Former AGA President and Friedenwald Medal Recipient Turns 100

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• Joseph B. Kirsner, MD, PhD (Photo credit: Bart Harris, University of Chicago Medical Center)

On September 21, 2009, the AGA Foundation for Digestive Health and Nutrition honored former AGA President and Friedenwald Medal recipient Joseph B. Kirsner, MD, PhD, and celebrated his 100th birthday.

The Louis Block Distinguished Service Professor of Medicine at the University of Chicago, Kirsner previously served as AGA president in 1965 and received the Julius Friedenwald Medal in 1975. His centennial celebration dinner was held during Digestive Disease Week on Friday, May 29, 2009, at the Chicago Intercontinental Hotel.

A founding member of the AGA Legacy Society, Kirsner is the author or co-author of >750 scientific papers in high-impact medical and research journals. The majority of his work has focused on inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), a field in which he is recognized as a world authority.

Kirsner's early research involved peptic ulceration and the effects of antacids on gastric acid secretion. But in the late 1930s, Dr Kirsner turned his attention to ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease. Working initially with Chicago University's Walter Palmer, MD, who established the first academic gastroenterology unit in the United States in 1927, Kirsner developed new techniques to manage IBD patients.

In the 1940s, he demonstrated that patients with mild IBD still lost excessive amounts of protein—a finding that placed new emphases on the importance of nutrition. He developed animal models of IBD, demonstrated the influence of genetics on the inflammatory process, and recognized the increased risk of colon cancer in patients with IBD. His textbook on IBD, now in its 6th edition, has been viewed as a gold standard on the topic for more than 30 years.

“The AGA Foundation was pleased to honor Dr. Kirsner and his outstanding contributions to the field of digestive disease science through clinical education, scholarship, research and patient care,” said Sidney Cohen, MD, AGAF, chairman of the Foundation for Digestive Health and Nutrition. “We are proud to have such a distinguished leader in our field who is dedicated to advancing GI medicine.”

The celebratory dinner recognized Kirsner's devotion for his many patients and his great contributions to gastroenterology as a science and subspecialty. Among the comments made in honor of Kirsner were those of gastroenterologist and former fellow of Kirsner's at Chicago, David A. Morowitz, MD, of Washington, DC.

“Though Joseph Kirsner started as a scientist, the bedside became the springboard of his career. Watching his unique mixture of brain and heart, we quickly realized that while today's medical science was always destined to change, the Kirsner style of patient-oriented medical practice was permanent, unalterable, set in stone. He became our curriculum.”