EPIC Conversation with Allen I. Hyman, M.D. and Jeanne Stellman, President of Emeritus Professors in Columbia, October 18, 2022
Allen I. Hyman was a premed student at Columbia University, majoring in chemistry and philosophy. After completing medical school, Dr. Hyman aspired to be a pediatrician and started his residency at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. He began his academic career at Columbia-Presbyterian in 1965. Within two years he became the co-director of the newly established neonatal intensive care unit and slowly changed the management of premature newborns with respiratory distress syndrome.
He later become the co-director of the new surgical intensive care unit at the Presbyterian Hospital. His research focused on the metabolic changes of the critically ill, developing new methods of nourishing nutritionally depleted, traumatized patients.
In 1987 Dr. Hyman was awarded a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy fellowship in Washington, DC. Senator Bob Dole invited Dr. Hyman to join his staff as a health aide. Two measures that Dr. Hyman worked on were a law expanding Medicare to include drug benefits and research funding for AIDS.
In 1993, Dr. Hyman was appointed executive vice president, chief of staff, and medical director of Presbyterian Hospital, which was on the verge of bankruptcy. By installing sweeping changes in reimbursement and practice procedures, the hospital’s financial plight was stabilized. Care was expanded for residents in the underserved community of Washington Heights, a new children’s hospital was built, and a merger took place with New York Hospital. The newly created NewYork-Presbyterian soon became one of the best hospitals in America.
A pioneer in intensive care practice, Dr. Hyman has endowed the Allen I. Hyman, M.D. Professorship in Anesthesiology/Critical Care at Columbia. In 2017 Columbia University awarded him an Honorary Degree in Science.
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Emeritus Professors in Columbia (EPIC) constitutes a professional and social fellowship of retired professors, researchers, and administrators who share the common experience of extensive careers in education and wish to pursue intellectual interests or render further service to the University community.