[1] His roommate and tennis partner at Johns Hopkins was Alfred Blalock, with whom he developed a close lifelong friendship.
His name is best known among physicians as the founding editor and editor-in-chief of the first five editions of Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine.
An under publicized fact is that Dr. Harrison pioneered the first bi-pass heart surgery, which was later enhanced by Michael De Bakey in Houston.
At UASOM, Harrison helped initiate a rapid period of growth that included recruitment of nationally known physicians from the faculties of such institutions as Harvard University and the Mayo Clinic.
"[4] "Tact, sympathy and understanding are expected of the physician, for the patient is no mere collection of symptoms, signs, disordered functions, damaged organs, and disturbed emotions.
The true physician has a Shakespearean breadth of interest in the wise and the foolish, the proud and the humble, the stoic hero and the whining rogue.