March 17, 2003

IF YOU THINK RESEARCH
IS EXPENSIVE, TRY DISEASE

A few weeks ago, I got a call from an old friend. Bill Gibson, now approaching his 90th birthday, was calling to say he wanted to drop by to talk about what have always been his favorite subjects: medical history and his newest book project.

It seems Dr. Gibson is writing yet another book, this one, not surprisingly, on the contributions made to medicine and science by people over 75. (An earlier book, Young Endeavour, chronicled the scientific contributions of young people.)

William Carleton Gibson -- physician, professor, historian, author -- has been with MDA almost since its beginnings.

He first joined our Scientific Advisory Committee in 1958, overseeing brand new inquiries into the nature of muscle and nerve. In the early 1970s, Gibson oversaw the maturation of MDA’s research program and helped implement its transition from grants based at the Association’s Institute for Muscle Disease in New York to a worldwide, university-based system of research support.

He’s now an MDA vice president.

Dr. Gibson

Dr. Gibson has been an eyewitness to a great deal of medical history. Born in Ottawa in 1913, he soon moved to the West coast of Canada around the time of World War I. He’s been based there, in Vancouver and Victoria, British Columbia, ever since, although he completed his medical studies at McGill in Montreal and at the University of Oxford in England.

At the end of World War II, during which he was deputy director of medical research in the Royal Canadian Air Force, Gibson began his career as a research neurologist at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. He also became an astute observer of medical trends and, perhaps most important of all, an avid supporter and dedicated adviser on matters pertaining to medical research.

Gibson remembers the polio years, when he and his colleagues could only stand by and hope that people would be able come out of iron lungs. And he remembers his own bout with rheumatic fever, which attacks the joints and heart. Prior to the era of modern antibiotics, it was treated with bed rest -- which he undertook for a year.

But my friend admits that the 60 years of medical changes he’s observed haven’t all been filled with unadulterated progress. He deplores a recent finding that some managed care insurance companies restrict doctors’ time with patients to eight minutes per appointment. Both research and care take time, and both cost money, he notes.

As we learned from solving the polio puzzle, says this experienced physician, “Research is the key.” He knows research is costly, and he’s fond of telling people, “If you think medical research is expensive, try disease.”

The doctor-historian says, “I think some people thought I was nuts when I said, ‘Whatever can advance muscular dystrophy research is important for us. I don’t care what country or laboratory it comes from. That’s what’s been done through MDA. The international outlook of our Association is just amazing -- and wonderful.”

Thanks, Bill, for helping MDA become what it is today.

With every best wish...

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