3 doctors awarded $500,000 MacArthur Foundation grants

A pediatrician, a professor and a surgeon were selected for originality, creativity and potential to make important contributions.

By Damon Adams, AMNews staff. Oct. 16, 2006.

One rainy night in August, 17 years ago, D. Holmes Morton II, MD, pulled his car off the highway to think about where his life was headed. Former teachers at Harvard Medical School told the pediatrician that moving to Lancaster County, Pa., would end a bright career in academic medicine. Some Amish and Mennonite families were skeptical about his plan to open a clinic in their community, and Dr. Morton had his own reservations.

With perseverance, his Clinic for Special Children opened a few months later and found a home in a farming community in Strasburg, Pa., treating Amish and Mennonite children afflicted with genetic diseases. During a benefit auction last month for the clinic, he remembered that dreary day of doubt and how far he and his practice had come.

The clinic has reduced child mortality from genetic diseases, and Dr. Morton's research has influenced how physicians around the world diagnose and treat patients with such diseases. Part country doctor with a bushy moustache and part researcher with a passion for discovery, Dr. Morton has been honored numerous times, including the Albert Schweitzer Prize for Humanitarianism in 1993.

He's not sure how he will spend the $500,000 he's getting from the MacArthur Foundation for being one of 25 fellows honored last month for innovative work in medicine, science and other areas. He is one of three physicians -- along with John A. Rich, MD, MPH, and Atul Gawande, MD, MPH -- who will receive the award money, no strings attached, over the next five years.