Albert Heyman, MD, professor emertitus of medicine and former chief of the Division of Neurology, died Fri., Feb. 10 at the age of 96.
Dr. Heyman’s career spanned more than six decades. It began in 1944 after completing his residency under Eugene Stead, MD at Atlanta’s Grady Hospital. He joined Duke in 1954 – again to work with Dr. Stead – where he served as an associate professor of neurology and chief of the neurology section at the Durham VA Hospital from 1954 – 1961. He served as chief of Duke’s Division of Neurology from 1964-69 and in 1965, was named director of the Duke/VA Stroke Center – a title he held for 15 years. In 1979 he helped establish North Carolina’s first Alzheimer’s support group at Duke, which led to the creation of the state’s first Alzheimer’s Association chapter.
Dr. Heyman made innumerable contributions to the treatment of neurological disease through epidemiological and clinical research. He was the first to make a connection between formulated estrogens in birth control pills and increased stroke risk, the first to raise awareness of increased stroke risk among African-Americans and an early leader in Alzheimer’s disease research who standardized the way the disease is diagnosed throughout the world. Dr. Heyman led two large National Institutes of Health studies on Alzheimer’s disease and remained an active part of the Duke medical and scientific community long after he retired in 1986.
Dr. Heyman was a recipient of the School of Medicine’s Distinguished Teacher Award in 1991, and received the William G. Anlyan Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004.
Dr. Heyman was buried at the Hebrew Cemetery here in Durham yesterday.
"He was a truly distinguished faculty member who should be remembered and celebrated," wrote Dean Nancy Andrews in a memo to faculty today.