Postal Service Honors American Thoracic Society Founder By Issuing Dr. Edward Trudeau Stamp On May 12

Main Category: Respiratory / Asthma
Article Date: 13 May 2008 - 3:00 PDT

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Dr. Edward Livingston Trudeau, who founded the organization that is now known as the American Thoracic Society, will be recognized by the United States Postal Service with the issuance of a Distinguished American stamp on May 12:

In 1905, Dr. Edward Trudeau helped create the American Sanatorium Association to promote the scientific study of tuberculosis through collaboration and dissemination of information. This interest led him to establish an annual scientific meeting for other sanatorium directors.

"As a researcher and clinician, Dr. Trudeau still inspires members of the medical society he founded more than a hundred years ago," said David H. Ingbar, the 2007-2008 president of the American Thoracic Society, reflecting on values fundamental to the organization he now leads. "Dr. Trudeau's belief that hope comes from compassion and from advances in medical science defines everything we do."

While the ATS and its members remain leaders in treating and eradicating TB, the Society's mission and scope of activities encompasses all respiratory diseases, critical care and sleep-related disorders. The ATS has also grown into an international organization. About 28 percent of its more than 15,000 members work outside the United States.

Edward Livingston Trudeau was born to a family of physicians in New York City in 1848. He completed his medical training at the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University in 1871. Two years later, he was diagnosed with tuberculosis.

In 1884, Dr. Trudeau started the nation's first sanatorium for tuberculosis patients in a little red cottage he built in Saranac Lake, New York. He, himself, was infected with the bacterium. Despite his illness, he was engaged in basic science research and developing better ways of treating patients throughout his career. His guiding principal was "to cure sometimes, to relieve often, to comfort always."

In 1938, the American Sanatorium Association was renamed the American Trudeau Society. In 1960, the organization changed its name to the American Thoracic Society.

Today, the annual meeting started by Dr. Trudeau is widely recognized as the preeminent scientific and clinical meeting in pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine. It draws more than 16,000 attendees from around the world and features more than 5,600 research presentations.

The American Thoracic Society also publishes the leading journal in pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine. The American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine reports groundbreaking basic, translational and clinical science.

The Society supports many other activities. It publishes two other journals, the American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology and the Proceedings of the American Thoracic Society; collaborates with medical organizations around the globe to improve health; regularly produces medical guidelines that define best practices in care; funds young, highly promising researchers and trains physicians and other healthcare professionals working in Latin America, Africa and Turkey how to conduct clinical and epidemiological research.

American Thoracic Society