Hobart Reimann

On completing his training at the University of Buffalo Medical School, Reimann worked as first as resident and then as chief house physician at the Buffalo General Hospital. A stint as assistant physician at the Rockefeller Institute followed, working on the transformation of the pneumococcus from a rough strain to smooth and back again, under the direction of pioneering immunochemist Oswald Avery.

He spent a year at the Anton Ghon institute in Prague, as a specialist in infectious diseases, including Rocky Mountain spotted fever and tuberculous. After came two years in China as associate professor of medicine at the Beijing Union Medical College. He then returned to the United States, where the Great Depression was manifesting, taking a position at the University of Minnesota as associate professor of medicine. While at Minnesota, he wrote the first edition of his textbook, which became the four-volume series Treatment in General Medicine. He was offered the Magee Professorship and the position of chairman of the Department of Medicine, at the Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia.[13]

Reimann's interest in microorganisms developed further at Jefferson. "In a medical environment where empirical treatment and measures of dubious value were still common, Reimann insisted upon an etiological diagnosis whenever possible." He continued his work on the typing of the pneumococcus, establishing the practice of routine typing in patient cases where symptomatic pneumonia was displayed. This led to the publication of An Acute Infection of the Respiratory Tract with Atypical Pneumonia: a disease entity probably caused by a filtrable virus. (JAMA, 1938), an article of medical landmark status, being the first to describe viral, as opposed to bacterial, pneumonia.[14]

In 1945, he was involved in trials of streptomycin in the Philadelphia area, and was part of the trio of doctors who reported on its potential efficacy against paratyphoid fever.[15]

In 1948, Reimann published Periodic disease; a probable syndrome including periodic fever, benign paroxysmal peritonitis, cyclic neutropenia and intermittent arthralgia. This was one of the earliest accounts of periodic disease and fevers, later variously categorized as Periodic fever syndrome and Reimann syndrome (the latter of which, with Siegal-Cattan-Mamou disease, has been renamed as Familial Mediterranean fever).[13]

When Reimann came on to the staff at Jefferson, the medical staff consisted of 32 members. He expanded the department of medicine and began its residency program.[16] At the time of Reimann's resignation, there were 89 staff members, ten residents, and three fellows.[17]

From 1951, Reimann took on a decade of international appointments. He spent four years at the American University of Beirut in Lebanon as visiting professor of medicine. In return for his work for the nation, both in training medical staff and his ongoing work on infectious diseases, he was awarded the Order of the Cedar. A short interlude at the University of Indonesia, Djakarta, followed (funded by the UCLA Medicine in Indonesia project).[18] Then came three years in Shiraz, Iran (then Persia) at Mohammad Reza Pahlavi's behest, where he established a medical curriculum at the Shiraz Medical School patterned after the American model.[19]

Reimann returned to the US as professor of medicine at Hahnemann Medical College in 1960, where he continued his research pursuits. He became involved in the movement against the over-prescription and misuse of antibiotics. In 1963, following publication on the same topic in the AMA, he was called before the US Senate to testify on antibiotic misuse. Reimann's conclusion was that most misuse was the result of bad doctoring, against which he believed there was little that could be effected. "Physicians often resent criticism and do not like to be told what not to do."[20]

Reimann's 1967 assignment in Saigon, Vietnam was funded by the AMA and AIG. They wanted him to reorganize the medical school at the University of Saigon.[16] Events of the Vietnam War intervened.

Reimann also did artwork. His "Pretzel Vendor" pastel featured as the JAMA cover in 1972.[21] He spent his final years traveling as guest lecturer. He died in 1986, from a fall followed by pneumonia.

His legacy is his students and the more than 300 papers[22] he published as diagnostic achievements during the period of medical work in that preceded the age of cellular and computational study.