Sidney Garfield--A Personal Recollection

Robert Feldman, MD

Summer 2006 - Volume 10 Number 2

https://doi.org/10.7812/TPP/05-147

It is a pleasure for me to write about Sidney R Garfield, MD, the co-founder of Kaiser Permanente (KP). For 15 years from 1969 until his death in 1984, I worked closely with him on studies in health care delivery during which time we developed a deep friendship. I joined TPMG as an internist in Oakland in 1959. Within a few years I became involved in clinical diabetes research and was in charge of the Multiphasic Health Testing (MHT) programs in Oakland and San Francisco. These programs had been started by Morris Collen, MD, at the suggestion of Dr Garfield. They included a broad variety of medical history information and tests, with the data stored automatically on computers.