In Memoriam

Debra Viti, HMS clinical instructor in medicine at Mount Auburn Hospital, died on July 22. She was 45 years old.

Viti received her BA from Indiana University and in 1991 received her MD from Cornell University Medical College. After completing her internal medicine residency at the University of Iowa hospitals and clinics, she came to the Boston area to practice internal medicine at Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates (HVMA) and joined the HMS community as a clinical instructor at Mount Auburn Hospital. She was an active teacher at HMS and contributed for many years to Patient–Doctor II courses and to OSCE examinations.

Viti was a primary care internist at the HVMA Cambridge and Somerville practices and an HVMA physician facilitator in the Brigham and Women’s Hospital Emergency Department. She was active on the Quality Assurance and Research Committees of HVMA and had strong research interests in women’s health issues. In collaboration with the Department of Ambulatory Care and Prevention, Viti conducted a study of women’s attitudes toward alternative medicine use for menopause, the results of which were presented this past year at the national meeting of the North American Menopause Society. She was also a member of the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Human Studies Committee.

Viti is survived by her parents, Mary and Paul Viti of West Babylon, N.Y.; her brother, Paul, Jr.; her sister-in-law Armi; and her nephews, Kyle and Jason.

James Winshall, HMS assistant professor of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, died in a motor vehicle accident on Sept. 8. He was 41.

Winshall joined the General Medicine faculty in 1995. He developed a busy and successful primary care practice that was recognized for its high level of patient-oriented care. His clinical reputation led to his selection as one of “Boston’s Top Doctors” in Boston Magazine and his participation on the Internal Medicine Clinician Advisory Committee at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care.

Winshall also helped create the BWH Medical Short Stay Unit and later acted as the organization’s medical director. The unit demonstrated a new model for patient care and was the predecessor of the current hospitalist program.

Along with his administrative work, Winshall played a prominent role in departmental teaching programs. He regularly taught medical students during the inpatient and ambulatory portions of the Medicine Core Clerkship. In recognition of the high quality of his inpatient teaching, he received the Daniel B. Federman Outstanding Clinical Scholar Award in 2000. In 2001, he was nominated as an outstanding faculty mentor.

Winshall made significant contributions to medical literature. He is the co-author of the Tarascon Internal Medicine and Critical Care Pocketbook (second edition), a widely distributed pocket reference guide, and was on the editorial board of the Tarascon Pocket Pharmacopoeia. Since 2000, he was senior medical editor at InteliHealth, a joint consumer health website of Aetna and Harvard Health Publications.

Winshall is survived by his wife, Gail Levine, and their three children, Nathan, Daniel, and Lisa.

Madhukar Pathak, HMS senior associate emeritus in dermatology (biochemistry) at Massachusetts General Hospital, died on June 18 at age 77.

Pathak received his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctorate degrees at the University of Bombay, India, before coming to the United States in 1957 to help develop basic science aspects of furocoumarins (psoralens). After earning another master’s and a PhD from the University of Oregon, he came to HMS in 1960 to work with Thomas Fitzpatrick, beginning what would become a 50-year collaboration.

Pathak was a vital partner in the introduction of the concept of photochemotherapy, a pharmacologic principle established in the MGH Dermatology Department laboratories in the 1970s. His basic applied research contributed to the development of topical and oral sunscreens and oral psoralen photochemotherapy. He edited several scholarly texts on photobiology, published more than 200 original works, and traveled widely to lecture and conduct research. Pathak was appointed emeritus in 1995.

He held an important place on the national and international scene in dermatology, being widely acknowledged for his work in photosensitization and photoprotection.

Margot Kruskall, HMS professor of pathology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, died on Aug. 27.

Kruskall received her BS from Tufts University in 1970 and her MD from the Medical College of Wisconsin in 1974. She did her internship and residency at Mount Auburn Hospital, followed by a clinical fellowship in hematology and oncology in 1976 at Beth Israel Hospital, where she remained and became a leading expert in transfusion medicine. Her career on staff began with joint appointments in medicine and pathology at BID and HMS. She was promoted to assistant, then associate professor in both pathology and medicine in 1992, and professor of pathology in 2002. She was medical director of BID’s blood bank for the last 25 years and director of its Division of Laboratory and Transfusion Medicine since 1996.

Kruskall was known as an outstanding clinician, teacher, researcher, and administrator who influenced blood banking practice and procedures nationally and internationally. For over a decade, she has been considered a leader in the fields of autologous blood donation, blood conservation, and management. She was a frequent consultant at the National Institutes of Health and wrote chapters in the leading textbooks of hematology and blood transfusion. Her studies on red cell antigens and on the uses of molecular technology to produce “universal red cells” stirred great interest and hold promise for improving blood transfusion and the availability of blood worldwide.

Kruskall is survived by her husband of 32 years, Stephen Kruskall; a son, Peter; two daughters, Gillian and Lauren; and a sister, Denni Day.

William Berenberg, chief emeritus of the Cerebral Palsy Division at Children’s Hospital Boston and HMS professor emeritus of pediatrics, died on Sept. 14 at the age of 89.

Berenberg received his BA from Harvard University in 1936 and his MD from Boston University School of Medicine in 1940. He joined the HMS community as an intern at Children’s Hospital in 1941, where he remained for the next six decades, holding an extraordinary number of positions before retiring in 2001. He acted as director of the Harvard–MIT Rehabilitation Engineering Center for 14 years and served as chief of the Cerebral Palsy Division for 44 years.

He was known worldwide as a leader in the study and treatment of cerebral palsy and for opening the country’s first kindergarten for children suffering from the disorder. As director of the Harvard–MIT REC, he worked to coordinate and stimulate research activities to help people with disabilities. While active in the United Cerebral Palsy (UCP) Organization in the early ’70s, he was instrumental in procuring recognition and funding for RECs from the federal government.

Berenberg was mentor and teacher to three generations of doctors. “I have an enduring love for the house staff,” he said in 2002. “They have always been the beginning and end of everything for me, the most gratifying part of my work. Throughout the years they came to me for help with medical questions and personal problems, and they became my extended family.” Berenberg won Children’s Janeway Award for Excellence in Teaching in 1980 and the William Berenberg professorship at HMS was established in 1990.

Berenberg is survived by his son, Jeffrey; his daughter, Barbara; his brother, Arnold; and three grandchildren.

John Hennen, chief of the Biostatistics Laboratory at McLean Hospital, died suddenly and unexpectedly on Monday, Aug. 1. He was 66.

Hennen completed his undergraduate degree at the University of North Dakota in 1960, his MA at the University of Minnesota in 1964, his PhD at Brown University in 1972, and his MPH at HSPH in 1973. He joined the HMS community as a research fellow in 1996, becoming an instructor in psychiatry in 1997.

A McLean employee since 1996, Hennen provided consulting statistical services to McLean clinicians and scientists as well as assistance to hospital investigators with grant and contract applications. In 2004, his collaboration with two other McLean clinicians was recognized with an award from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. In his nine years at McLean, Hennen authored more than 68 journal articles and letters to the editor.

Hennen was a member of the scientific advisory committee for the Systematic Treatment Enhancement Program for Bipolar Disorder research project, based at Massachusetts General Hospital; the American Statistical Association; and the American Public Health Association. He served as an ad hoc reviewer for the Archives of General Psychiatry, Bipolar Disorders, and the American Journal of Psychiatry.

Hennen is survived by his companion, Helen Kyomen, HMS clinical instructor in psychiatry at McLean; his children David Hennen of Bristol, R.I., Martha Hennen of Falls Church, Va., and Kimberly Henlotter of Marblehead, Mass.; his three grandchildren, Michael, James, and Elizabeth Hennen; his brothers Richard and Jim Hennen; and his sisters Gayle Steen, Joy Colizzi, and Cheryl Hennen.

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