Save the Date for Star Wars!

Please Save the Date!

Please join the Center for a Healthy Maryland,
MedChi and the BSO
For lunch and a showing of
STAR WARS: RETURN OF THE JEDI
With live music by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra 

DETAILS

The Annual BSO/Center for a Healthy Maryland/MedChi Concert Event
Saturday, May 14, 2022
12:30 :: Guided Tour of the Historic MedChi Building
1:00 :: Lunch & Brief BSO Presentation 
3:00 :: Star Wars: Return of the Jedi
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
The Lunch and Tour will take place at MedChi
(1211 Cathedral Street)
The Movie and Concert will take place at the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall
(1212 Cathedral Street)
 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
MedChi Members and Their Guests: $85/person
Medical School Students, Residents Plus ONE Guest: $20/person
Additional Student/Resident Tickets are $45/person
 
COSTUMES ARE ENCOURAGED!


Supported Through the Generosity of MedChi Members and Donors

Free and paid parking are available in close proximity to MedChi and the BSO.

Please click here to review the BSO's COVID protocols.

Loralie Ma, MD, 174th President

Loralie D. Ma, M.D. graduated with honors from the University of Illinois College of Medicine. Dr. Ma completed her residency with Johns Hopkins in 1995 and joined the Division of Diagnostic Imaging a year later.  In between, Dr. Ma was a Clinical Oncology Fellow for the American Cancer Society. 

It was during Dr. Ma’s away rotation in medical school, at the Johns Hopkins Department of Radiology, when everything “clicked” for her… she instinctively knew that she wanted to be a radiologist! “I found imaging and looking inside the body to diagnose disease fascinating, and I loved the different imaging modalities and how they complemented one-another in diagnosing disease.”  Now, Dr. Ma practices radiology full time and is affiliated with multiple hospitals in the Baltimore-metropolitan area.

Practicing medicine did not run in Dr. Ma’s family.  Her father was a Chicago public school teacher, and her grandfather, was a Senator in China and Taiwan.   Her mother was a homemaker, and her maternal grandparents were in the business of oil and farming.   As a student growing up in Lisle, Illinois, Dr. Ma excelled in math and loved chemistry and physics. She enrolled in University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1981 and obtained her PhD in Biophysics.

Growing up, Dr. Ma heard many colorful stories from her father, Yen-Tien Ma. He lived through the Japanese occupation in Shanghai, the Communist revolution, and post-war political problems in Taiwan.  Hearing his stories taught Dr. Ma the value of becoming part of something larger than yourself.  “If you want your voice to be heard, you have to get involved politically”.  

Dr. Ma is a past Speaker the House for the MedChi House of Delegates. She Provided leadership in developing the Annual Legislative Agenda and is an active participant in the MedChi Legislative Council Meetings. Her active involvement with both MedChi, the Maryland State Medical Society, and her local component, the Baltimore County Medical Association, is a testament to her commitment and resolve towards organizing and creating positive change. Dr. Ma served as President of the Center for a Healthy Maryland for two years. 

Dr. Ma makes resides in Fulton, Maryland with her husband, Randy, who is now retired after a thirty-eight-year career in healthcare policy.   Her older children are fully launched although her youngest daughter resides at home until she begins her Dermatology residency at the University of Maryland Med School next year.  She will be carrying the torch for medicine, just like her mother. 

Under Repair

If you happen to drive by the Cathedral Street side of our buildings, you might notice somethings happening.

As we prepare to celebrate the 113th birthday of our building and the 225th anniversary of our organization, we're spiffing things up and maybe getting a little facelift. 

Contractors will be replacing some of the original wood window frames, repointing sections of brickwork, and generally cleaning up the façade of the building. 

Keep an eye out here for updates!

MedChi on Five-Minute Histories!

Last week, History of Medicine Committee member, Johns Hopkins (the person, not the institution) who is the director of Baltimore Heritage, came to MedChi to record a Five-Minute History of our organization. Since the earliest days of the pandemic, Johns and his crew have been recording these histories all around Baltimore and have attracted a world-wide audience!

It was such fun filming with Johns and I hope that you will take a few minutes to watch the video. Here.

International Women's Day

Today, we celebrate International Women's Day with a show of some of our women physician members at MedChi, past and present.  

In the early years of women in medicine, many women from countries which did not have medical schools which admitted women, came to the US to study. In looking at the yearbooks from the early years of the Women's Medical College in Baltimore, you can find women from Puerto Rico, Japan, China, Russia, amongst many other nations. 

As you may know, Baltimore had a medical college for women from 1882-1909, when it became more common for medical schools to admit women. If you'd like to read more about this school, please click here to see the article I wrote several years ago. 

Today, and really, every day, we celebrate women in medicine, and all of the other women we know.

Women's History Month: Hortense Kahn Eliasberg

Mrs. Louis Eliasberg was born as Hortense Miller Kahn, the daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Moses S. Kahn of Baltimore. She grew up in the Reservoir Hill section of Baltimore City, and attended the Girls’ Latin School in Roland Park.

She graduated from Goucher College and then received her Masters Degree from the Graduate School of Philosophy at Johns Hopkins University.

She became interested in how children who had been hospitalized convalesced at home. It was frequently a case where the child recovered from their illness or injury at the hospital and when returned home, they took a turn for the worse, due to lack of heat, hot water or adequate nutrition or their families’ poverty.

Miss Kahn began to investigate the “Campbell Cottages” in New York, where children could go after they left the hospital and spend weeks or months recovering and regaining their strength. She communicated regularly with the head of the Burke Foundation which ran the Campbell Cottages, and decided to create a similar program in Baltimore and found a property in Baltimore's Poplar Hill neighborhood.

Gathering a group of influential physicians from Baltimore, she began organizing meetings to see if her idea was feasible. All of this was occurring when she was only 22 years old. Among the men whom Miss Kahn was working, was Dr. William H. Welch, one of the “big four” at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Having his support from the beginning gave her the leverage she needed to attract other heavy hitters.

While Miss Kahn was setting up the convalescent home, now named Happy Hills, she was marrying Louis Eliasberg, joining the board of the newly-formed Community Fund, where for months at time she was one of the top ten fundraisers, and serving as the board secretary of Happy Hills. She never held a paid position at Happy Hills, preferring to do her work there as a volunteer.

In the 1930s and 1940s, Mrs. Eliasberg was also an active volunteer in numerous other organizations, including chairing the Wednesday Morning Lecture Group; joining a committee at the Baltimore Museum of Art to be a guide at an exhibition of Maryland artists; participating in the Dahlia & Fall Flower Show as the representative of the Baltimore Guild Garden Club and received national recognition; serving on the Executive Committee of the Maryland Committee for Representative Government; representing Baltimore at the Maryland League of Women Voters’ conference on internationalism in Washington, DC; acting as President of the Goucher College Infirmary Auxiliary; chairing the Women’s Committee of the Baltimore Roundtable of the National Conference on Christians and Jews; and serving on the Executive Committee of the Baltimore Community Chest, having been on their board for more than 20 years.

Mrs. Eliasberg died after a long illness on December 27, 1949. She is buried at the Baltimore Hebrew Cemetery.

From its early beginnings, Happy Hills has flourished for 100 years, and is now known as Mt. Washington Pediatric Hospital, located in the Mount Washington neighborhood of Baltimore. Click the image below to learn about MWPH's Centennial celebrations.