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Several pictures of doctors who are featured on the Local Legends web site

MEET LOCAL LEGEND: Annette E. Fitz, M.D.

Picture of Annette E. Fitz

Annette E. Fitz, M.D.

“For more than 35 years, Anne Fitz was an extraordinary physician, scholar, and humanitarian. Anne was the physician of choice for thousands of intensely loyal patients and the colleague of choice for physicians throughout the state and the Midwest who sought her clinical judgment and expertise." (John B. Stokes, M.D., Professor of Medicine, University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine.)”

NOMINATING CONGRESSIONAL REPRESENTATIVE

Rep. James A. Leach

“QUIET LEADERSHIP; EXTRAORDINARY ACCOMPLISHMENTS”

BIOGRAPHY

In 1963 when she joined the faculty as an instructor in the University of Iowa's College of Medicine, Annette Fitz, M.D. was one of only a few women practicing and teaching medicine at the University. It took only a short time for her dedication to patients, stellar clinical research and influential stance on the emerging role of women in medicine to make her a model for physicians on campus and throughout Iowa.

Her colleague, John B. Stokes, M.D., Professor of Medicine at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, wrote, "One of her most remarkable contributions came in her quiet and steady influence in the emergence of women in medicine. When Anne joined the faculty, she was considered a curiosity-a woman who had strayed into a man's world of medicine within a man's world of academia. Throughout her career she served as a role model for countless women physicians and women academicians, providing for them a source of strength, reassurance, and counsel as they pursued their educational and professional careers."

Nominated as a Local Legend by Rep. James A. Leach (R-IA-2), Annette Fitz assumed a leadership role as a physician, teacher and advocate for over three decades at the University of Iowa. Her incredible photographic memory for patients, her teaching of medical fellows, house staff and students which emphasized thoughtful, logical, critical thinking, and her excellence in clinical research, are part of her legacy.

In his nominating letter, Rep. Leach recalled, "Dr. Fitz touched people in many ways, personally as well as professionally. One of her enduring contributions was her work as a member and then Chair of the University of Iowa Board of Control of Athletics. Through this particular effort, she provided direction on the testing of student athletes for drug use and was able to address the complexity of this issue with feasible solutions."

As a researcher and physician Fitz devoted much of her career to the etiology and treatment of hypertension with emphasis on renal hypertension and malignant hypertension. In recognition of her work, she received the American Medical Association Physicians Recognition Award (1984-1994).

Fitz received her medical degree and completed her residency in internal medicine at the Veterans Administration Hospital and the University of Iowa (1959-1962). She was a Residency Research Fellow in Hypertension and Renal Disease at the University of Iowa (1962-1964), and a Special Research Fellow at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, and St. Mary's Hospital, London, working with W.S. Peart, M.D. (1968).

She was widely published with over 50 articles, books, and chapters to her credit, many of them seminal works in the field of hypertension. Wrote an admiring colleague, "Probably Dr. Fitz's most important contribution to the University was as a role model for women who aspire to become scholars, teachers, and physicians. Her thoughtful work as an investigator, teacher and scholar gained her the respect of the college community, and an international reputation for excellence."

MILESTONES

1963-1967

Appointed Instructor (1963)--Clinical Associate (1964-1967), University of Iowa, College of Medicine, Iowa City, IA

1967-1976

Appointed Clinical Assistant Professor(1967) and Associate Professor (1972--1976), University of Iowa, College of Medicine

1968

Appointed Chief, Hypertension Clinic, Veterans Administration Hospital, Iowa City

1976

Appointed Professor, University of Iowa, College of Medicine

1981-1986

Appointed Acting Director, Hypertension, Electrolyte Metabolism, Department of Internal Medicine, Renal Disease, University of Iowa, College of Medicine

1986-1987

Elected President, Johnson County Medical Society, IA

1995

Received Michael J. Brody Award for Faculty Excellence in Service to the University of Iowa and the State of Iowa

BORN

1933

MEDICAL SCHOOL

University of Iowa, College of Medicine, Iowa City, IA

SPECIALTY

Internal Medicine


Sub Specialty

Hypertension and Renal Disease

LOCATION

Iowa