Legal Studies Student Edward Lew Co-authors New Book about Medical Pioneer Halsted Holman

Edward R. Lew, an undergraduate student pursuing his degree in legal studies at UMass Amherst, has co-authored a new book about the incredible life and career of medical pioneer Halsted Reid Holman.

“Halsted R. Holman and the Struggle for the Soul of Medicine,” published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing, describes the major changes in American medicine and healthcare that took place during 100 years of efforts to deliver the fruits of biomedical science to all. The book’s story is told through the life of Holman, an icon in American academic medicine and arguably one of the most notable academic leaders in the U.S.

Image

“Holman’s story is extraordinary, human, and inspiring,” write Lew and co-author Matthew H. Liang, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and professor of health policy and management at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “In 1960, by age 35, Holman had already hit over .500 as a baseball batting champ and All Star at the University of California Los Angeles; had been a leader in the International Union of Students in Denmark; had his passport recalled by the State Department; stripped of a Yale internship before he even started because he refused to sign the loyalty oath; was harassed and followed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation; grilled before a Senate committee on subversive activities; spoke on the perils of nuclear arms to hundreds for the Scientists Committee for Radiation Information; and had already made a major medical discovery.”

Born in San Francisco to two Stanford Medicine professors, Holman was the first chairman of the Stanford department of medicine when the school moved from San Francisco to Palo Alto. He directed the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar Training Program from its inception in 1969 until 1996. A charismatic figure, a beloved doctor, brilliant bench scientist, innovative teacher, mentor to many leaders in American medicine and leader of one of the world’s great academic medical centers, Holman was a change agent who challenged orthodoxy, injustice and arrogance and took others to a vision they could not imagine. He was a major figure shaping and reacting to the rise of molecular medicine and all of the changes in U.S. healthcare: the beginning of Medicare/Medicaid, the growth of the health insurance industry and the medical–industrial complex, health maintenance organizations, the disappearance of municipal hospitals and chronic disease and mental health hospitals, widening health disparities, President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act, and the tension between health care as a basic human right and as a business.

Lew, a graduate of Middlesex Community College who has worked as a research analyst at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for a nationwide clinical trial in suicide prevention, aspires to serve in government to empower oppressed groups and individuals.

“Halsted R. Holman and the Struggle for the Soul of Medicine” is available for purchase from Cambridge Scholars Publishing.