuring intestinal absorption from the human intestine. He then joined the faculty of UT Southwestern in Dallas, where he and others used that method to determine the mechanisms of electrolyte and glucose absorption. For this research, he received the King Faisal International Award in Medicine. For various reasons, he left UT Southwestern when he was 49 years old and became chief of medicine at Baylor Hospital in Dallas. He thus entered the "clinical jungle" of private practice. At Baylor, he continued to do clinical research, he encouraged improvements in medical education, and he fought for better treatment of nurses by physicians. He worked at Baylor until he was 91 years old, discovering several drugs (Golytely, MiraLAX, etc.) and becoming an historian of medicine in Dallas. He constructed this memoir of his experiences from his memories, from published articles in books, and from letters and documents in his possession.