WOMAN DOCTOR APPOINTED AS WHITE HOUSE PHYSICIAN

Press, Volume C, Issue 29506, 6 May 1961, Page 8

WOMAN DOCTOR APPOINTED AS WHITE HOUSE PHYSICIAN

Precedent Broken By New President

WASHINGTON. VVER since Janet Travell was a young girl she had planned a career in medicine; but even in her most sanguine moments she did not picture herself as personal physician to the President of the United States. However, sHbitly after President John F. Kennedy took the oath of office, he announced the appointment of the 60-year-old New Yorker as White House physician. She is the first woman to hold that post, usually filled by a military man.

Only once before has a woman doctor served in the White House, and then only temporarily and under the title of “head nurse.” In 1881 Dr. Susan Anndson, one of the pioneer women physicians of the nation, attended her personal friend and former patient President James A. Garfield from the time he was shot by an assassin on July 2, 1881, until the President died on September 19.

Dr. Travell. who is a general practitioner and doctor of orthopedic medicine. with a special interest in muscular pains, has been treating the President since 1955. He has called her “a medical genius . , . the best I've ever seen.” She is a close personal friend of the Kennedy® and has treated several members of the family. Tlte doctor describe? the circumstances of her appointment in this way: ‘‘Right after the election Mr Kennedy said to me, ‘I don't want to change my doctor now. How about coming to the White House with me?’ So I said I would. I find it easy to make decisions. That is part of my temperament.” A brisk, blue-eyed woman of patrician dignity and decided femininity, Janet Travell had determined early in life not to let being a woman interfere ■ with success in her chosen field. Her doctor-father’s devotion to the profession and the informal anatomy lessons he had given his two young daughters had stimulated her first youthful interest in the study of medicine. After finishing preparatory school, Janet attended Wellesley College, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, national honorary scholastic fraternity, in her third year. In 1926. after maintaining the highest scholastic standing in four years at Cornell University Medical College, she received her professional degree. When she began her work. Dr. Travell was a general physician, with a special interest in pain. She soon worked as a cardiologist in chest pain, then moved on to her present prime specialty —the problems of pain in the skeletal muscles. Varied Experience In her 35 years in the medical profession, Dr. Travell has worked in various capacities in New York hospitals. She has been a house physician, a teacher of cardiology, an associate physician in cardiovascular research, and doctor to outpatients. She has been on the staff of the Cornell University's Medical College since 1930, and for the last nine years she has been associate professor of clinical pharmacology. Not content with the more conventional phases of her profession, this indefatigable doctor has clattered across ice-fields in a dog sled in northern Canada to learn about the effects of cold; ridden tractors to learn how better to design the seat to relieve strain on drivers’ backs; and helped to design more comfortable seats on jet airliners. Dr. Travell is a Diplomate of the United States National Board of Medical Examiners and has received grants for research in cardiology and arterial disease from both government and private organisations. It was Dr. Travell's pioneering work in charting patterns of pain, with special concentration on the belief

of muscle spasms, that brought her to Mr Kennedy’s attention. He was referred to her in 1955 when, despite two serious spinal operations to correct a war-incurred injury, he was still in great pain. Using her skill and knowledge in dealing with muscle pain, she probed to find the affected muscles, then injected low-strength procaine (novocain) directly into the muscles to relax them and relieve the pain. A few months of intensive treatment, plus a small wedge placed in one shoe to help equalise pressures on his back, put Mr Kennedy into what his doctor calls "excellent condition.” She

recommended that he resume the golf, tennis and swimming to which he had been devoted before his back trouble. "He has been in wonderful condition for several years,” she says. “There are no restrictions of any kind on his diet or activities.” As the President’s personal physician in charge of the White House clinic. Dr. Travell will take care of Mrs Kennedy as well, as she has in the past, and may also look after the immediate needs of their children in the temporary absence of their pediatrician. Although she does not expect the President to need any particular attention. Dr. Travell plans to see him every day “at least to say ‘good morning, and how do you feel?’ ” Dr. Travell will not live at the Executive Mansion, but

Will have an official White House car equipped with a radio so that she can always be reached by the President Also, at the insistence of tha Secret Service (which is charged with protecting the President at all times) she will travel with the presidential party to be on hand in case of possible accidents.

Still A Research Worker Always the teacher and research worker, Dr. Travell has joined the staff of the George Washington University’s School of Medicine. She will serve without salary as associate clinical professor of medicine on a "very flexible” and part-time basis. The arrangement will allow her to “keep in close touch with academic medicine.’ 1 she says, and will provide opportunities for attending medical conferences and participating in teaching programmes. In private life Dr. Travell is Mrs John W. G. Powell, wife of an investment counsellor who is opening an office in Washington. They share each other’s enthusiasm for horseback ridmg. swimming, golf and tennis. The doctor has been an expert at tennis since her youth, when she won the college championship three times. Dr. Travell and her husband also enjoy opera, the theatre and small. Intimate dinners for friends in the arts and in politics. The Powells have two daughters, one studing opera in Italy, and the other a sculptress living in southern United States, and three grandchildren. Dr. Travell’s family has a tradition in the field of medicine. Her 91-year-o'd doctor-father has now retired

but a sister and step-brother are in active practice. One niece is a pediatrician married to a surgeon and another niece is in medical school. Dr. Travell's appointment has been hailed warmly by both men and women in the medical profession. Dr. Claire F, Ryder, president of the American Women's Medical Association. says. “The choice of Dr. Travell as White House physician is another proof of the growing appreciation in this country of the role of women in medicine.” In the view of Dr. Vincent Askey, president of the American Medical Association, ‘‘The fact that Dr. Travell is a woman is unimportant; more important is the fact that she is capable and well trained.” (United States Information Service )