David D. Rutstein

Who is David D. Rutstein?

David Davis Rutstein was a long-time faculty member at Harvard Medical School and an advocate for preventive medicine. He was one of the first physicians to use television as an outreach tool to inform the public about health concerns and research. Rutstein also played a national role in the organization of medical care in the United States, the integration of preventive medicine into patient care, and the measurement of medical outcomes.

David Rutstein was born in 1909 in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Harvard College in 1930 and from Harvard Medical School with an M.D. in 1934. He completed clinical training at Boston City Hospital and Children's Hospital Boston and taught at Albany Medical College and the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. He joined the Harvard Medical School faculty in 1947 as a professor and head of the Department of Preventive Medicine, a position he held until 1969. From 1966 to his retirement in 1975, he was the Ridley Watts professor of preventive medicine.

In his teaching career, Rutstein taught medical students preventive clinical medicine, focusing on the interfaces of basic sciences, epidemiology, design of experiments, biological engineering, and health services research. He conducted teaching rounds at Massachusetts General Hospital, Peter Bent Brigham Hospital