A Celebration of the Life and Work of Caroline Breese Hall, MD

Abstract

A symposium to celebrate the life and work of Dr. Caroline Breese Hall (or Caren as she was known to thousands of her colleagues, students, mentees, and friends) was held at the University of Rochester School of Medicine & Dentistry on April 25, 2014. The symposium also served as an opening event to announce the establishment of the Caroline Breese Hall, MD Endowment for Infectious Diseases at the University of Rochester Medical Center, which will provide salary support for a promising fellow or junior faculty member at the University working in Infectious Diseases. The endowment was established as a gift from the Hall family. Caren was remembered for her incredible energy and warmth and her formidable intellect and creativity. Her contributions to clinical research and teaching greatly improved the lives of children, medical students, residents, fellows, and colleagues alike. Many current and former trainees and colleagues came together at the symposium to meet her husband, Dr. William J. Hall, her 3 children, and several of her grandchildren, and to listen to presentations from those who worked or trained with Caren over her 4-decade career at Rochester. A native of Brighton, New York (and daughter of eminent pediatrician Burtis Burr Breese, MD, himself a pioneer in office-based clinical research and the development of the office throat culture for streptococci [1–7]), Caroline Breese Hall, MD earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Wellesley College and a medical degree from the University of Rochester School of Medicine & Dentistry. She completed a residency in Pediatrics and a fellowship in Infectious Diseases at Yale University. Along with her husband Dr. William Hall, Dr. Caroline Breese Hall joined the faculty at the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) in 1971, with appointments in both Pediatrics and Internal Medicine. She was appointed Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine in 1986. Dr. Hall’s research focused on pediatric clinical virology—especially the natural history of infections caused by respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and human herpes viruses 6 and 7 (HHV6 and HHV7). Early in her career, she carried out studies that defined the diagnosis, epidemiology, transmission, and therapy of RSV bronchiolitis in children [8–20]. Later, when HHV6 was identified as the cause of roseola, she initiated studies that defined the clinical spectrum of HHV6 infection, and she attempted to understand the relationship between chromosomal integration and vertical transmission of the virus [21–26]. At the same time, few pediatric pathogens escaped her focus and interest, and Dr. Hall contributed and collaborated on manyworks concerning group A streptococci, parainfluenza and influenza viruses, coronaviruses, rhinoviruses, human metapneumovirus, rotaviruses, and noroviruses [27–38]. Caren Hall was a major contributor to the discipline of pediatric infectious diseases, as teacher, mentor, researcher, and counselor, and she published approximately 300 articles in the scientific literature and 130 textbook chapters—many of which were graced by her own original poetry, which spanned verses on life, odes to colleagues, and humorous microbial limericks. She was a founding member of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society (PIDS), its fifth president and Society Historian, and she also served for many years on the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Committee on Infectious Diseases (Red Book Committee) and the Centers for Disease Control and Editorial Commentary