Douglas B. McGill, 1929–2004

Abstract

Douglas McGill, President of the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) in 1986 died in Rochester, Minnesota on February 21, 2004 from viral pneumonia. Dr. McGill was a distinguished gastroenterologist who had worked at the Mayo Clinic as a consultant since 1961 and had served as Director of the Division of Gastroenterology from 1974 to 1982. He was also Professor of Medicine in the Mayo Clinic School of Medicine. His unexpected death came as a great loss to his many friends and colleagues throughout the world who appreciated his charm, his wisdom, his liberal views, and his many talents as a physician, as a researcher, and as a statesman. Dr. McGill had served the AGA and the discipline of gastroenterology in many ways. He was a member of the AGA Training and Education Committee from 1972 to 1975; he served as Chairman of the AGA Task force on Manpower and Training from 1975 to 1978; he served on the AGA Governing Board from 1979 to 1982 and again from 1987 to 1989; and he was Chairman of the Council on Health Industry/AGA relations from 1990 to 1994. From 1977 to 1979, he served as Chairman of the National Commission on Digestive Diseases. He was a member of the committee on Corporate Giving of the American Digestive Health Foundation from 1994 to 1998. He was Chairman of the Scientific Committee of the World Congress of Gastroenterology that was held in Los Angeles in 1994. He also served on the Ethics Committee of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases from 1976 to 1978 and from 1998 until the present. He was a member of the editorial board of Gastroenterology International, and Gastrointestinal Endoscopy. Dr. McGill was born in New York City, and educated at Phillips Andover Academy, Yale University, and the Tufts School of Medicine. He interned at the Boston City Hospital and pursued his subsequent residency and subspecialty training at the Mayo Clinic. Dr. McGill had a variety of research interests and made substantial contributions in each. His earliest research work was concerned with bilirubin and hepatic secretory function, and he showed that the conjugated hyperbilirubinemia of Dubin—Johnson syndrome was due to a canalicular secretory defect. With Al Newcomer, he characterized lactase deficiency biochemically, analyzed its clinical significance, and validated new diagnostic procedures. He stimulated the late Richard Fleming to develop the Mayo Clinic program on home parenteral alimentation. He worked with David Ahlquist to define the most sensitive method for detecting fecal occult blood. With Juergen Ludwig, the pathologist, and his colleague Keith Lindor, he described non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, a condition that is rapidly becoming one of the most common liver diseases in America, given the increasing prevalence of obesity. He took an interest in percutanous liver biopsy, summarized the vast Mayo Clinic experience, and became a national expert on its indications and utility. He contributed numerous case reports among them hepatitis caused by methylenedianaline (known in England as the Epping jaundice). He described liver failure after jejunoileal bypass, and played an important role in the abandonment of this hazardous surgical procedure. Dr. Sidney Phillips notes, “He taught all students and peers alike not to undertake a move along the standard algorithms unless that step would influence the decision as to the next step.” He also served his beloved institution on numerous administrative committees. These included the Divisional research committee, the Emergency Care Committee, the Residence Review Committee, and the Mayo Art Committee. Figure 2 shows Dr. McGill with present and former heads of the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology. Dr. McGill was known as a man of catholic tastes, and an articulate defender of liberal values. His hospitality was legendary. He had lived in France as a child, spoke fluent French, and served on the editorial board of Gastroenterologie Clinique et Biologique. He was a citizen of the world. For the World Congress of Gastroenterology, he worked effectively to develop the Young Scholars Program that brought promising young gastroenterologists from underdeveloped countries to the congress and had them interact personally with the luminaries in world gastroenterology. He also had a deep interest in medical economics and was the first AGA president to have an economist speak at its plenary session. Dr. McGill is survived by his widow, Jean Perkins McGill, a daughter, Frances McGill Badrines of Barcelona, Spain, as well as three sons, Douglas C. McGill of Rochester, MN, Bruce P. McGill of Minneapolis, MN, and David L. McGill of St. Paul, MN, and three grandchildren. Contributions in his honor may be made to the Mayo Foundation Fund for Gastroenterology and Hepatology Research.