Abstract of Recording

Peter R. Holt, MD, is the physician responsible for establishing the Department of Gastroenterology at St. Luke’s Hospital, and served as its Chief from 1962-2000. In this interview he briefly mentions his childhood in Berlin, Germany and England during WWII, his decision to further his medical studies in the US, finding his way to St. Luke’s Hospital almost accidently. He discusses his fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, his early research, moving into gastroenterology, and his return to St. Luke’s. He touches on the general culture of St. Luke’s in the 1960s-1970s, for example encouraging nursing staff to join patient rounds, the hospital mergers under Continuum Health Partners, his eventual decision to leave St. Luke’s, and the positions he has held at the American Health Foundation, The Strang Cancer Prevention Center, and his current post at the Rockefeller University. He mentions interactions with the following colleagues: G. Jarvis Coffin, MD; Robert B. Case, MD; Richard N. Pierson, MD; John H. Keating, Sr., MD; Theodore B. VanItallie, MD; Kurt J. Isselbacher, MD; Charles A. Flood MD; Miles J. Schwartz, MD; Richard S. McCray, MD; David Chalfin, MD, PhD; Steven Mezey, MD; Stanley E. Bradley, MD; Norton Rosenzweig, MD; Steven Moss, MD; Albert Attia, MD; and Harry A. Roselle, MD.

Video Recording of Peter R. Holt, MD interview (INT 0170)

Transcript of  Peter R. Holt, MD interview (INT 0170)

Biographical Sketch

Peter R. Holt, MD was born into a Jewish German family in Berlin, Germany and left in 1939, with his parents, shortly after Kristallnacht. The family relocated to England, where he pursued medical studies at The London Hospital Medical College and following an internship at The London, two years in the Royal Army Medical Corps.  He came to the United States to pursue additional medical studies, being accepted for a residency at St. Luke’s Hospital, and later a research fellowship in Gastroenterology at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. He was invited to establish the Department of Gastroenterology at St. Luke's Hospital, later St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center, where he trained over 100 gastroenterologists. In 2000 he resigned from St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center to pursue clinical translational research interests. For the past decade, he has been a Senior Research Scientist at The Rockefeller University using its nutritional and metabolic facilities to conduct translational human studies in cancer prevention.

Curriculum Vitae of Peter R. Holt, MD