Louisville Medicine Volume 68, Issue 9 | Page 24

Dr . Howard was a GLMS member for 54 years .
IN REMEMBRANCE

IN REMEMBRANCE : JOHN D . HOWARD , MD JAN . 23 , 1936-OCT . 22 , 2020

Reflecting on life with a practitioner of internal medicine
I first met my future husband John Dean Howard on a blind date in 1972 in Rochester , Minnesota during his residency in internal medicine at Mayo Clinic . I was a young dietetic intern at St . Mary ’ s Hospital , a Texan living far from my home state for the first time . He was in his third and final year and had more free time than earlier in the program . He had been in general practice ( with Dr . Todd Richardson on South Third Street ) in Louisville for a couple of years before heading to Mayo and had made enough money to afford a sweet little Mercedes 280SL , nice dinners at local restaurants and trips to Minneapolis to attend the Guthrie Theater .
Following our marriage a year after we met , I moved to Louisville and quickly learned that real life revolved around John ’ s medical practice and the needs of his patients . He had joined a practice headed by Dr . Bernard Popham and quickly found himself immersed in a busy practice , primarily at St . Joseph ’ s Infirmary . Later , he went into solo practice , sharing call with Doctors Henry “ Jay ” Walter and Max Irick , locating his office at Audubon Hospital . With all his patients there , he could make hospital rounds before office hours and see the sickest patients again before he headed home .
Dr . Will Mayo , who had taught countless practitioners , offered wise words about some of the doctors he had trained , “ They have mastered the science and have failed in the understanding of the human being .” I believe John excelled in the “ understanding ” part . He believed in building relationships with his patients and saw them as unique individuals . Most were with him over many years and loved and respected him , as evidenced by the stacks of lengthy letters they wrote to him upon his retirement .
John ’ s approach to doctoring reflected a humble background as a Breckinridge County farm boy who had a broad , varied education at top universities : Notre Dame ( BS in chemical engineering ), Fordham ( graduate work in physics ), Louisville ( MD , Class of 1965 ), Pennsylvania ( general internship at Philadelphia General Hospital ), capped by a Mayo residency . But more importantly , he practiced medicine the way he cared for all his family and friends , with great humanity built on the positive and the difficult experiences of his life .
John had several tenets that guided the way he approached medical practice . He believed in taking his time and thinking it through . John insisted on an hour-and-a-half Mayo physical with every new patient , even as health insurance companies failed to adequately reimburse cognitive over procedural practice . He always said that the history , physical and basic labs led a good doctor to make a pretty accurate tentative diagnosis , and the tests ordered after that cognitive work would prove the hypothesis . He went over every inch of a patient during his initial exam , finding melanomas under toenails and examining the patient ’ s scalp with a flashlight . During regular office visits , every diabetic automatically took off shoes and socks , knowing feet would be examined , and John insisted on taking blood pressures himself , saying it was too important to leave to someone else .
John reveled in the diagnostic process and loved the puzzle of a complicated patient . He diagnosed one of the first cases of AIDS in Kentucky and had an affinity for unraveling endocrine problems . He often woke in the middle of the night , turned on the light , quickly jotted down notes or called the hospital , having solved a complex issue in his sleep . Again , Will Mayo expressed John ’ s approach well , “ Above all things , let me urge upon you the absolute necessity of careful examinations for the purpose of diagnosis . My own
Dr . Howard was a GLMS member for 54 years .
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