Otitis Media in Infants and Children

Abstract

Dr. Klein is Professor of Pediatrics at Boston University School of Medicine and Vice Chairman for Academic Affairs of the Department of Pediatrics, Boston Medical Center. He completed his undergraduate studies at Union College in Schenectady, New York in 1952. His career has been notable for fortunate choices and valued role models and mentors. He was admitted to Yale School of Medicine, where he thrived in the Yale system of personal responsibility (absence of examinations). He completed a pediatric internship at the University of Minnesota Hospitals, where he was influenced by the extraordinary presence of Robert Good. Obligatory military service was still in effect in 1957, and the best opportunity for a young physician interested in infectious diseases was to be accepted by Alexander Langmuir into the elite corps of the Epidemic Intelligence Service at the Centers for Disease Control. Dr. Langmuir impressed on “his boys” disciplines of public health and “shoe leather” epidemiology. Dr. Klein was stationed in the New York State Health Department in Albany, where he investigated outbreaks of enteroviral infections, Asian Flu, and antibiotic resistant staphylococcal disease. Although it was Dr. Klein's intent to return to Minneapolis to complete his residency and practice pediatrics, his wife Linda Klein suggested that a year or two in Boston would be a worthwhile family experience. Again, good fortune came his way with a pediatric residency under the most esteemed pediatric clinician of those years, Sydney Gellis, and a Research Fellowship in Infectious Diseases at the Thorndike Memorial Laboratory directed by Maxwell Finland. Dr. Finland was professional father to more than 100 infectious disease fellows who now strive to emulate his research ethic and productivity. Dr. Klein has remained at the Boston City Hospital (now Boston Medical Center) first on the Harvard Medical Service and now on the Boston University faculty. He is the author of more than 400 publications, including the textbooks Infectious Diseases of the Fetus and Newborn Infant 5th edition, co-edited with Jack S. Remington (Philadelphia: Saunders, 2001) and Otitis Media in Infants and Children cowritten with Charles D. Bluestone (Philadelphia: Saunders 3rd ed 2001). He is the recipient of the Bristol Award of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the Distinguished Physician Award of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society and Clinician of the Year Award of the Massachusetts Infectious Diseases Society. Dr. Klein is a highly competitive tennis player, an emotionally labile Boston Red Sox fan, and a devotee of big band music. Address correspondence: Jerome O. Klein, M.D., Pediatric Infectious Diseases, Boston Medical Center/BUSM, Maxwell Finland Laboratory for Infectious Diseases, 774 Albany Street, 5th Floor, Boston, MA