If you’re a loyal reader of DOTmed Business News, you’re probably familiar with our regular installments of Medical Museum, where we offer a look at medical equipment from years gone by. Medical Museum is developed each month by working with Dr. M. Donald Blaufox, curator of the Museum of Historical Medical Artifacts.

What you may not be familiar with is the man behind the MOHMA. So, when DOTmed News learned Dr. Blaufox was taking a step away from full-time practice, we felt it was time to honor his contributions to the field. Far from being just a collector of medical artifacts, Blaufox is highly regarded as a physician.

His long stint in medicine had its start in high school at the Bronx High School of Science in New York. Nearing graduation, Blaufox had a conversation with a biochemistry teacher he respected. “He asked what I planned to do,” Blaufox recalls. “I told him I was having trouble choosing between biochem and medicine and he told me, if those were my choices, I should go into medicine.”

Nearly 60 years have passed since that conversation and Blaufox says he has never regretted the decision. He followed up his high school education with medical training at Harvard, State University of New York and University of Minnesota, Mayo Foundation.

Professional career
He gained board certification for internal medicine in 1966 and for nuclear medicine in 1972, and capped it off with certification as a specialist in clinical hypertension in 1999.

Although he’s accomplished in a number of fields, his contributions to nuclear medicine are the most impressive. He served as the director of the division of nuclear medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine for a decade, from 1966 to 1976. He is also the founding chairman of the board of nuclear medicine at the college and former chairman of the American Board of Nuclear Medicine.

Blaufox is also a prolific writer, authoring 294 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on nuclear medicine, hypertension and medical history. He serves as the editor of the seminars in nuclear medicine and on the editorial board for six journals in related fields. He has also authored or edited 25 books, with the latest being “Blood Pressure Measurement: An Illustrated History,” and “An Ear to the Chest: The Evolution of the Stethoscope.”

The Museum of Historical Medical Artifacts
Although he won’t admit it, Blaufox must have access to some type of time machine – there doesn’t seem to be any other explanation as to how he can fit more activities into his schedule, yet he does.

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