Margaret Billingham

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Margaret Billingham
Pathologist
Known for‘Billingham’s Criteria’ in post heart transplant rejection
SpouseJohn Billingham
Children2
Scientific career
InstitutionsStanford University

Margaret E. Billingham (née Macpherson) (September 20, 1930 - July 14, 2009) was a

Billingham's Criteria'. She also described chronic rejection and techniques in heart endomyocardial biopsy
.

Born in Tanzania, and educated in Kenya and subsequently qualified from the Royal Free Hospital in London, Billingham found herself developing rejection pathology and eventually becoming director of cardiac pathology at Stanford University Medical Center. She settled in the United States with her husband, who was also a doctor, and their two children, and died there in 2009.

Early life

Billingham's father was posted as a British diplomat, to Tanzania.[1] She was then born in 1930 in Tanga, Tanzania, and then educated at Loreto School in Kenya. She had a sister, Shirley Anne. Moving to England, she gained admission to the Royal Free Hospital in London to study medicine, subsequently graduating in 1954.[2][3]

Family

She met her future husband John Billingham while they were both doing their junior house posts. They married in 1956, while they were both employed at Hampstead General Hospital. In 1963, they then emigrated to Houston, Texas, with their two sons, Robert and Graham. Two years later, in 1965, they moved to San Francisco Bay. Her husband became chief of the

life sciences division at Ames Research Center.[4]

Medical career

In 1966, Billingham started a 2-year postdoctoral researcher at Stanford. Originally in cardiopulmonary medicine, she then switched to pathology in 1968. By 1988, Billingham was professor in pathology at Stanford.[2]

She worked closely with

endomyocardial biopsy. The histological samples were examined in the pathology laboratories for early signs of rejection, allowing early treatment interventions.[2] The timing of her work coincided with the excitement in early heart transplant surgery, with Norman Shumway performing the first heart transplant in the United States in 1968.[3] She was at Stanford at a time when Stanford was leading cardiac transplantation research on an international platform and when places like Stanford had relatively few leading female scientists.[1]

The grading system was soon adopted as the standard method for examining rejection and other cardiac diseases. Her work led her to be known as 'founder of cardiac transplantation pathology'.

Adriamycin, a chemotherapy drug.[3]

In 1972, she became diplomat

American College of Pathology.[6]

In 1990, she became the first female president of the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation (ISHLT).[7]

Billingham authored more than 500 papers, abstracts and chapters.[8] Some recent advances in cardiac pathology, Progress in human pathology, Margaret E. Billingham, July 1979.[9]

Later life and legacy

In 1994, three years after being appointed director of women in medicine and medical sciences at Stanford's school of medicine, she retired.[1] Together with her husband, they moved to Penn Valley in Northern California. Spending time with her family, discovering California and enjoying fishing and gardening, were to become her past times until her death at Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital, Grass Valley, from kidney cancer in 2009.[3][4]

Billingham not only devised the scoring system for acute heart transplant rejection based on endomyocardial biopsy samples at Stanford, but worked on getting it accepted internationally. This "Billingham criteria" became widely used.[1][3]

Tributes

Described by colleagues as “generous”, "kind", "gracious" and “reflective”, she was also known to advocate fellow female physicians.[3][4]

"Her contributions were the key to advancing the care and survival of heart transplant patients" – Robert Robbins, director of cardiovascular institute.[3][10]

Billingham received numerous International honours and awards. In 1986, she received the medal for histopathology of heart transplantation, from the University of Padua, and the city of Paris gold medal for contributions to heart transplantation.[6]

The U.S. and Canadian Academy of Pathology bestowed her the Distinguished Pathologist of the Year Award for 2001. She was frequently invited to speak at many National Institutes of Health symposiums and also been advisor to them.[4]

Following her death, the ISHLT[11] awarded her their lifetime achievement award.[11]

Selected publications

  • Caves, Philip K.; Stinson, Edward B.; Billingham, Margaret; Shumway, Norman E. (1973). "Percutaneous Transvenous Endomyocardial Biopsy in Human Heart Recipients". The Annals of Thoracic Surgery. 16 (4). Elsevier BV: 325–336.
    PMID 4583546
    .    .
  • Billingham, M. E. (April 1980). "Pathology-epitomes of progress: endomyocardial biopsy". The Western Journal of Medicine. 132 (4): 340–341.
    PMID 18748589
    .

References

  1. ^ a b c d Stiles, Steve (July 22, 2009). "Heart-Transplant Pathology Pioneer Billingham Dies". Medscape. Retrieved 2018-01-01.
  2. ^
    S2CID 220114150
    .
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Stephanie Pappas (2009-07-21). "Margaret Billingham, pioneer in heart transplant pathology, dies at 78". Stanford Medicine – News Center. Retrieved 2018-01-01.
  4. ^ a b c d II, By Thomas H. Maugh (2009-07-30). "Dr. Margaret Billingham dies at 78; Stanford heart pathologist – LA Times". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2018-01-01.
  5. ISBN 978-3-319-46384-1
    .
  6. ^
    ISSN 1558-2027
    .
  7. ^ Thomas H. Maugh II (2009-07-31). "Dr. Margaret Billingham, 1930-2009: Made key advance in heart transplants". tribunedigital-chicagotribune. Retrieved 2018-01-01.
  8. OL 8095239M
    .
  9. PMID 381157
    .
  10. ^ "Margaret Billingham Guestbook". Stanford Medicine – News Center. 2009-07-22. Retrieved 2018-01-01.
  11. ^ a b "2010 Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient". ishlt.org. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
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