Category: History and current events

From the O.R. to the Oval Office- 3 Docs Who Ran

Three medical doctors ran for President of the United States in 2016. Read about one of them in this article from a two part series.

updated June 27, 2026

The 2016 United States Presidential campaign was one of the most unexpected, unpredictable, and contentious races in history, starting with the individual parties.

The qualifications for President are fairly simple

U.S. Constitution Requirements for a Presidential Candidate:
  • Be at least 35 years old
  • Be a natural-born citizen of the United States
  • Been a resident of the United States for 14 years

How to become President inforgraphic
The Presidential pathway from USA.gov

The election process is anything but simple as illustrated by the above graphic. The candidates must first campaign for votes in the states’ primaries or caucuses to become their party’s choice at the convention.

In the general election, voters are technically voting for electors to the Electoral College, which casts its states votes for President.So it is possible with the candidate with the fewest popular votes gets the most electoral votes and becomes president.

Holding the office of the President is our country’s highest honor but the job of president has become so thankless I wonder why anyone wants to do it. But I am grateful that people volunteer for and seek the position, and in 2016 three of the candidates were physicians.

This post was originally a non-partisan look at those candidates, and still is.

In medical jargon, progress notes are Records kept by health care workers to indicate the course of the patient’s care

I have written some “progress notes” about each candidate that will give you a glimpse into their professional, personal, and political lives.

statue of George Washington in Manhattan
statue of General George Washington, first President of the United States of America – New York City

Jill Stein, M.D.- Green Party  

  1. Dr. Stein graduated from Harvard Medical School.
  2. Her hobbies include writing and performing music.
  3. She ran for President in 2012, also on the Green Party ticket.
  4. She is a physician’s wife, mother, internal medicine physician/teacher and “environmental-health advocate.”
  5. She developed the “Healthy People, Healthy Planet” teaching program.
  6. She has been interviewed on the Today Show, 20/20 and Fox News network.
  7. In Massachusetts she ran for Governor, State Representative and Secretary of State.
  8. She co-founded the Massachusetts Coalition for Healthy Communities, a non-profit organization.
  9. She likes to walk with her Great Dane Bandita.
  10. She has advocated for several environmental issues in her home state-
  • Mercury contamination of fish
  • The “Filthy Five” coal plants clean up
  • Mercury and dioxin contamination from burning trash
The Presidential Oval Office at the Reagan Library
a replica of the White House Oval Office at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library

Part 2 of this article continues here.

Thank you for reading this post. I strive to make them worth your time.

I share information and inspiration that sparks transformation in your body, mind, and spirit.

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Watercress Words by Dr. Aletha

Dr. Aletha

How Women Changed and are Changing Healthcare

The first woman graduate of a United States medical school was born in Bristol England in 1821. Elizabeth Blackwell came to this country as a child and originally had no interest in medicine. But when a dying friend told her, “I would have been spared suffering if a woman had been my doctor”, she found her calling.

By 2022 statistics published by the Kaiser Family Foundation, 47% of United States medical school graduates are women; in some states, over 50% are women. If that trend continues, eventually at least half of all practicing physicians in the United States will be women. Now about one-third are female.

class reunion
My medical school graduating class at our 30th reunion; the original class was larger, 150 students, but the percentage of women was the same as in this photo. (I’m in the pink dress)

I and other women physicians owe a debt to the women who paved the way for us. This post introduces some of them.

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Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell

The first woman graduate of a United States medical school was born in Bristol England in 1821. (thank you, UK readers). Elizabeth Blackwell came to this country as a child and originally had no interest in medicine. But when a dying friend told her, “I would have been spared suffering if a woman had been my doctor”, she found her calling.

She was denied admission to multiple medical schools. The Geneva Medical College of New York submitted her application to the student body for a vote, and, as a joke, they voted to admit her. Well, the joke was on them as she enrolled, completed medical school and graduated in 1849.

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Read more detail about How Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman doctor in the United States

A hospital for and by women

Dr. Blackwell, her sister Dr. Emily Blackwell, and a German physician, Dr. Marie Zakrzewska, opened and administered the New York Infirmary for Women and Children in 1857.

Dr. Emily Blackwell managed the Infirmary for 40 years. Dr. Marie Zakrzewska moved to Boston when she founded the New England Hospital for Women and Children, which trained women physicians and cared for the poor.

Due to failing health, Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell retired from practice in the 1870s.

The Physicians Mom Group (PMG) declared Dr. Blackwell’s birthday on February 3 as National Women Physicians Day. This day celebrates all the significant contributions that women physicians make daily, none of which would have been possible without Elizabeth Blackwell.

Dr.Rebecca Lee Crumpler

Before founding her hospital, Dr.Zakrzewska served as a professor at the New England Female Medical College. That school produced another notable women physician, Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler.

Dr. Crumpler graduated in 1864, becoming the first African-American woman to earn an M.D. in the United States.  After practicing in Boston, she moved to Virginia where she and other black physicians cared for freed slaves, who otherwise would have had no access to medical care.

In 1883 Dr. Crumpler wrote a book of medical advice for women and children, titled Book of Medical Discourses, one of the earliest medical publications by an African American. Unfortunately, no photos of Dr. Crumpler are known. to exist.

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Dr. Virginia Apgar

More recently, a woman physician’s work has impacted the lives of countless babies and their families. If you have had a baby, or been born within the past 60 years, you benefited from the work of Virginia Apgar, M.D.

She was neither an obstetrician or a pediatrician, but an anesthesiologist. As she observed deliveries of infants she proposed a scale to rate how well a newborn was adapting to life outside the mother.

She considered 5 factors:

  1. heart rate
  2. respiratory (breathing) rate,
  3. muscle tone,
  4. reflexes, and
  5. color-pink (warm) or blue(cold)

And assigned each a score- 0, 1, or 2, at 1 minute of age, and again at 5 minutes.

So a newborn had a potential score as low as 0 and as high as 10.

The higher the score, referred to as the Apgar score, the more likely the baby was healthy and would do well. The lower the score meant the baby was in trouble, and needed intensive medical attention.

crying baby
courtesy Pixabay

After testing the use of the rating scale over several years, doctors starting using it routinely; so for the past 50-60 years almost all babies have been “graded” with an Apgar score at birth. The Apgar score  is used widely throughout the world.

Dr. Apgar, who played violin and cello in her college orchestra, was appointed the first full professor of medicine at Columbia University and also was a director for the March of Dimes.

 

Women are changing the face of medicine

The National Library of Medicine profiles these and many other women physicians at Changing the face of Medicine – celebrating America’s women physicians.

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sharing the HEART of women physicians

Thank you for reading this post. I strive to make them worth your time.

I share information and inspiration that sparks transformation in your body, mind, and spirit.

You can follow this blog in two easy ways. One is to put your email address into the box below.

Another way is to follow me on Facebook, where I share new posts, timely topics, photos, and an occasional cartoon.

Watercress Words by Dr. Aletha

Dr. Aletha