Benjamin Lichtiger, MD, PhD, MBA, Oral History Interview, June 12, 2012
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Description
Major Topics Covered:
- Lean manufacturing for MD Anderson blood services
- Views of MD Anderson presidents and Emil J Freireich, MD
- MD Anderson research culture
Identifier
LichtigerB_02_20120612
Publication Date
6-12-2012
Publisher
The Historical Resources Center, Research Medical Library, The University of Texas Cancer Center
City
Houston, Texas
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Topics Covered
University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, University of Texas System. M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, M.D. Anderson Hospital and Tumor Institute at Houston, University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, M.D. Anderson Hospital and Tumor Institute
Disciplines
History of Science, Technology, and Medicine | Oncology | Oral History
Recommended Citation
Lichtiger, Benjamin and Rosolowski, Tacey A. PhD, "Benjamin Lichtiger, MD, PhD, MBA, Oral History Interview, June 12, 2012" (2012). Interview Sessions. 253.
https://openworks.mdanderson.org/mchv_interviewsessions/253
Conditions Governing Access
Redacted
About the Interview
ORIGINAL Interview Profile #18:
Dr. Benjamin Lichtiger, M.D., Ph.D., M.B.A. Submitted by: Tacey A. Rosolowski, Ph.D. Date revised: 30 June 2014 This 2 hour and 35 minute interview with Dr. Benjamin Lichtiger, M.D., Ph.D., M.B.A. [b. 1940, Argentina], takes place in two sessions conducted in June of 2013. Tacey A. Rosolowski is the interviewer. The interview takes place in a conference room in the Section of Transfusion Medicine in the Main Building on MD Anderson’s main campus.
Dr. Lichtiger is a pathologist and specialist in transfusion medicine who came to MD Anderson in 1968 as a Fellow in Pathology. By 1973 he was a faculty associate in the Department of Laboratory Medicine, serving as Acting Chief of the Blood Bank. In 1974 he became an Assistant Professor and advanced to Section Chief of Transfusion Medicine, a position he held until 2001, overseeing all functions of MD Anderson’s Blood Bank. Dr. Lichtiger also served as Chair of the Department of Laboratory Medicine from 1999 until his retirement in 2008, though he continued as ad interim Chair until 2010, and continues to work nearly full time at the Blood Bank in his part time role as a clinical professor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine in the Division of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine.
Dr. Lichtiger earned his M.D. in 1964 from the University of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina. He did a residency in Pathology at Fernandez Hospital in Buenos Aires in 1955-66, then emigrated to the United States for additional Residency training in Pathology at Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago, Illinois (1966-68). He came to Houston to earn his Ph.D. at the University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences (conferred in 1974, at which time he also became an American citizen). Dr. Lichtiger went on to earn an M.B.A. in 1998 from the Lady of the Lake University, Houston TX.
In this interview Dr. Lichtiger gives a detailed look inside the workings of MD Anderson’s transfusion services, the largest in the country and one that operates as a “boutique blood bank,” in his words, serving the highly individualized needs of MD Anderson patients. Dr. Lichtiger is adamant that blood bank services are an integral part of patient care, and that the transfusion medicine pathologist is part of a patient’s diagnostic and treatment team. He gives vivid documentation of how MD Anderson’s Transfusion Medicine services adhere to this mission. His business background hints at another dimension of his approach to clinical medical services. Dr. Lichtiger has streamlined laboratory processes to increase efficiency, accuracy, and ensure a high quality of all blood products. He describes how his business perspective emerged and influenced the Blood Bank seen at MD Anderson today. Dr. Lichtiger is passionate and articulate. In addition to the wealth of detail about Transfusion Medicine at MD Anderson, Dr. Lichtiger speaks with great feeling about R. Lee Clark and the special environment that MD Anderson offered to researchers in the 1970s and early 1980s.