Draft:Thomas Robert Swift (neurologist)

• Comment: See my reply to your help desk query. Qcne (talk) 12:41, 14 July 2024 (UTC)

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Thomas R Swift is an American neurologist, educator, author and artist.

Education

Swift received a Bachelor of Arts in English Language and Literature in 1961 from Trinity College in Hartford, CT, with a special interest in Samuel Johnson. He obtained a Medical Doctor degree from Cornell University Medical College in 1965 followed by training in neurology at New York Hospital New York Hospital under Fred Plum, and at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center under Jerome Posner. In 1972 he moved to the National Hansen Disease Center in Carville, LA where he studied leprosy with Paul Brand. He completed his education in 1973 with a fellowship in neurophysiology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN.

Professional life

Following a position as Clinical Instructor in Neurology at Louisiana State University and as Deputy Chief at the Carville US Public Health Service Hospital (see below), Swift joined the neurology faculty of MCG in 1973 and was appointed director of the Electromyography Laboratory. He was chairman of the MCG Department of Neurology for 18 years (1982 to 2000).

Swift has published 93 papers and book chapters and is co-author of the textbook Instant Neurological Diagnosis (Oxford University Press, 2016 and 2019. ISBN-13:978-0190930868). His contributions to neurology have been in the diagnosis and treatment of neuromuscular disorders, including myasthenia gravis and leprosy.

Professional societies

Swift has had a role in the 40,000 member American Academy of Neurology for much of his career, serving as president from 2005−2007. He launched and hosted the annual Neurobowl competition at the AAN annual meeting where teams of neurologists competed on stage to achieve diagnoses of neurological cases in front of an audience of several thousand colleagues. Swift has also been president of the Society of Clinical Neurologists (1984) , president of the American Association of Electrodiagnostic Medicine (1993) , and chair of the Medical Advisory Board of the Myasthenia Gravis Foundation (1989-1991) .

Awards

MCG recognized Swift with a Lifetime Achievement Award] in 2022.

Artistic and literary life

Swift is an artist and novelist, whose includes pencils, pastels and watercolors that feature nature and landscapes, and his work was the focus of a 2022 exhibition at the Sacred Heart Cultural Center in Augusta, GA. In his 2023 novel, Carville: Mischief, Mayhem, and Medicine in Cajun Country, he describes life at the leprosarium (see Leprosy in Louisiana) where he had served as a medical staff member in 1970. His Leprosy Letter is a serial in which he discusses the history, science, myths, legends, facts and stories behind leprosy.

Political life

Swift served as campaign manager for Bob Young’s mayoral campaigns in 1998 and 2002.

Personal life

He was born the second of four boys to John and Lilian Swift on March 6, 1940, in Brooklyn, NY. He married Margaret Brown, daughter of Steven W Brown, the founder of Brown and Radiology Associates in Augusta, GA. . She was florist for the Augusta National Golf Club for many years and published A Florist's Walk Down Magnolia Lane: An Augusta Story (ISBN-13:978-0578174594).

Retirement

Swift entered semi-retirement in 2000.