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  • Metamorphoses: Memoirs of a Life in Medicine
  • Norton J. Greenberger
William G. Anlyan, Metamorphoses: Memoirs of a Life in Medicine. Durham, North Carolina, Duke University Press, 2004. 229 pp. (No price given).

Dr. William Anlyan first came to Duke University Medical Center in 1949 as a surgical resident. During the ensuing five decades, he served as professor of medicine, dean of the medical school, executive vice president for health affairs, and chancellor of the university. In his Memoirs, he chronicles his development from his precollege days in Egypt to medical school at Yale University to his arrival at Duke University Medical Center in 1949 and then to a series of administrative positions. It is evident that he was a dominant architect in guiding the transformation of the Duke University Medical Center into an internationally renowned health system. This book is written in a warm, personal style, and is an easy read. The author succeeds in accurately describing the key personnel he interacted with, the many problems and issues he encountered, and the solutions to those problems. The numerous individual descriptions make the reader feel as if he or she knows these people and, in addition, understands their respective contributions. Dr. Anlyan's style is self-effacing, and he avoids taking credit for his numerous important contributions. He amply recognizes the valuable help that many of his predecessors and colleagues gave. However, he was the prime mover in restructuring the medical school, was instrumental in raising new monies for the medical school and medical center as a whole, and supervised the addition of almost 4 million square feet of new or renovated space. It seems clear, however, that one of his most important contributions was recruiting outstanding faculty to the Duke Medical School. He was an excellent judge of talent, as evidenced by the several chairs he recruited rising to national and international prominence. The following excerpt exemplifies his approach. "The most important thing I learned early in the game was to go out and find the very best person for the job. I always looked for the best in the country or the best in the world, and unless they made outrageous demands, in most cases [End Page 376] we were able to meet their needs in terms of money, space, support, and administrative structure to recruit the people we wanted. I tried to look for people who were thirty-five to thirty-eight and had their futures in front of them. They might be a little bit of a gamble, but they had to have chalked up an excellent track record. I did not want to recruit people who regarded Duke as a nice place to retire" (p. 69).

The title of the book is quite appropriate because Dr. Anlyan describes a series of metamorphoses pertaining to his personal life, his professional life at Duke, and the city of Durham as well. Importantly, by detailing these changes, Anlyan creates parallels between metamorphoses in medical education and in the practice of medicine during the years 1960–95. It seems clear that Duke University Medical Center was a leader in recognizing the need for change, as well as an effective force at working out certain problems to implement change. Dr. Anlyan's enlightened leadership is clearly evident in this transformation.

Norton J. Greenberger
M.D., Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, 02115
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