Nephrologist Leonard B. Berman, MD, Dead at 59

Abstract

three most recent submissions to JAMA by Leonard B. Berman, MD, reveal a great deal about this physician, scientist, teacher, and philosopher who died Jan 24 of renal carcinoma a week after his 59th birthday. First is his learned and highly readable discussion for JAMA 's CONTEMPO issue of the state of the art in nephrology, his primary specialty and a field in which colleagues call him of the early giants (1982; 247:2962-2965). Next is his entertaining discussion of the Ritual and Reason of an institutional visit by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals (JCAH) in A PIECE OF MY MIND (1982;247:2278). Finally, there is his droll, but not unkindly, response to a letter challenging his JCAH submission on grounds that it might mislead private-practice psychiatrists into devaluing the importance of such surveys in hospitals where they work. His reply began: The notion that one short article