Harold Joseph Jeghers

Jeghers’ name is said to be of Flemish origin. He got a BSc-degree in biology in 1928 at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York, and received his basic medical education at the Case Western Reserve University Medical School, Cleveland, qualifying in 1932.

He then undertook postgraduate studies, training in internal medicine at the Evans Memorial Institute for Clinical Research in Boston and at the Boston City Hospital, Boston University School of medicine. He became consultant physician at the Boston City Hospital, where he held a teaching post from 1937 to 1946. In 1946 he was appointed professor of medicine and physician-in-chief at Georgetown University School of Medicine, Washington D.C., while at the same time serving as consultant of internal medicine at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington D.C., and the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.

Jeghers was appointed professor of medicine at Tufts University Medical School in 1966 and took a special interest in the techniques of medical education. He has written two books and more than 70 articles. Jeghers retired from full-time professional activities in 1974.

Jeghers was active as a visiting lecturer at a large number of American institutions and English universities. He also is, or has been, a member of 34 medical organisations in the USA, and from 1930 to 1983 published more than eighty works, alone or with others.

As early as in 1935 Jeghers began building a library based on an indexation conceived of by himself, for use in the medical teaching at the Boston City Hospital. During the sixty years since this modest beginning, the library has grown into a major, data-based reference library, the Jeghers Medical Index System (JMIS), which from 1980 has enjoyed ultramodern housing facilities and is well staffed at the St Elisabeth Hospital Medical Center, Youngstown, Ohio.

We thank Patrick Jucker-Kupper, Switzerland, for information submitted.

• Pigmentation of the skin.
  New England Journal of Medicine, Boston, 1944, 231: 88-100, 122-136, 181-189. Biographical:
• Peter Beighton & Gretha Beighton:
  The Man Behind the Syndrome. Springer-Verlag, Berlin-Heidelberg, 1986.
• Thor Alm:
  Johannes Peutz och Harold Jeghers. Utforskare av underdiagnostiserad tilstånd med tarmpolyper oc mukokutana pigmenteringer.
  Läkartidningen, Stockholm, 1987, 28-29:
  In the series: Mannen bakom syndromet [The Man Behind the Syndrome].
• Josbert J. Keller, G. Johan A. Offerhaus, Francis M. Giardiello and Fred H. Menko:
  Jan Peutz, Harold Jeghers and a remarkable combination of polyposis and pigmentation of the skin and mucous membranes.
  Familial Cancer, 2001, 1: 181-­185.