Helen Mackay
Helen Mackay | |
|---|---|
| Born | 23 May 1891 Inverness  |
| Died | 17 July 1965 (aged 74) |
| Occupation | Pediatrician, ornithologist |
Helen Mackay (full name Helen Marion McPherson Mackay)[1] (23 May 1891 – 17 July 1965)[2] was a British pediatrician known for her studies of childhood nutrition and preventative medicine. She completed her education at the Royal Free Hospital's women's medical college.[3] Mackay was the first female physician at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and also the first woman to be appointed as a consultant for this Hospital.[1] She was also among the first women to become a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians.[3]
Helen Mackay was the first person to investigate anemia in infants and to appoint iron deficiency as an important factor in anemia. Since her research findings in the 1920s on anemia, iron deficiency and the importance of breastfeeding and iron treatments, increases in hemoglobin concentrations in infants have been seen throughout Britain.[4]
Mackay died on July 17, 1965 due to a stroke and was buried in London.[1]
Early life and education
Born in Inverness, Scotland, on May 23, 1891 to Duncan Lachlan Mackay and Marion Gordin Campbell, Helen Mackay spent most of her childhood in Burma, where she was homeschooled.[1] Mackay attended Cheltenham Ladies' College in England for her Bachelor of Science and master's degree, which she earned in 1914, and upon graduation, attended medical school at the Royal Free Hospital's women's medical college, earning an MD in 1917. While there, she worked as an assistant pathologist and house physician, and edited London School of Medicine for Women Magazine, a magazine for the women physicians there. Mackay mainly focused on pediatrics and was one of the first women to be appointed as a consultant for the hospital.[1][3]
Career and research
Helen Mackay became the first female physician at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.[1] In 1919, Mackay moved to Vienna when she received a Beit Research Fellowship to study rickets and other nutritional diseases at the Lister Institute of Preventative Medicine. She remained in Vienna until 1922, but continued her research in the United Kingdom. Mackay was a part of a British team led by Harriette Chick whose studies displayed the importance of cod liver oil and sunlight in preventing and potentially curing rickets.[1] While working on finding the cause of rickets, Mackay noticed all of the infants in her studies were anemic, and thus she became interested in finding the cause of anemia.[4] Mackay returned to London and conducted the first investigation on anemia in infants with the help of medical statistician Major Greenwood.[1] Mackay discovered that iron deficiency had a very important role in the cause of anemia in infants.[4] She further discovered that breastfed infants had a lower chance of becoming anemic than those fed with artificial milk.[4] Her research also provided compelling evidence that showed infants who were given iron developed fewer infections, gained more weight, and were overall healthier.[4] The findings of her studies were summarized in “Nutritional Anaemia in Infancy” and published in 1931.[1] Helen Mackay was the first person to try to define anemia by defining the lower limit of normal hemoglobin concentration.[4] Today, the World Health Organization’s definition of anemia closely resembles Mackay’s definition.[4] Mackay was awarded the Dawson Memorial Prize in Pediatrics and won the British Medical Association Ernest Hart Memorial Research Scholar fellowship for her preventative medicine research.[3]
Legacy and death
Mackay became the first woman Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in 1934, elected because of her research on nutritional anemia. Her research in this period focused on breastfeeding and formula feeding, and she continued to investigate dietary deficiency diseases. Later in her career, she continued to write about nutrition in children and served in several leadership roles in the medical community, including the Royal Society of Medicine and Queen Elizabeth Hospital for Children.[3]
Helen Mackay was concerned about the impact of social conditions on child health and development.[5] By setting up clinics in Hackney, Mackay was able to help mothers and infants in her community.[5]
In 1945, Helen Mackay was elected to the British Paediatric Association, and she was one of the first women to receive such a designation.[5] She continued to work as a consultant pediatrician for the Mother's Hospital, Clapton, and to Hackney Hospital until 1959.[1] On July 17, 1965, Mackay died due to a stroke, and she was buried 3 days later at the Golders Green Crematorium in London.[1]
Honors and awards
- Beit Research Fellowship (1919-1922)
- Ernest Hart Memorial Research Scholar, British Medical Association
- Dawson Memorial Prize (Pediatrics)
- Fellow, Royal College of Physicians (1934)
- Chair, Advisory Committee of Pediatricians
- President, Section of Disease in Children, Royal Society of Medicine
- Honorary consultant, Queen Elizabeth Hospital for Children
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Stevens, David. "Mackay, Helen Marion McPherson". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
- ^ "Honorary Physician | Dr Helen Mackay (1891-1965) - Alumni - From Fever to Consumption - The Story of Healthcare in Hackney". Hackney Society. 9 February 2010.
- ^ a b c d e Ogilvie, Marilyn Bailey (2000-01-01). The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: Pioneering Lives from Ancient Times to the Mid-20th Century. Routledge. ISBN 9780415920384.
- ^ a b c d e f g Stevens, David (1991). "Helen Mackay, Another Iron Lady: Her Work On Iron Deficiency Anaemia Stands Up, 60 Years Later". British Medical Journal. 303: 147–48. JSTOR 29712341.
- ^ a b c Stevens, David (1991). "Helen Mackay and anaemia in infancy : Then and now" (PDF). Archives of Disease in Childhood. 66: 1451–1453.