Oral Histories: Radiologist Earl R. Miller, M.D.

I graduated from the University of Wisconsin Medical School in 1936 (AOA) I worked my through School running a radon plant and acting as Physicist for the department of Radiology under Dr. Pohle, who did the therapy for the Department. I met Dr Lester Paul there. Bill Middleton, Professor of Medicine, pointed to Dr. Paul one day and said There goes 80% Of the diagnoses made in this Hospital" It was then that I decided that I would be a Radiologist. I spent one year in New York working as a technician in a Biophysics Lab at the Rockefeller Research Center. New York was a wonderful, safe, interesting place in 1931.

I interned in Research Hospital in Kansas City Missouri ( a town run the BOSS Pendergrass. Interesting) I had only two full nights of sleep during that year.

I spent two years at the old Stanford Hospital and SF General for residency. They offered only 2 year training courses. I spent 6 months in therapy under Dr. Robert Newell, and 6 months in Pathology under Dr. Bill Dock and Dr Dave Wood.

My medical research started at this time. At every autopsy, the coronary arteries of the deceased were injected with an opaque material. Dissection was made ala Schlesinger technique and radiographs of the specimen were obtained. It was shown that arteriosclerosis was a ubiquitous disease of the arteries and that a single blockage was rare.

I spent 6 months at SF General under the great Harry Garland who taught by scarification (Scare and Scar). I learned a lot from him. The last 6 months were spent at Stanford simply watching the practice of Radiology in a relaxed fashion.

I applied to Yale for a third year residency and was given an instructorship and a living wage. (WOW) By this time I was married and had a small daughter. New Haven was beautiful and we were lucky to have a great house there.

Hugh Wilson was Boss at Yale and he opened my eyes to what the residency and the practice of Radiology was all about. He was the sharpest radiologist I ever met. The morning started with a conference at which the cases of the day before were presented by the residents who had checked the films and had rendered a report. Dr, Wilson never missed that conference and he never missed a diagnosis that I know of. He too taught by scarification. Woe unto any resident who flubbed a case or didn't get the proper films for the examination.

Watching these residents at work made me aware of the fact that I really knew nothing about Radiologic diagnosis and that I had better get to work and learn something.

The Journal of the American Roentgen Ray Society and the Journal, Radiology, were THE Journals in which all radiologic literature was published. I decided that if I read one half of an an annual bound volume each night from one of the Societies, published during the past ten years, I probably would be ready for the Board exams and I wouldn't be such a dunce. Frequently I was reading at 3 AM but I did get through them. The Board exam was a breeze.

Dr. Robert Stone had offered me an instructorship at UCSF in July 1940 at $3500 a year. He was tight with a buck but at least I had a job. Dr. Stone was a therapist and he needed a hot-shot kid to fill in in diagnosis. We got along well. I had a ball working there. It was so much fun that I always thought that I should pay the University for the privilege of working there but I always cashed their checks. Dr. Stone supported me strongly and through him I became the youngest full Professor on that campus. He also made It possible for me to get the Radiologic Research Laboratory in 1958. He made it possible for me to work there half days. That became the joy of my life.