Helen Ranney

Helen Margaret Ranney (April 12, 1920 – April 5, 2010) was an American doctor and hematologist who made significant contributions to research on sickle-cell anemia.[1]

Helen M. Ranney, c. 1960

Early life

Ranney was born in Summer Hill, Cayuga County, New York,[2] where her parents ran a dairy farm. Her mother was a teacher and both her parents encouraged her in her studies and pursuing a professional career. She attended a one-room school as a child, and later attended Barnard College (graduating cum laude in 1941) with initial plans to study law; however, it was here that she decided to study medicine, saying "Medicine attempts to fix what it studies."[2] She initially faced barriers to her continuing her medical education at Columbia, based on her gender, but policy changes during World War II allowed for her admission to the College of Physicians and Surgeons[3] at Columbia University.[4]

Career

Ranney was a professor at Harvard Medical School. She was also a staff physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital. She was the first woman to serve as president of the Association of American Physicians, and of the American Society of Hematology. She was also one of the first women to be admitted to the American Society for Clinical Investigation and was the first woman honored as a Distinguished Physician of the Veterans Administration.[2] Her research on hemoglobin started in 1953. She was the first to use paper electrophoresis for separating human hemoglobin, work which helped in understanding the inheritance of sickle-cell disease. In 1960 she co-founded the heredity clinic at Albert Einstein College of Medicine.[3]

Ranney was a faculty member and the first female head of the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine. In 1973, she was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences[5] and the Institute of Medicine.[6] She was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1975.[7]

Awards, honors, and memberships
  • Dr. Ranney was awarded the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Medical Achievement Award in 1972 for her work with blood disorders, which included the first description of the abnormal blood cell structure and genetic factors linked to sickle cell anemia.[2]
  • President of the Association of American Physicians (the first woman to hold this office).
  • Distinguished Physician of the Veterans Administration (the first woman so honored).[2]
  • President of the American Society of Hematology.
  • Master of the American College of Physicians.
  • Elected in 1973 to the Institute of Medicine[5] (now called the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, & Medicine)

References
  1. Denise Gellene (April 14, 2010). "Helen Ranney, Pioneer in Sickle Cell Research, Dies at 89". The New York Times. Retrieved 30 November 2012.
  2. "In Memoriam: Helent M. Ranney M.D." UC San Diego Newsroom.
  3. H. Franklin Bunn, "Helen Margaret Ranney: A Woman of Many Firsts" Archived 2019-02-01 at the Wayback Machine The Hematologist 5(2)(March–April 2008).
  4. "Biography: Dr. Helen M. Ranney". Changing the face of medicine. U.S. National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health. Retrieved 30 November 2012.
  5. "Helen M. Ranney". National Academy of Sciences. Retrieved July 26, 2014.
  6. "Directory: IOM Member - Helen M. Ranney, M.D." Institute of Medicine. Archived from the original on August 5, 2014. Retrieved July 26, 2014.
  7. "Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter R" (PDF). American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved July 29, 2014.
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