Monday, May 5, 2008

Return to Vietnam renews CIMIT founder Parrish's vision

By Ryan McBride

John Parrish returned from his year of duty as a battlefield doctor in Vietnam 40 years ago, but the Boston physician's mission to improve treatments for soldiers has endured.

Fresh from his first trip back to Vietnam since the war, Parrish, 68, is working on several projects focused on new medical technologies for the military through the Center for Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology (CIMIT), the Boston nonprofit he founded 10 years ago to help practicing physicians at area hospitals tap into the region's engineering talent to develop medical devices.

"That year (in Vietnam) had a big influence on me," said Parrish. "I think that experience has been cooking in my soul ever since."

Parrish was a 27-year-old medical intern at the University of Michigan with a wife and two young children when he opened a letter from the Department of Defense informing him that he had been drafted into the Marines and was to report for basic training at Camp Pendleton, Calif.

Serving in Vietnam in 1967 and part of 1968, Parrish was there for some of the most violent episodes of the war. During the notorious Tet Offensive in 1968, he said, Viet Cong soldiers took control of the hospital where he had volunteered in the city of Hue, executed the nurses and patients, and chopped off a Vietnamese barber's hands for working with Americans. (Parrish, who narrowly escaped from the hospital, later wrote a book about his experience in the war called "12, 20 & 5: A Doctor's Year in Vietnam.")

After finishing his duty at a military hospital in Oakland, Calif., he began his career as a dermatologist and researcher with Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital in 1969. At MGH, he became a chief resident and founded the Wellman Center for Photomedicine in the 1970s.

In March, Parrish took a two-week trip to Vietnam with fellow alumni of Duke University, where he earned his undergraduate degree before attending medical school at Yale University. The trip was led by Alex Roland, a history professor at Duke who had shared a hooch with Parrish while they served together in the 3rd Marine Division in Vietnam.

In January, Parrish retired from MGH and Harvard, where he developed a psoriasis treatment and laser procedures, among other breakthroughs. For the first time, he is dedicated full-time to his role as executive director of CIMIT, which is supporting several efforts to improve medical technology for soldiers and civilians. On the military front, CIMIT has funded work on a model of a wounded soldier equipped with sensors for simulated medic training, advanced physiological monitors, in addition to at least eight other projects.

"He's a visionary," said R. Rox Anderson, a dermatologist at MGH who directs the Wellman Center and considers Parrish his mentor. "(Parrish) sees the way things could be. I know his experience in Vietnam had a lot to do with this."