She Started a Fire
Naomi Rothfield started the Lupus Foundation and co-founded and ran the Connecticut chapter of the Scleroderma Foundation. “Where there was no kindling, Naomi started a fire,” says Dr. Lakshminarayanan. “For her ongoing dedication, she was honored with a Lifetime Achievement award by the Arthritis Foundation.
“Naomi taught me to speak my mind and if I was doing the right thing to forget about the consequences,” he says.
“To establish a division, start a training program, lead the division to international renown as the lupus center of the East and keep the focus on patient care and continually strive to improve their lives, that is a phenomenal legacy.
“Naomi did all of this at a time when women were not admitted to medical schools, and if they were admitted, then they were not accepted, often not acknowledged for their contributions, invariably struggled for advancement and rarely got accolades.
“Her enormous productivity, persistent pursuit of excellence, pioneering vision, relentless energy, and tireless championing of patient care, research and education were key in making the division nationally and internationally renowned. Her expertise has improved the quality of life of innumerable patients over the years and continues to impact positively on patients’ lives now. Quite apart from that, she, more than anyone else in the division, was instrumental in the education and training of a great number of rheumatologists who are currently in careers in both academic settings and private practice all across the country and across the world—Canada, Europe, Asia Australia. There is no price that can be put on a lifetime of such service.
“She taught us all by example. Her patients have always been front and center in anything she did in her professional life, an ethos she imbued in all of her trainees.
“Complete strangers have stopped me at international meetings after reading my name tag and seeing where I work to ask, ‘How is Naomi?’ That encapsulates her impact, reach, influence and reputation, and reveals the level of affection people have for her.
“Her fundamental message to me was that patient advocacy is what you do as a physician—always. It is not a punchline or a separate career.
“If I was wearing a hat, I would doff it,” concludes Dr. Lakshminarayanan. “We are eternally in your debt, Naomi.”
Elizabeth Hofheinz, MPH, MEd, is a freelance medical editor and writer based in the greater New Orleans area.
