Stafford L. Warren was one of the most significant participants in radiology throughout his life. He was not only the first doctor to perform mammography, but also helped transform UCLA into one of the most prestigious medical universities in the country, was a special mental disorder assistant for Presidents JF Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, and helped the US government in testing nuclear weapons, before talking about the dangers of nuclear fallout from weapons tests that were controversial at the time. However, his strong opinions would ever be considered, which would lead to a partial test-ban treaty in 1963.
Born in New Mexico in 1896, Stafford L. Warren attended the University of California at Berkeley, and in 1918 graduated from his bachelor of arts degree. In 1922, he graduated from the University of California at San Francisco with a medical degree and then a postgraduate degree from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Harvard University.
Warren became an assistant professor of medicine at the School of Medicine at the University of Rochester in 1926. Since the department of radiology was completely new at the time, Warren was one of the original medical team that Dean George Whipple decided to serve in the school. By 1930, Warren was an assistant professor of medicine. He began studying the work of Albert Salomon, a sociologist at the University of Berlin, who produced more than 3000 images of mastectomy samples and widely studied many forms and stages of breast cancer. Since Salomon did not seek to recognize the life-saving aspects of his discoveries, Warren expanded his research using radiology to track changes in breast tissue and develop stereoscopic techniques in which the patient would lie on his side with his arm raised, being X-Rayed. It was a huge breakthrough in the detection of breast cancer, since it allowed to diagnose breast cancer without surgery. In 1930, Warren published a chest x-ray. Today, Warren is cited as the inventor of a mammogram for his breast imaging technique. Every year, mammograms are responsible for diagnosing millions of cases of breast cancer, which effectively saves the lives of women around the world.
Warren, taking the most important milestone in his career and developing a new life-saving technique, then continued to work on a new project: monitoring the health and safety of thousands during the Manhattan project. His new role meant responsibility for the safety aspects of the detonation of the Trinity nuclear test in Alamogordo, New Mexico on July 16, 1945. He later studied radiological safety when he led a team of surveyors to Japan and the Bikini Atoll in 1946, where more nuclear tests were conducted. Warren was responsible for assessing the radioactive contamination of the environment and the atmosphere in which he was shocked.
In response to this, in an article for the magazine LIFE in 1947, he wrote: “The development of atomic bombs presented the world with many formidable scientific, moral, and political problems, almost all of which have not yet been resolved.” He continued to analyze in detail the effects of bombs, people and the environment, the length of time during which the effects of the bomb continued, the security measures used during the Bikini expedition, in which "the month before men could stay on some of the ships for more than an hour" and “300 people in the security section lived and worked in the contaminated area to protect some 42,000 other members of the Bikini expedition. Keep track of who determined how much time he can stay. ” The men were cautious when they returned, and if their Geiger counters indicated radioactive contamination, they needed to be redeemed again. “Sometimes, when a man took off protective gloves in the“ hot ”zone, the security section had to dissolve the outer layer of skin from his hands with acid.” Clothing and other materials found too polluted plunged into the ocean a mile below the surface, because literally "there is no other way to keep them away from people."
In this article, Warren concluded that atomic weapons could never be prepared by anyone, and that "no defense would be effective." The only defense against atomic bombs is still outside of science. "
Warren left his position in 1946, becoming head of the medical section of the Atomic Energy Commission, which is a civilian agency that succeeded in the Manhattan project; and later he was awarded the Medal of Merit in Service and the Honored Legion for his contribution to the safety of radioactive and atomic weapons.
In 1947, Warren was again at the helm of a new medical university, this time UCLA, which was voted to create a medical school for Southern California. He was appointed the first dean of the school. In 1951, the first students were enrolled, only 28 people, and there were 15 teachers. By 1955, when I finished the class, there were 43 teachers. The UCLA Medical Center officially opened in 1955, and Warren supervised many milestones and achievements, while there, including the addition of schools for dentistry, nursing, and public health.
Warren was not only responsible for inventing mammograms, but also for a number of impressive advances related to radiological safety and education. His invention and teachings continue to save lives every day, and for this he stands as one of the great medical innovators of our time.
