Thomas E. Brittingham, M.D.

Tom Brittingham served as the Department of Medicine’s first director of the residency program from 1964 to 1980.

Fulfilling his boyhood dream of becoming a physician like his father, Dr. Brittingham graduated cum laude from Harvard Medical School in 1950, completed his internship and residency (ultimately as chief resident) at New York Hospital, and pursued a hematology fellowship at Washington University. Respected early in his career as a skillful clinician, Dr. Brittingham was invited to head the St. Louis City Hospital medical service in 1958, remaining there until his second invitation from David Rogers, M.D., to come to Vanderbilt in 1962.

Exemplary teaching and leading were not just his job, they were part of Tom Brittingham’s foundation, as he charged housestaff to be responsible for every aspect of a patient’s care — health, comfort, emotional security, and social situation. He uniformly applied a sense of deep interest, genuine concern, and personal responsibility in total commitment to all those whom he encountered.

At a Vanderbilt memorial to Tom Brittingham, Roger DesPrez remembered him this way: “He was, according to [a fellow intern at New York Hospital], the most careful and thoroughly fair man he had ever known. This created emotional security among the housestaff, making it possible for them to work harder and to do better than they otherwise would have been able to do, and to be happy doing so.”

Dr. Brittingham’s legacy as “the good doctor” will always be remembered by those who trained under him.

Read Dr. Brittingham's article "Medical Clerkship" (pdf).

Roger DePrez’s comments from memorial to Dr. Brittingham at VU Housestaff reunion, September 1987.