René-Théophile-Hyacinthe Laennec was a French physician and musician. His skill at carving his own wooden flutes led him to invent the stethoscope in 1816, while working at the Hôpital Necker. He pioneered its use in diagnosing various chest conditions. He became a lecturer at the Collège de France in 1822 and professor of medicine in 1823. His final appointments were that of head of the medical clinic at the Hôpital de la Charité and professor at the Collège de France. He went into a coma and subsequently died of tuberculosis on August 13, 1826 at age 45.
Sir William Osler, 1st Baronet, was a Canadian physician and one of the "Big Four" founding professors of Johns Hopkins Hospital. Osler created the first residency program for specialty training of physicians, and he was the first to bring medical students out of the lecture hall for bedside clinical training. He has frequently been described as the Father of Modern Medicine and one of the "greatest diagnosticians ever to wield a stethoscope". Osler was a person of many interests, who in addition to being a physician, was a bibliophile, historian, author, and renowned practical joker. Outside of medicine, he was passionate about medical libraries and medical history and among his achievements were the founding of the History of Medicine Society, at the Royal Society of Medicine, London. In the field of librarianship he was instrumental in founding the Medical Library Association of Great Britain and Ireland, the Association of Medical Librarians with three others, including Margaret Charlton, the medical librarian of his alma mater, McGill University. He left his large history of medicine library to McGill, where it continues to exist as the Osler Library.
Pulmonology, pneumology or pneumonology is a medical specialty that deals with diseases involving the respiratory tract. It is also known as respirology, respiratory medicine, or chest medicine in some countries and areas.
Josef Leopold Auenbrugger or Avenbrugger, also known as Leopold von Auenbrugger, was an Austrian physician who invented percussion as a diagnostic technique. On the strength of this discovery, he is considered one of the founders of modern medicine.
Jean-Nicolas Corvisart-Desmarets was a French physician.
Maude Elizabeth Seymour Abbott was a Canadian physician, among Canada's earliest female medical graduates, and an internationally known expert on congenital heart disease. She was one of the first women to obtain a BA from McGill University.
Joseph Škoda was a Czech physician, medical professor and dermatologist. Together with Carl Freiherr von Rokitansky, he was the founder of the Modern Medical School of Vienna.
Sir Vincent Zachary Cope MD MS FRCS was an English physician, surgeon, author, historian and poet perhaps best known for authoring the book Cope's Early Diagnosis of the Acute Abdomen from 1921 until 1971. The work remains a respected and standard text of general surgery, and new editions continue being published by editors long after his death, the most recent one being the 22nd edition, published in 2010. Cope also wrote widely on the history of medicine and of public dispensaries.
Dame Margaret Elizabeth Turner-Warwick was a British medical doctor and thoracic specialist. She was the first woman president of the Royal College of Physicians (1989–1992) and, later, chairman of the Royal Devon and Exeter Health Care NHS Trust (1992–1995).
Charles James Blasius Williams was an English physician. He was an early adopter of new techniques of physical examination, and became known as a specialist in diseases of the chest.
Archibald Billing FRS was an English physician and writer on art.
Peter John Barnes, FRCP, FCCP, FMedSci, FRS is a British respiratory scientist and clinician, a specialist in the mechanisms and treatment of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). He is currently Margeret Turner-Warwick Professor of Thoracic Medicine at the National Heart & Lung Institute, previous head of respiratory medicine at Imperial College and honorary consultant physician at the Royal Brompton Hospital London.
David Geraint James FRCP was a Welsh physician who devoted his career to the treatment of sarcoidosis, setting up a specialist clinic for the condition and earning the nickname of the "King of Sarcoid".
Peter Tiffany Macklem, OC, FRCP(C), FRSC was a Canadian doctor, medical researcher and hospital administrator.
Hugh Morriston Davies was a Welsh thoracic surgeon, the first to perform a dissection lobectomy in the world, and the first to perform a thoracoplasty in the United Kingdom, both firsts achieved in 1912.
Sir James Kingston Fowler, KCMG, KCVO, FRCP was a British physician, noted for his work at Middlesex Hospital and as an expert in diseases of the lungs.
Horace Joules LRCP, MRCP, MRCS, FRCP was a British physician, health administrator and health campaigner, who played an important role in promoting public health and preventative medicine; particularly the link between cigarette smoking and lung cancer following the work of Richard Doll, Austin Bradford Hill, Ernst Wynder and Evarts Graham, and the adverse effects of air pollution.
Philip Hugh-Jones FRCP was a British respiratory physician and Medical Research Council (MRC) researcher who during the Second World War investigated the effects of gun fumes on tank operators in Dorset and the effect of coal dust on Welsh coal miners with particular relevance to pneumoconiosis. This work led to future post-war pioneering research in lung physiology, the effect of asbestos on the lungs and lung diseases including emphysema.
William Pasteur (1855–1943) was a British physician and pioneer of pulmonology.
Charles Stone Bryan is an American retired infectious disease physician, researcher, author and Heyward Gibbes distinguished professor emeritus of internal medicine at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine (UofSC). His contributions to medicine have included working on a formula for administering the maximum possible dose of penicillin to people with kidney failure which would treat the infection and avoid penicillin toxicity, and treating and writing on HIV/AIDS. He is also a noted medical historian and an authority on the life of William Osler.
