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The Personal Information Center

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Medicine: Preserving the Passion

Abstract

Early in his residency at the Boston City Hospital, Harold Jeghers (codiscoverer of the Peutz-Jeghers syndrome) was prompted by a case on his service to review the publications on herpes zoster. The attending physician, after having heard this young resident’s detailed review, asked him to discuss that subject at medical rounds. Jeghers, pleased that his review enabled him to lead an important discussion soon after beginning his residency, was motivated to develop a personal library that would give him quick access to medical information. He subsequently became a pioneer in development of the personal information center. Joseph Van Der Meulen attests to the success of Jegher’s methods; the best informed physicians he knows were trained by Jeghers to organize and use a personal reprint file.

[A] man should keep his little brain-attic stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the rest he can put away in the lumber-room of his library, where he can get it if he wants it.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle1

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© 1987 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Lederberg, J. (1987). The Personal Information Center. In: Medicine: Preserving the Passion. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-1954-3_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-1954-3_3

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4757-1956-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4757-1954-3

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