health

WSU SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

Jack D. Sobel, M.D.,
dean of the Wayne State
University School of
Medicine, (left) presents
the Trailblazer Award to
George Dean, M.D.

Trailblazer

Dr. George Dean paved the way for family medicine.

LAUREN WINTON SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

T

he path to medicine, history, art
and culture is rarely described
on a chess board. For world-re-
nowned chess set collector George
Dean, M.D., however, the game perfect-
ly encapsulates his career in medicine.
As a founding father
of the family medicine
specialty, Dean has spent
his career caring for the
families he serves while
simultaneously moving
the powers that be to rec-
Dr. George
ognize family medicine
Dean
as a specialty. The Wayne
State University School of Medicine has
a Family Medicine Department thanks
to the leadership and strategic lobbying
of Dean and his colleagues.
“I have always loved being a family
medicine doctor,” said Dean, a 1956
graduate of the WSU medical school.
“The specialty is so important to all
patients. Family physicians have the
opportunity to grow meaningful rela-

tionships with their patients and serve
families for several generations. Family
medicine is also a cost-effective solution
for the patient, and well-qualified phy-
sicians have the integrity to know when
they have reached the limits of their
expertise. In this way, the family physi-
cian becomes the patient’s advocate.”
Dean and his wife, Vivian, have been
members of Congregation Shaarey
Zedek in Southfield for 61 years.
During Yeshiva Beth Yehudah’s 2014
dinner, the couple were honored for
dedicating the Bais Yaakov Elementary
building through a generous endow-
ment fund.
The WSU School of Medicine pre-
sented Dean with its Trailblazer Award
for his work in family medicine during
the school’s Sesquicentennial Gala on
Sept. 22. The award recognizes alum-
ni and faculty who have forged paths
through previously unexplored territory
to become pioneers in their field of
medicine and medical research.

EARLY ASPIRATIONS
Dean knew he wanted to become a phy-
sician at a young age. After a life-chang-
ing tonsillectomy, he promised himself
and his future patients he would always
treat them with the utmost care and
respect.
“When I was 7, my parents said
I was going to the doctor to get my
picture taken,” Dean recalled. “There
was this huge light hanging from the
ceiling and two men held down my
arms and legs. They put an ether mask
over my face and removed my tonsils.
I promised myself then that if I ever
became a physician, I would never
treat anyone this way.”
True to his word, Dean has spent
his career focused on patient care and
advocacy while working to bring more
compassionate and competent phy-
sicians into the specialty. By forming
strong relationships with patients (often
parents, children, grandchildren and
sometimes great-grandchildren of the

same families), Dean has provided
holistic care for the communities he still
serves today.
After graduating from medical school,
Dean joined the Navy and completed
his residency at the Great Lakes Naval
Hospital. He then served at the Grosse
Ile Naval Air Station. Once he complet-
ed his training and service, he began
working in Metropolitan Detroit, open-
ing his own practice early in his career.
Dean believes that with a focus on the
patient — a value held in highest esteem
by family medicine physicians — medi-
cal students will be best prepared to care
for those they serve. Early in his career,
however, he observed a marked differ-
ence in the number of doctors entering
into family practice. By the early 1960s,
the numbers were discouraging.
“Very few medical students went
into family practice at that time. The
numbers were so low that a few of my
colleagues and I decided it was time to
make a change,” Dr. Dean said.
Working with his colleagues, he
formed the American Board of Family
Practice in 1969. Dean, one of the char-
ter members, passed the board certifica-
tion the first year it was offered.
After establishing the American
Board of Family Practice, Dean served
as president of the Wayne County
Academy of Family Physicians and
the Michigan Academy of Family
Physicians. He established depart-
ments for family medicine at the
WSU, Michigan State University
and University of Michigan medical
schools, lobbying to convince univer-
sity leadership to recognize the impor-
tance of the field.

FIGHTING FOR EQUAL PAY
He continued his fight for the specialty
at state and federal levels. In the early
1970s, he realized family medicine doc-
tors were paid half the amount special-
ists received for the same procedures.
As an officer of the Michigan Academy
of Family Physicians at the time, he
met with a friend and medical health
attorney, Gilbert Frimet, who represent-
ed Dean and the Michigan Academy
in suing for equity based on the 14th
Amendment in the U.S. District Court.

continued on page 38

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December 27 • 2018

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