Donahoe, Patricia Kilroy, MD
Catalog Number: 1192
Oil Painting
Dr. Patricia K. Donahoe, Director of Pediatric Surgical Research Laboratories and Chief Emerita of Pediatric Surgical Services at Massachusetts General Hospital was born in Boston Massachusetts in 1937. She graduated from Boston University in 1958 with a Bachelor of Science Degree and attended medical school at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, graduating in 1964. Dr. Donahoe did her Residency training at Tufts New England Medical Center in Boston from 1964-1969.
In 1969 she did a year of post graduate research with Dr. Judah Folkman at the Children's Hospital Medical Center in Boston followed by a year as Research Fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital with W. Hardy Hendren. Dr. Hendren arranged for her to travel to England for additional Pediatric Surgery training. She spent a year at the Alder Hey Children's Hospital and Neonatal Surgical Unit as Senior Registar.
It was during those early years of research that she became interested in a poorly understood glycoprotein called "mullerian inhibiting substance".
In 1973 Dr. Donahoe joined Dr. Hendren and Dr. Samuel Kim as a member of the MGH Department of Surgery in the newly formed Division of Pediatric Surgery. There, she was able to devote some of her time to establishing her laboratory, focusing on defining, purifying and studying the therapeutic uses for "mullarian inhibiting substance".
Dr. Donahoe was named Chief of the Pediatric Surgery Division in 1984. She was the first woman to lead an MGH Surgery Division. Under her leadership the Pediatric Surgery Program at MGH grew clinically, scientifically and educationally.
In 1986 she was promoted to full Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School, the first woman Professor of Surgery at HMS. Shortly thereafter she became the first incumbent of the Marshall K. Bartlett Chair of Surgery.
She has authored or co-authored more than two hundred papers, written two books and written over 50 book chapters.
Dr. Donahoe is world renowned for her studies to find inducer and regressors (like mullerian inhibiting substance) and to develop them as potential chemotherapeutic agents in the treatment of reproductive cancers as well as in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. Dr. Donahoe has been awarded more than 14 patents related to her work. Her research has contributed to the understanding of the molecular and genetic causes of congenital diaphragmatic hernia.
Dr. Donahoe is a Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences; one of only two surgeons to receive such an honor. She has been awarded both of the American Surgical Association's research awards, The Flance-Karl Award and the Gold Medallion for Research. She has won the prestigious Fred Conrad Koch Award of the Endocrine Society and the William Ladd Medal of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
In 2011 she was awarded the MGH Trustees Gold Medal for her lifetime contributions to medicine. Dr. Donahoe has been an enthusiastic supporter of the MGH throughout the years, serving on the MGH Chief's Council and the General Executive Committee. She initiated and was a vocal advocate for the return of Obstetrics to the MGH. At the time it was an unpopular idea, but with her help Obstetrics returned as a specialty in 1994.
In 2003 Dr. Donahoe stepped down as Chief of Pediatric Surgical Services but continues to direct the Pediatric Surgical Research Laboratory.
At the unveiling of Dr. Donahoe's portrait, Dr. Gerald Austen was quoted in saying "I want to also emphasize that Pat has been a wonderful supporter of the MGH and a great institutional leader. During her many years as a member of the MGH Chief's Council and the General Executive Committee, she was rarely absent and always fully engaged. She spoke her mind and in my view, was usually right. For example, she was the first and most vocal supporter for the return of Obstetrics to the MGH".
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