Melissa Warfield was a pioneer

in patient-centered medicine

September 29, 2006

Melissa Warfield, M.D.

NORFOLK—Melissa Warfield, M.D., an EVMS professor emeritus, a trailblazer in pediatrics and a physician who won national accolades for promoting humanism in medicine, passed away on Friday, Sept. 29.

A specialist in pediatric hematology/oncology, Warfield spent more than three decades teaching EVMS medical students and residents. When students first enrolled in EVMS in 1973, Warfield served as acting chair of the Department of Pediatrics and directed the EVMS pediatrics residency program.

“Dr. Warfield was the epitome of the caring physician and she served as a wonderful mentor and role model for generations of medical students and residents,” said Gerald Pepe, Ph.D., EVMS dean and provost.

In 2005, Warfield won the Humanism in Medicine Award from the American Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). For a physician, winning an AAMC award can be likened to a reporter winning a Pulitzer Prize.

A graduate of the College of William & Mary, Warfield received her medical degree from the Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania (now Drexel University College of Medicine), completed her internship at what is now Sentara Norfolk General Hospital and did her residency at the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.

Warfield’s emphasis on community service and her insistence on treating patients — not diseases — helped shape the core values of the medical school. Today, medical schools across the nation are increasingly adopting the philosophy of patient-centered medicine that EVMS and Warfield pioneered decades ago.

Warfield’s community service was legendary. She once used her own paycheck during a hospital budget crisis. She sometimes paid her patient’s pharmacy bills when they could not afford prescriptions. After diagnosing the first case of lead poisoning in Norfolk, she helped establish the Lead Poisoning Prevention Project. She also spurred the creation of the Tidewater Regional Sickle Cell Anemia Program as well as a child protection services program to prevent child abuse.

In the latter part of her career, Dr. Warfield became keenly interested in bioethics. After training at the University of Virginia's Center for Biomedical Ethics, she co-founded a bioethics program for first-year EVMS medical students.

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