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Laboratory News
Pathologist Charles Pelphrey Wins Humanitarian of the Year
Your Dark Daily editor just happened to be attending the
Heroes of Central Texas celebration put on by the American Red Cross of Central
Texas at the Renaissance Hotel in Austin, TX on Friday, April 18th. I had no idea that the Lady Bird Johnson
Humanitarian of the Year award was to be presented to Dr. Charles F. Pelphrey,
pathologist, and founder of Austin's
own Clinical Pathology Laboratories. It
was a pleasant surprise, to say the least!
Dr. Pelphrey, despite his 90 years, gave a beautiful speech on the
origins of pathology in Austin
and its impact. I thought his
achievements would be interesting to share with our Dark Daily readers.
Following his graduation with the inaugural class of Southwestern Medical School,
Dr. Pelphrey began his career in the Navy during WWII. He returned to Austin
and began his medical practice at Seton Hospital in 1944 and became the
first pathologist to practice in Austin. On May 1, 1948, he opened a private practice
in a 400 sq. ft. apartment and thus was born Clinical Pathology Laboratories (CPL). At the time, there was no independent
laboratory in Austin
and even the two hospitals in town did not have laboratories.
"When you're the first," said Pelphrey, "you get to set the
standard. You get to set the
limitations. I thought patients should
know test results the next day."
Pelphrey set out to deliver test results overnight by purchasing tools
from the hardware store, bringing samples home with him, and waking up to an
alarm every few hours to move specimens from one solution to another.
During his career, Pelphrey felt the pathology profession's
greatest accomplishment was the successful introduction of the Pap smear. "Many doctors didn't think it [the Pap smear]
was necessary or useful," said Pelphrey, "but use of this lab test effectively
eliminated invasive cancer of the cervix."
Pelphrey was instrumental in getting the Pap smear to become widely used
in Austin.
In addition to starting CPL, Pelphrey also established the
first blood bank in Austin. His interest in developing a blood bank came
largely from his introduction of the Rh factor and replacement transfusions to Austin. His blood bank, The Blood and Tissue Center
of Central Texas ,
still resides in the original central location he insisted upon outside of area
hospitals (He feared having the facility inside a hospital would cause a
conflict of interest.). The center today
provides blood and tissue to some 165,000 patients per year.
Dark Daily readers will be familiar with what CPL has grown
into-a multi-site laboratory organization employing hundreds of people and
performing tens of thousands of laboratory analyses every night. It was obvious in hearing Dr. Pelphrey speak
that he did not necessarily possess any masterful business skills in developing
and growing such a powerful and well-known independent laboratory. He simply had a genuine love of his field and
desire to improve the lives of the patients which he seldom saw. Pelphrey left the crowd with a bit of
laboratory hiring advice that lab managers will still find useful today-"We
always set out to find pathologists that were younger than we and smarter than
we!"
Respectfully Yours,
Sylvia Christensen
Dark Daily Editor
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