Linda M. Dairiki Shortliffe : An Oral History
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Linda Dairiki Shortliffe, the Stanley McCormick Memorial Professor of Urology Emerita, shares memories of her family and education, her career in the Stanford School of Medicine’s Department of Urology and at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Palo Alto, and her practice and research in pediatric urology. Shortliffe describes her family background, including her grandfather’s entrepreneurial endeavors in the Japanese American community in and around Sacramento. She recounts her father’s experience as a Stanford undergraduate in the 1940s, which was cut short by Executive Order 9066 and the internment of Americans of Japanese descent, including the families of both her father and mother. She recalls her early life in the Boston area and the family’s eventual move to Palo Alto, her undergraduate years at Harvard during the 1960s, and her experiences as a medical student and urology resident at Stanford, including training under faculty members Norman Shumway, Henry Kaplan, Donald Laub, and Thomas Stamey. Shortliffe highlights aspects of her career at the VA Hospital and in the Department of Urology, including her experience as department chair during efforts to merge Stanford and UCSF hospitals and the creation of the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital. She also describes some of the challenges faced by female faculty in the School of Medicine, the difficulties of combining clinical practice and research, and her service to the profession on NIH committees and with the American Board of Urology.
- Summary
- Grandparents’ immigration to the United States from Japan • Father’s youth in Penryn, California, and path to Stanford • Maintaining connections back to Japan • Father’s undergraduate experience at Stanford, including living in a house with other Japanese students • Executive Order 9066 and relocation to Tule Lake • Father receiving his Stanford diploma while in an internment camp • Father’s release to teach engineering to the military in Lincoln, Nebraska • Mother’s family’s experiences with internment and conversion from Buddhism to the Seventh Day Adventist Church • Parents meeting in Lincoln, Nebraska, and move to Boston for father’s graduate studies • Grandfather Dairiki’s entrepreneurial efforts, including the Hotel Main in Sacramento’s Japantown • Growing up in the Boston area • Lack of awareness of Japanese culture while in Boston • Move to Santa Barbara and eventually Palo Alto • Buddhist church in Palo Alto as the Japanese cultural center • Receiving a nurse’s kit as a gift, but preferring brothers’ doctor’s kits because they had more tools • Parents’ encouragement to do well in school • Deciding between Harvard and Stanford for undergraduate • Competitive academic nature of Palo Alto High School • Awareness of Asian identity growing up • Not understanding what the internment camps were and lack of education about the camps in American society • Relationship between Radcliffe and Harvard in the 1960s • Memories of serving dinner to Julia Child • Rules for women students at Harvard • Senior thesis on theories of schizophrenia • Story of how Professor William Weir took the time teach her calculus so she could pass his Physical Chemistry class • Decision to get married during college • Completing Harvard degree while living at Stanford while her husband attended medical school • Vietnam War sit-ins at Harvard • Access to contraception • Applying to medical school • Women at Stanford School of Medicine in 1970s • Stanford Medical School curriculum in post-Vietnam War era: no grades or required classes; freedom to pursue medical interests • Clinical experience in plastic surgery and reconstruction with Don Laub • Eventful flight to a hand surgery clinic • Transgender surgery at Stanford in the 1970s • Women in surgery at Stanford • Decision to pursue urology as a specialty • Memories of Norman Shumway • Choice to go into urology viewed as odd for a woman • Cardiac surgery at Stanford in the 1970s • Role as chief resident in urology at Stanford • Taking classes from pioneers in medicine • Radiation therapy with Henry Kaplan • Stanford’s use of internal jugular central intravenous lines as opposed to subclavian central lines • Feeling the influence of Norman Shumway outside of Stanford • Decision to pursue further training in pediatric urology • Fracturing a bone in her ear during interview at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia with John Duckett and Howard Snyder • Training in pediatric urology with John Duckett • Exposure to national urology profession, including serving on joint examination committee • Tom Stamey as chair of Urology at Stanford; Stamey’s focus on research • Accepting a faculty position at Stanford and working chiefly at the VA Hospital • Working closely with local private practice groups • Culture and working environment of the Palo Alto VA Hospital • Relationship between VA Hospital and Stanford • Urology’s transition from division in the Department of Surgery to its own department • First successful grant; VA connection providing additional source of funding • Transitioning away from VA Hospital position and developing a research program in pediatric urology • Reflections on grant writing and the difficulty of balancing clinical work and research • Urology’s emphasis on male patients • Lack of maternity leave policy during the 1980s; arranging for coverage at the VA Hospital during her pregnancies • Children’s care at Stanford Hospital during the 1980s • Opening of the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital • Difficulty recruiting faculty in pediatric urology because of low comparative salary • Discovering that the Department of Surgery was not paying VA faculty their full salaries • Challenges of working alone • Transitioning her lab from the VA to Stanford • Chairing the Department of Urology from 1995 to 2011 • Administrative challenges of Stanford-UCSF hospitals merger, including time burden and consolidating billing • Decision to call off the merger and rebuilding afterwards • Leadership at Stanford and at the School of Medicine: Gerhard Casper, Gene Bauer, David Korn • Stepping down as chair • Space as a hot commodity • Residency program in urology • Creating fellowships in subspecialities, such as pediatric urology and female urology • Advances in technology for surgery: laparoscopic surgery and robotic surgery • Planning with NIH for program review of bladder health • Work with the American Board of Urology • Leadership strategies and leadership on a national level • Studying the recruitment and retention of female urologists while on sabbatical at the Radcliffe Center for Advanced Study • Growth of the field between 1980 and 2000 • Colleague Fran Conley • Shortliffe’s reflections on sexual harassment in the workplace • Queen Elizabeth’s visit to California and Shortliffe’s friendship with the yacht Britannia’s surgeon • Conducting surgery during the Loma Prieta earthquake • Task forces on sexual harassment and consensual relationships at Stanford in the 1990s • Work with the Kantha Boptha Children’s Hospital in Cambodia and training doctors in pediatric urology • Stanford’s apology in the 1990s to students of Japanese descent that had been interned • Father’s change in feelings towards Stanford in the 1990s • Reflections on her career in medicine and academia
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Extent | 1 text file |
| Place | Stanford (Calif.) |
| Publisher | Stanford Historical Society |
| Date created | March 20, 2018 - 2018-03-21 |
| Language | English |
| Digital origin | born digital |
Creators/Contributors
| Interviewee | Shortliffe, Linda | |
|---|---|---|
| Creator | Shortliffe, Linda | |
| Interviewer | Marine-Street, Natalie J. | |
| Publisher | Stanford Historical Society |
Subjects
| Subject | Shortliffe, Linda |
|---|---|
| Subject | Veterans Administration Hospital (Palo Alto, Calif.) |
| Subject | Pediatric urology |
| Subject | Japanese Americans |
| Genre | Interview |
Bibliographic information
| Biographical Profile | Linda. M. Dairiki Shortliffe is the Stanley McCormick Memorial Professor of Urology Emerita at Stanford University. She previously served as Department Chair of Urology at Stanford University, President and Trustee of the American Board of Urology, and was a Hewlett Foundation Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard, and a Stanford University Clayman Institute Faculty Fellow. She received her AB cum laude in History and Science from Radcliffe/Harvard College, MD from Stanford University, and completed urologic residency and chief residency at Stanford University Medical Center, and pediatric urological training at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. |
|---|---|
| Audio |
|
| Finding Aid | |
| Location | https://purl.stanford.edu/pw657nh7926 |
| Location | SC0932 |
| Repository | Stanford University. Libraries. Department of Special Collections and University Archives |
Access conditions
- Use and reproduction
- The materials are open for research use and may be used freely for non-commercial purposes with an attribution. For commercial permission requests, please contact the Stanford University Archives (universityarchives@stanford.edu).
- Copyright
- Copyright © The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. All rights reserved.
Collection
Stanford Historical Society Oral History Program interviews, 1999-2022
View other items in this collection in SearchWorksAlso listed in
Loading usage metrics...