Personal
Data
Current Mailing Address
James R. Allen
Email Address: allen024@umn.edu
Present Activity Status: Semi-Retired
Tell us about your
community activities: Serve as an
Elder and in other capacities at our church in south Mpls.
Am active in golf at Braemar in
Family Status: Married
Professional
Experience
What path has your career
taken since your residency? Include military service, private practice, academic career, teaching and research accomplishments.
I had been in general
practice in northeast Mpls. for 3 years prior to my
residency and knew that I wanted to return immediately to private practice
after residency, which I did. I tried 1 year in solo practice which was
successful from the standpoint of having plenty of patients but which convinced
me I’d have no time for myself or family if I remained in that situation. I had
been offered a standard package by the Mpls. Clinic
of Neurology near the end of my residency by Dr. Harold Noran
who informed me that I’d never be able to compete against MCN
on my own. However, after I’d made big inroads into their practice at St.
Mary’s/
This combination of clinical
practice, teaching, administration & research has been very fulfilling to
me and I`m still bullish on the field of neurology.
Residency
Recollections
We are interested in
anecdotes and experiences from your residency years. Include interactions
among fellow residents and teaching staff.
I had been in general
practice for 3 years & was interested in specializing but hadn’t decided on
which specialty as yet. Dr. A.B. Baker was the first
person I spoke to at the U. about this. I told him I was not interested in
academia but wished to take my 3 yrs. and return to private practice as I loved
interacting with patients. He told me that he preferred to train people for
academia but he supposed he owed it to the state of
We had excellent teachers
with Drs. Baker, John Logothetis, Milt Ettinger, Milt
Alter and others. Dr. Baker’s Sat. AM sessions were fun but were more
anxiety-provoking for some than others. My time in general practice had shown
me I could make a living doing that, so I had less fear of Dr. Baker.
Embarrassment might occur but I was pretty sure there would be no loss of life
connected with the sessions. Some of the absolutes we learned were proven
incorrect when better imaging came into play. However none of us felt bad when
we were able to give up the barbaric pneumoencephalograms
and direct carotid stick angiograms.
Looking back, would you
do it again? What would you change?
I’d absolutely do it again
but maybe be born a few years later when pediatric neurologists would be
readily available to evaluate small children and better diagnostic methods and
treatments would be developed.
Additional
Thoughts
Share your thoughts
regarding the changes in medicine since your residency. In your opinion,
is Neurology positioned well for the future?
The explosion in new
knowledge, diagnostic techniques, surgical procedures, implants, specific
medicines, genetics, etc. has been fantastic. They have made things more
precise for the neurologist, but not necessarily easier as it is more
complicated with more options. Nevertheless it is much more fulfilling to treat
an MS patient with an interferon instead of Nemase (a
vitamin preparation from Dr. Baker`s formulary)!
With this increased complexity,
I believe neurologists will continue to be needed to help with these complex
choices. In addition, though the structural problems like brain tumor or subdural can be readily diagnosed by the primary care
physician using imaging techniques, one still has to think of the possibility,
recognize a red flag symptom, understand neuroanatomy,
and interpret electrodiagnostic and other studies.
Cost will be a big consideration and one cannot just order every available test
for every condition.
So---you younger men &
women---study hard and stay current so you can correctly diagnose and treat us
old birds when we get our stroke, dementia or whatever. May God bless your careers.