J Community Health (2014) 39:1029–1031 DOI 10.1007/s10900-014-9935-6
COMMENTARY
Randall Dudley Bloomfield, MD: Physician and Advocate for Disadvantaged Communities Pascal James Imperato
Published online: 19 August 2014 Ó Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014
Dr. Randall D. Bloomfield was a leading African-American figure in medicine and public health. He was nationally known for his efforts to create opportunities for minority youth and to facilitate their entry into the health professions. He and his late wife, Edris Adams Bloomfield (5 June 1922–10 July 2013), established PRISM for youth, a not-for-profit foundation, to identify, select, and mentor pre-medical minority students at Medgar Evers College Preparatory School in Brooklyn, New York. In the area of public health, he was vice-president and corporate secretary of the Friends of the Congressional Glaucoma Caucus Foundation. The group supported free glaucoma screenings for disadvantaged communities (Fig. 1). Dr. Bloomfield, or Randy, as he was known to his friends and colleagues, was born in Harlem in New York City on 3 August 1923. At the age of 3 years, his father died, and his mother, who had immigrated to New York City from Jamaica, raised him alone. She supported her family by working as a laundress. As a teenager, Dr. Bloomfield reached a height in excess of six-and-a-half feet, and for the remainder of his life physically towered over those at any gathering. However, it was not only physically that he rose above most others, but also through his remarkable achievements. While working as a stevedore during the day, he attended the City College of New York at night. He was greatly encouraged in his studies by his cousin, Lola Vassal, who was a physician. During World War II, he served in the army in France as a military policeman.
P. J. Imperato (&) School of Public Health, State University of New York, Downstate Medical Center, MSC 43, 450 Clarkson Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11203, USA e-mail: [email protected]
In 1949, Dr. Bloomfield entered the Long Island College of Medicine, now the State University of New York, Downstate Medical Center, College of Medicine. An early mentor was Dr. Richard Augustus Taylor, an orphan from the island of St. Kitts, who graduated from the medical school in 1903. On his first day in medical school, Dr. Bloomfield was told by one of the white faculty members that a black student was admitted to the school only every other year, but that they rarely graduated. He proved him wrong, and graduated at the top of his class. Dr. Bloomfield completed his residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, New York, and then did a fellowship in gynecologic oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Medical Center in New York City. He later became board certified in both specialties, and became Associate Professor of Clinical Obstetrics and Gynecology at the State University of New York, Downstate Medical Center. Encouraged by his wife Edris and his mentors, he established a private practice in Brooklyn. Maintaining his connection to Kings County Hospital, he eventually became Director of Obstetrics and Gynecology there, as well as an attending physician at several other hospitals. As his career evolved, he became a leader in organized medicine, and eventually served as President of the Medical Society of the County of Kings, a trustee of the Medical Society of the State of New York, a delegate to the American Medical Association House of Delegates, and a consultant to the Director of the National Institute of Child Health and Development. He served on many national, statewide, and local boards, committees and councils, and was the author of numerous scientific medical articles. In addition, Dr. Bloomfield served in several leadership positions in the Alumni Association of the College of Medicine of the State University of New York, Downstate
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Fig. 3 Edris Adams Bloomfield
Fig. 1 Dr. Randall D. Bloomfield (right) presenting Dr. Michael Joseph (left) with the PRISM for Youth Inc. Community Service Award for his service to students at the Medgar Evers College Preparatory School, 2011
Fig. 2 Randall Dudley Bloomfield, MD
Medical Center and its Alumni Fund. He also served for many years as the editor of the organization’s magazine,
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Alumni Today. As a leader in the Alumni Association, he was an early strong advocate for its financial support of the Global Health in Developing Countries elective for fourth year medical students, then organized by the College of Medicine’s Department of Preventive Medicine and Community Health. To date, this elective, now offered by the School of Public Health, has enabled some 375 Downstate medical students to render both medical and public health services to people in resource poor countries. Under Dr. Bloomfield’s guidance, and with the financial support of his classmate, Frank Moya, a scholarship fund was also established in the Alumni Fund to aid minority graduates to practice in under-served communities [1]. Dr. Bloomfield cultivated valuable relationships with locally elected officials, and through them was able to foster programs of great value to disadvantaged communities in Brooklyn. Through these relationships, he also obtained their continuing support for the mission and goals of the Downstate Medical Center (Fig. 2). Dr. Bloomfield served for several years as a member of the Editorial Board of the New York State Journal of Medicine, for which he peer reviewed many scientific submissions. At the time, this writer was the editor of that journal which ceased publication in 1993 due to a change in the priorities of its sponsor, the Medical Society of the State of New York [2]. Dr. Bloomfield was tireless in his efforts to convince the society’s governance to continue publishing the journal. Dr. Bloomfield was a faithful, skilled, and insightful peer reviewer for the Journal of Community Health. In addition, he regularly provided this author, the editor, with wise counsel concerning the publishing goals of the journal. Dr. Bloomfield and his wife Edris were married for 62 years at the time of her passing in 2013. She was a
J Community Health (2014) 39:1029–1031
remarkable woman who was born and raised in Harlem in New York City. She and Dr. Bloomfield knew one another since their childhood in Harlem. Edris Adams, as she was then known, was the first African-American woman to attend Hunter High School and Hunter College, from where she graduated with honors with a Bachelor of Science degree in Applied Mathematics. She was initially employed by the U.S. Army for the Manhattan Project, and later as a statistician for Exxon. Dr. Bloomfield and Edris Adams were married in 1951. After their marriage, they moved to Brooklyn where he later opened his practice in obstetrics and gynecology. She greatly supported him in the administration of his practice and in his other professional activities. She served as President of the Women’s Auxiliary of the Medical Society of the State of New York, and was a school volunteer in the local elementary school where she taught children to read. Her hobbies were sewing, knitting, crocheting, and baking (Fig. 3). Dr. Bloomfield was the recipient of numerous awards and honors in recognition of his commitment to patients and to the community. Among these were the Dr. Frank L. Babbott Memorial Award for Service to Medicine and the Community, the Louis M. Hellman, MD Master Teacher Award in Obstetrics and Gynecology, and the Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award, all from the Alumni Association of the State University of New York,
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Downstate Medical Center, College of Medicine. He was also the recipient of the President’s Citizenship Award of the Medical Society of the State of New York, the Beacon of Hope Award from Congressman Major R. Owens, and the Outstanding Leader in Community Health Award from New York State Assemblywoman Rhoda Jacobs. Dr. Randall Dudley Bloomfield passed away peacefully in his ninety-first year on 30 July 2014. He and his late wife, Edris, had a great sense of the rightness of things in the conduct of human affairs. Together, they dedicated their lives in the service of promoting the well-being of others, especially the disadvantaged. They are survived by their children, Diane and Robert, son-in-law Sam, and granddaughter Alicia.
References 1. Kochman, M. C. (2010). Randall D. Bloomfield, MD. In M. J. Salwen (Ed.), Downstate at 150: A celebration of achievement (pp. 31–32). Brooklyn: Alumni Association, College of Medicine, State University of New York, Downstate Medical Center. 2. Imperato, P. J. (1993). Demise of a peer-reviewed journal. The Lancet, 342(8880), 1160–1161.
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COMMENTARY
Randall Dudley Bloomfield, MD: Physician and Advocate for Disadvantaged Communities Pascal James Imperato
Published online: 19 August 2014 Ó Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014
Dr. Randall D. Bloomfield was a leading African-American figure in medicine and public health. He was nationally known for his efforts to create opportunities for minority youth and to facilitate their entry into the health professions. He and his late wife, Edris Adams Bloomfield (5 June 1922–10 July 2013), established PRISM for youth, a not-for-profit foundation, to identify, select, and mentor pre-medical minority students at Medgar Evers College Preparatory School in Brooklyn, New York. In the area of public health, he was vice-president and corporate secretary of the Friends of the Congressional Glaucoma Caucus Foundation. The group supported free glaucoma screenings for disadvantaged communities (Fig. 1). Dr. Bloomfield, or Randy, as he was known to his friends and colleagues, was born in Harlem in New York City on 3 August 1923. At the age of 3 years, his father died, and his mother, who had immigrated to New York City from Jamaica, raised him alone. She supported her family by working as a laundress. As a teenager, Dr. Bloomfield reached a height in excess of six-and-a-half feet, and for the remainder of his life physically towered over those at any gathering. However, it was not only physically that he rose above most others, but also through his remarkable achievements. While working as a stevedore during the day, he attended the City College of New York at night. He was greatly encouraged in his studies by his cousin, Lola Vassal, who was a physician. During World War II, he served in the army in France as a military policeman.
P. J. Imperato (&) School of Public Health, State University of New York, Downstate Medical Center, MSC 43, 450 Clarkson Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11203, USA e-mail: [email protected]
In 1949, Dr. Bloomfield entered the Long Island College of Medicine, now the State University of New York, Downstate Medical Center, College of Medicine. An early mentor was Dr. Richard Augustus Taylor, an orphan from the island of St. Kitts, who graduated from the medical school in 1903. On his first day in medical school, Dr. Bloomfield was told by one of the white faculty members that a black student was admitted to the school only every other year, but that they rarely graduated. He proved him wrong, and graduated at the top of his class. Dr. Bloomfield completed his residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, New York, and then did a fellowship in gynecologic oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Medical Center in New York City. He later became board certified in both specialties, and became Associate Professor of Clinical Obstetrics and Gynecology at the State University of New York, Downstate Medical Center. Encouraged by his wife Edris and his mentors, he established a private practice in Brooklyn. Maintaining his connection to Kings County Hospital, he eventually became Director of Obstetrics and Gynecology there, as well as an attending physician at several other hospitals. As his career evolved, he became a leader in organized medicine, and eventually served as President of the Medical Society of the County of Kings, a trustee of the Medical Society of the State of New York, a delegate to the American Medical Association House of Delegates, and a consultant to the Director of the National Institute of Child Health and Development. He served on many national, statewide, and local boards, committees and councils, and was the author of numerous scientific medical articles. In addition, Dr. Bloomfield served in several leadership positions in the Alumni Association of the College of Medicine of the State University of New York, Downstate
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J Community Health (2014) 39:1029–1031
Fig. 3 Edris Adams Bloomfield
Fig. 1 Dr. Randall D. Bloomfield (right) presenting Dr. Michael Joseph (left) with the PRISM for Youth Inc. Community Service Award for his service to students at the Medgar Evers College Preparatory School, 2011
Fig. 2 Randall Dudley Bloomfield, MD
Medical Center and its Alumni Fund. He also served for many years as the editor of the organization’s magazine,
123
Alumni Today. As a leader in the Alumni Association, he was an early strong advocate for its financial support of the Global Health in Developing Countries elective for fourth year medical students, then organized by the College of Medicine’s Department of Preventive Medicine and Community Health. To date, this elective, now offered by the School of Public Health, has enabled some 375 Downstate medical students to render both medical and public health services to people in resource poor countries. Under Dr. Bloomfield’s guidance, and with the financial support of his classmate, Frank Moya, a scholarship fund was also established in the Alumni Fund to aid minority graduates to practice in under-served communities [1]. Dr. Bloomfield cultivated valuable relationships with locally elected officials, and through them was able to foster programs of great value to disadvantaged communities in Brooklyn. Through these relationships, he also obtained their continuing support for the mission and goals of the Downstate Medical Center (Fig. 2). Dr. Bloomfield served for several years as a member of the Editorial Board of the New York State Journal of Medicine, for which he peer reviewed many scientific submissions. At the time, this writer was the editor of that journal which ceased publication in 1993 due to a change in the priorities of its sponsor, the Medical Society of the State of New York [2]. Dr. Bloomfield was tireless in his efforts to convince the society’s governance to continue publishing the journal. Dr. Bloomfield was a faithful, skilled, and insightful peer reviewer for the Journal of Community Health. In addition, he regularly provided this author, the editor, with wise counsel concerning the publishing goals of the journal. Dr. Bloomfield and his wife Edris were married for 62 years at the time of her passing in 2013. She was a
J Community Health (2014) 39:1029–1031
remarkable woman who was born and raised in Harlem in New York City. She and Dr. Bloomfield knew one another since their childhood in Harlem. Edris Adams, as she was then known, was the first African-American woman to attend Hunter High School and Hunter College, from where she graduated with honors with a Bachelor of Science degree in Applied Mathematics. She was initially employed by the U.S. Army for the Manhattan Project, and later as a statistician for Exxon. Dr. Bloomfield and Edris Adams were married in 1951. After their marriage, they moved to Brooklyn where he later opened his practice in obstetrics and gynecology. She greatly supported him in the administration of his practice and in his other professional activities. She served as President of the Women’s Auxiliary of the Medical Society of the State of New York, and was a school volunteer in the local elementary school where she taught children to read. Her hobbies were sewing, knitting, crocheting, and baking (Fig. 3). Dr. Bloomfield was the recipient of numerous awards and honors in recognition of his commitment to patients and to the community. Among these were the Dr. Frank L. Babbott Memorial Award for Service to Medicine and the Community, the Louis M. Hellman, MD Master Teacher Award in Obstetrics and Gynecology, and the Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award, all from the Alumni Association of the State University of New York,
1031
Downstate Medical Center, College of Medicine. He was also the recipient of the President’s Citizenship Award of the Medical Society of the State of New York, the Beacon of Hope Award from Congressman Major R. Owens, and the Outstanding Leader in Community Health Award from New York State Assemblywoman Rhoda Jacobs. Dr. Randall Dudley Bloomfield passed away peacefully in his ninety-first year on 30 July 2014. He and his late wife, Edris, had a great sense of the rightness of things in the conduct of human affairs. Together, they dedicated their lives in the service of promoting the well-being of others, especially the disadvantaged. They are survived by their children, Diane and Robert, son-in-law Sam, and granddaughter Alicia.
References 1. Kochman, M. C. (2010). Randall D. Bloomfield, MD. In M. J. Salwen (Ed.), Downstate at 150: A celebration of achievement (pp. 31–32). Brooklyn: Alumni Association, College of Medicine, State University of New York, Downstate Medical Center. 2. Imperato, P. J. (1993). Demise of a peer-reviewed journal. The Lancet, 342(8880), 1160–1161.
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