Magazine
Fall/Winter 1999

Dr. Jim Cumming '61
pediatrician

What is the most significant event that has occurred in your profession or field during the 20th century? What lesson do you take away from that event?

A physician responding to the above questions is naturally influenced by his own particular area of interest or expertise. As a pediatrician practicing in clinical medicine for over thirty years, I have been witness to remarkable changes in both the science and the art of medicine. Examples of such changes include open heart and fetal surgery, the development of new and more effective vaccines, the increasing number and complexity of medical specialties and subspecialties, and the change in the way health care is financed and the effect that change has on the patient-physician relationship. It is impossible to choose a single event as being most significant, since outstanding achievements in medicine are built upon the labors of many, but if I were to choose a single area as being most significant, it would be the related fields of reproductive technology and genetics. Incredible advances in these areas have resulted in the ability to treat disease in the fetus and newborn in ways that would have been considered pure science fiction only a few decades ago. It is increasingly apparent that medicine must develop the philosophical, moral, and political expertise to keep pace with the awesome technological prowess now available. These developments always seem to trail the scientific aspects.

Personally, what's the most meaningful life lesson you've taken from your vocation or avocation?

I have learned to understand the limits of modern medicine. I appreciate more fully the bewildering breadth of the human condition, and I expect the passing years to add to that appreciation. I understand that I know less and less about that which I thought I well understood. Humility is well fertilized by years spent in clinical medicine.

What person(s) or mentor(s) have had the most significant impact on your life? Please describe how that person affected your life.

My wife, Susie, children, parents, and extended family have been most important. They have loved and supported me, ignored my faults(for the most part), and have provided the impetus which continues to move me along my chosen path. My high school and college basketball coaches, Loren Joseph and Bob Brock, showed me how to achieve more than I otherwise might have achieved. The Wabash family, and especially the Division I family, revere Dr. Willis Johnson as a dedicated and brilliant teacher, as a role model without parallel both to the budding scientist and to the rest of us plain ol' pre-medical students, and as a father figure (a stern but encouraging taskmaster who always expected you to do your best). As a senior student, I had allowed the demands of an NCAA basketball tournament and a heavy Division I schedule to so completely consume me that I missed the deadline for application to medical school. Dr. Johnson looked at me thoughtfully as I explained my failure, as if to say "I can't believe you allowed this to happen." He leaned back in his office chair, picked up the telephone, and in a few moments said, "John, I have a young man here who has been delinquent in applying to medical school. Can you help us?" He was speaking to Dr. John Van Nuys, Dean of the School of Medicine at Indiana University, and one of his former students. His words apparently carried some weight, because the next day I was in Indianapolis and interviewing for a place in the freshman class. I suspect I am not the only procrastinating student to have benefitted mightily from Dr. Johnson's tutelage.

In your experience, what is the greatest misconception the public has about your vocation (or field of study) or the people in that vocation?

In answering this question, there is a danger of being misunderstood if one generalizes too widely. Nevertheless, here goes. There is often a failure to understand the two-way relationship between physician and patient. Many assume that an M.D. degree assures equal competence.

Return to the table of contents