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A Remembrance of Eric L. Radin (1934-2020)

2021; Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; Volume: 479; Issue: 7 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1097/corr.0000000000001834

1528-1132

Colleen T. Owens,

Diversity and Career in Medicine

Eric L. Radin MD, a member of the Association of Bone and Joint Surgeons and orthopaedic surgeon, died April 26, 2020 in Newton Upper Falls, MA, USA. He was 85 years old.Eric L. Radin MD (Photo courtesy of Melissa Radin Goldstone)“He was a life-enhancing character; he enhanced the lives of everyone around him,” Paul A. Dieppe MD, Emeritus Professor of Health and Wellbeing at the University of Exeter Medical School, United Kingdom, told Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research®. Born in 1934 in Brooklyn, NY, USA, Dr. Radin graduated from Amherst College, Amherst, MA, USA in 1956 [7]. After completing his studies at Harvard Medical School in 1960, he began teaching there and working at Boston-area hospitals, including Beth Israel Hospital [7]. Along with being a renowned orthopaedic researcher, Dr. Radin was famous for his wicked sense of humor, according to Peter C. Amadio MD, Dean for Research Academic Affairs, Workforce, and Digital Technology, and a Professor of Orthopaedics and Engineering at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA. “He had this great laugh,” Dr. Amadio said in a phone interview. “He was always telling jokes and laughing.” One year, Dr. Radin was tasked with organizing a Gordon Research Conference in orthopaedics. These week-long conferences feature groundbreaking research from the top scientists in their field and draw speakers from all over the world [2]. The meeting chairman selects a guest speaker—usually a renowned expert in a field related to the meeting topic. When attendees arrived at the Dr. Radin–organized course, they discovered that their guest speaker was a comedian named Professor Irwin Corey, who, with frazzled hair and disheveled clothing, presented a lecture of gobbledygook that he had cobbled together from the meeting presentations. “It was completely hysterical,” Dr. Amadio said. “No one would have thought to do such a lighthearted thing at such a serious scientific meeting. It was kind of typical of his sense of humor and the kind of lighthearted way he approached everything.” According to Dr. Dieppe, one of the most important lessons he learned from Dr. Radin was not to take anything too seriously. “You should laugh at everything,” Dr. Dieppe said in a phone interview. “He was brilliant at laughing at himself and laughing at everything else.” A keen orthopaedic researcher, Dr. Radin was one of the first investigators in the field to highlight the importance of subchondral bone in osteoarthritis even while most others were focused on cartilage [1]. Dr. Radin also was a pioneer in the field of biomarkers of osteoarthritis. “Cartilage, in Eric Radin’s and my view, is an innocent bystander in the process of osteoarthritis; it’s really about bone,” Dr. Dieppe said. Another of Dr. Radin’s top contributions to osteoarthritis research pertained to joint biomechanics [4, 5], according to Dr. Laurent Sedel, Emeritus Professor of Orthopaedics, University of Paris Diderot, Paris, France. Dr. Radin even coauthored a text on biomechanics in 1979, Practical Biomechanics for the Orthopedic Surgeon [6]. “He was absolutely a great guy, modest [and] very inventive in the field of arthrosis mechanisms,” Dr. Sedel wrote in an email. Throughout his career, Dr. Radin held several appointments, including Chairman of Orthopedic Surgery at West Virginia University, and Director of the Bone and Joint Center at the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Michigan [7]. He completed his career as an Adjunct Professor of Orthopedic Surgery at Tufts Medical School [7]. Dr. Radin also enjoyed the role of visiting scholar, a position he held at Oxford University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Michigan, and the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology [7]. “[Dr. Radin] was always pushing, probing, encouraging; always in a positive way,” Dr. Amadio said. “If it was interesting or out of the box, he was especially curious about it.” Dr. Radin was skilled in highlighting the best in his colleagues. Indeed, many of Dr. Radin’s team members have become some of the top biomechanics researchers in the world. “Probably his great ability was to recognize other people’s ideas to draw them in, to work with them, to encourage them,” Dr. Dieppe said. “I think he was hugely important in the academic orthopaedics and research into osteoarthritis because of this ability to encourage, work with, and nurture younger researchers.” During his time in Boston, Dr. Radin began sailing, traveling up the coast of Maine and Nova Scotia; he once sailed around Newfoundland [7]. Dr. Radin made several trips on his boat to Bermuda and the Canadian Maritimes [3]. Even after he retired, Dr. Radin savored his time on the water, logging about 180 sailing days a season [7]. Dr. Radin was husband to the late Tove Radin. He leaves behind his ex-wife, Crete Boord Radin, of Marion, MA, and his three daughters and sons-in-law: Alison and Greg Kibler of Los Angeles; Melissa and David Goldstone of Newton Centre, MA; and Jessica and John Peters, also of Newton Centre. In addition, he is survived by his grandchildren Tove, Emma, and Lily Goldstone; and Hannah, Noah, and Olivia Peters [7].