James Burns Amberson Jr.,
Head of the Chest Service 1938-55

The Chest Service at Bellevue, first designated the Tuberculosis Service, was founded by Dr. James Alexander Miller in 1903. Only four years out of medical school, Dr. Miller was assigned to Bellevue by the Department of Medicine of the College of Physicians and Surgeons. He found hundreds of cases of tuberculosis in the medical clinic of the outpatient department who were being treated essentially with a cough mixture. Within the hospital, there were male and female wards for tuberculosis with a total capacity of 80 beds. He also used an outmoded ferryboat moored in the East River near Bellevue as a day-care facility for both children and adults with tuberculosis. The universal high esteem given Dr. Miller was evidenced when he was able, singlehandedly, to raise funds for a new large hospital building (C & D Building) for tuberculosis patients in 1936.

Dr. Miller attracted Dr. James Burns Amberson to his staff in early 1930. Dr. Amberson, a Johns Hopkins graduate, became interested in tuberculosis when he contracted the disease and was treated at Trudeau Sanatorium. Dr. Amberson proved to be a brilliant clinician with remarkable insight into basic pathophysiologic mechanisms. He was a pioneer in clinical research in tuberculosis and other respiratory diseases and became visiting physician in charge of the Chest Service in 1938.

For the next 40 years, graduates of this program filled many prestigious academic posts as well as clinical positions in the United States and throughout the world. Together with a strong department of pathology at Bellevue Hospital, the Chest Service staff contributed a great deal of new knowledge about the pathophysiology, clinical behavior, and treatment of tuberculosis and other pulmonary diseases. When Dr. Amberson retired in 1955, the alumni of the Bellevue Hospital Chest Service honored him by creating the Amberson Lecture series given at annual meetings of the American Thoracic Society.

In 1932, Dr. Miller recruited Dr. Dickinson Richards and Dr. André Cournand to organize and direct research in cardiopulmonary physiology. These brilliant investigators endorsed the concept that the heart, lungs, and circulation are a single system for the transport of gas between the environment and the tissue, and that no part of it can be studied without regard to the others. Their most famous contribution was their pioneering development of cardiac catheterization as a means for studying the heart, lungs, and circulation.

In 1941, they placed a catheter in the right atrium of a human being, and by 1944 they were sampling blood and measuring pressure in the right ventricle and pulmonary artery.

In 1956, Drs. Richards and Cournand received the Nobel Prize in medicine and physiology in recognition of their application of physiologic concepts, methods, and techniques to the study of respiratory and cardiocirculatory diseases. During this period, they trained more than 150 research fellows in cardiopulmonary physiology. These second generation cardiopulmonary physiologists occupied academic, clinical, and research positions throughout the world, and have contributed greatly to our current concepts of cardiopulmonary function in health and disease.

In 1955, Dr. John McClement succeeded Dr. Amberson as director of the Chest Service. Under his able leadership, the Chest Service maintained an active research program and provided strong clinical and research training. In 1970, Dr. H. William Harris was named director of the Graduate Training Program, and the fellowship added a second year and expanded from three to twelve positions. In 1975, the Chest Service moved to the new Bellevue Hospital building, containing an inpatient service, a large and active outpatient department, and a new well equipped and staffed pulmonary physiology laboratory. The annual John McClement Lecture at Grand Rounds serves to honor his stewardship. From 1983 to 1989, Dr. Harris directed the Chest Service and maintained its clinical excellence.The division has continued to develop as a Center of Excellence under the direction of Dr. William N. Rom, who succeeded Dr. Harris in 1989.