Quest G: Panel G1 Role of Molecular and Cell Biology in Translational Medicine

Chair’s IntroductionKim Solez, M.D.

“A specialist is a barbarian whose ignorance is not well-rounded.” - Stanislaw Lem, At age 26, just after graduation from medical school, I was a specialist interested in acute tubular injury: Solez, K., et al: Medullary plasma flow and intravascular leukocyte accumulation in acute renal failure. Kidney Int. 6:24-37, 1974.

This specialist interest shared by only to a few led eventually decades later to something very general and widely accessible, the concept of “Medicine Writ Large”.

Medicine Writ Large:The Ultimate in Translational MedicineKim Solez, M.D.

The Banff Classification of Kidney Transplant PathologyHistologic criteria for the diagnosis of rejection and other conditions in the transplanted kidney, began 1991, updated and expanded every two years in consensus meeting.

Banff Transplant Pathology Meetings Began in the Transcanada Pipelines Pavilion at the Banff Centre in 1991, Future Meetings Are Planned through 2021.

Helped Create Unique New Medical School in NepalNew Medical School Devoted to Rural Health, Patan Academy of Health Sciences, Annual Consultative Meeting 2011, Nagarkot, Nepal

Unique Multidisciplinary Course on Technology and the Future of Medicine LABMP 590 Created in 2011

Medicine Writ LargeKim Solez, M.D.

Evidence for the Coming Primacy of Machines

• Evidence for the Coming Technological Singularity

1. Time Magazine cover Feb. 2011 “2045: The Year Man Becomes Immortal”

2. IBM’s Watson computer beats top human contenders on Jeopardy!

3. Foxconn announces plans to replace one milion workers with one million robots Nov. 2012

4. The Technological Singularity appears in Dilbert March 2013

Medicine Writ Large“Medicine is a social science, and politics is nothing else than medicine writ large. Medicine as a social science, as the science of human beings, has the obligations to point out problems and to attempt their theoretical solution: the politician, the practical anthropologist, must find the means for their practical solution.”

– Rudolf Virchow

Medicine Writ Large“It is the curse of humanity that it learns to tolerate even the most horrible situations by habituation. Physicians are the natural attorneys of the poor, and the social problems should largely be solved by them.”

– Rudolf Virchow

Medicine Writ LargeKim Solez, M.D.