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 Behind
every great medical program is an invisible presence,
a pioneering spirit who established its course and mapped
a road to excellence now well traveled by colleagues and
new train-ees. The physicians in the Division of Pulmonary
and Critical Care Medicine at the University of California,
San Diego, School of Medicine are following in the footsteps
of Kenneth M. Moser, MD, the “gentle giant” who still
serves as that invisible yet powerful presence guiding
the division as a model of care for the larger pulmonary
hypertension community. The contributions to this issue
by members of the UCSD team serve as reminders of Dr Moser’s
continuing influence among those who trained under him
and benefited from his mentorship.
Although Dr. Moser died in 1997 after more than 30 years
at the pulmonary division, his work as one of the original
faculty members and his role as the founder and leader
of the division continue to inspire the staff today. Widely
recognized for his work in pulmonary vascular diseases,
he was a world-renowned author-ity on acute and chronic
thromboembolic disease. He was instrumental in establishing
UCSD as the world’s leading referral center for pulmonary
thromboendarterectomy surgery and one of the country’s
models for the management of chronic thromboembolic pulmonary
hypertension.
After earning his medical degree from the Johns Hopkins
School of Medicine in 1954, Dr Moser completed his residency
at Georgetown University and was later recruited by Eugene
Braunwald, MD, to direct the pulmonary division at UCSD.
Widely consulted for his medical opinion, he was a consummate
teacher and an exponent for new and future developments
in pulmonary disease care. Presenting a case to him—in
private or at his famed “Professor Rounds”—was a memorable
experience because of the way he challenged trainees and
older physicians alike.
Those who knew him best remember him primarily as a staunch
defender of academic medicine and the special role that
medical schools like UCSD play in nurturing and developing
tomorrow’s leaders. In his biography in Who’s Who in America
he summed up his views this way: “Participating in academic
medicine and research is like being a member of a relay
team engaged in a race of infinite length. Two forces
keep one running through the often difficult terrain:
the goal of improving health, and the privilege of passing
the baton to many others who will seek the same goal.”
As the legacy of Dr Moser continues to thrive and the
achievements of UCSD as a premier center for pulmonary
care are more widely appreciated, it is clear that he
succeeded in passing the baton to his colleagues.
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