Introducing a New Series of Epidemiologic Case Studies: Podcast with Dr. John Marr

Posted on July 19, 2018 by jphmpdirect

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Welcome to another episode of JPHMP Direct TALK. Today, Elena Vidrascu speaks with Dr. John Marr, former director of the New York City Bureau of Communicable Diseases, about a new collection of case studies called Backstories in Epidemiology: True Medical Mysteries, which he co-edits with Carole Novick and JPHMP Editor-in-Chief Dr. Lloyd Novick. The first story in the collection, “Mystery in the Pines,” recounts a typhoid epidemic in the Catskill Mountains and will be published in the Sept. issue of the Journal of Public Health Management and Practice. A second medical mystery, “The World’s Deadliest Poison,” written by Dr. Marr and co-authored by Dr. Marcus Horwitz, will be published here on JPHMP Direct, where the series will continue to publish each month subsequently. In this interview, Dr. Marr explains the inspiration behind the collection and briefly relates the true story behind “The World’s Deadliest Poison.” Learn more about Backstories in Epidemiology.

Clarifications: In the interview that follows, Dr. Marr attributes a quote to Einstein when credit belongs to Pasteur. Also, in relating a story about two cases of vaginal carcinoma linked to medications, a slight clarification is needed: It was the pregnant mothers who took the medicine that subsequently induced vaginal cancer in their daughters. John Marr backstories podcast

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*Articles may require purchase or subscription to JPHMP. John Marr backstories podcast

Dr. John S. Marr is an American physician, epidemiologist, and author. His professional life has concerned outbreaks of infectious disease and thus his subsequent writing career has focused on that topic, particularly historical epidemics. Marr graduated from Yale and received an MD from New York Medical College. He then completed an MPH degree from the Harvard School of Public Health. Marr is a board-certified (internal medicine, preventive medicine, occupational medicine) physician and a Louisiana State University Fellow in Tropical Medicine.