Pre-Doc
From the time she was five, Gale McCarty knew that she wanted to be a doctor. Her
experiences at Duke have propelled her to academic medicine and a quest to find a cure for
lupus.
Gale
A. McCarty, 'T '72, MD '75, HS '74 - '76, Fellow, '77 - '81, Faculty, '81 - '82, helped
take care of patients long before she ever became a physician. In fact, she got involved
with clinical care and Duke researchers even before she entered her teens. At the age of
12, when she moved to Durham from the Northeast, McCarty was a precocious entrant in - and
winner of - many of her junior high and high school science fairs ... state-wide events
that were judged by Duke professors, including Syd Osterhout and Steve Vogel. And, as a
volunteer Candy Striper at Duke University Medical Center in her teens, the young Durham
resident helped make patients more comfortable during their hospital stays. Intensive
support of these activities from her parents, William and the late Eileen Van Pelt, for
these and other experiences, such as summer lab jobs and participation in
"self-created" Duke programs, served as springboards to other areas of Duke
Medical Center.
"I knew I'd be a doctor at age five, when I fell in love with my pediatrician and
all his books and instruments," McCarty says. "It was more socially acceptable
than becoming a female, 'Paladin,' the Richard Boone freelance cowboy-super hero
character. Later, I usually accompanied my family members on their visits to pediatricians
or gynecologists, so I was watching and interacting with physicians early on in my real
life. Then Star Trek's Mr. Spock legitimized being interested in science for girls and
boys; it was okay for me and non-nerdy for me to be like Spock. I've spoken with Leonard
Nimoy in person about this role model aspect of his character, which he had not previously
realized. TV shows depicting female doctors, such as The Doctors and Ben Casey,
exemplified the idea that girls can be good in science and medicine."
Self-described as a "bookworm" and a straight-A student in high school,
McCarty's love of learning and her early exposure to the elegance of science brought her
to a logical next steps-scholarships to Duke's Trinity College and then to Duke Medical
School.
It was at Duke Medical School, during coursework that introduced her to scions of Duke
immunology, like D. Bernard Amos, Wendell Rosse, David Scott, and Ralph Snyderman, that
McCarty decided she would pursue research into the causes and possible cures of the cruel
disease of lupus. Often thought of as a "woman's disease" because 90 percent of
its victims are females of child-bearing age, lupus occurs when the body's normally
protective defense mechanism loses control and attacks its own tissues. Lupus mimics other
diseases so well that as many as eight patients to one go undiagnosed - and thus,
untreated - for long periods. McCarty's experiences on all levels of training at Duke
encouraged her curiosity and built the confidence to go after such an elusive sickness
that disables as well as kills.
"Whatever the venue - research, patient care, or teaching - Duke always encouraged
me to excel. That is the lesson I carry with me to this day and teach to my medical
students, residents, and fellows," says McCarty. From the help that Duke professors
gave me when I was a kid, to the experiences I had in Grace Kirby's, Ralph Snyderman's,
and David Pisetsky's labs, I was encouraged to persist in work with autoantibodies in
general, and later with antiphospholipid antibodies. This work continues to this day.
"On my tombstone, it will probably still say, 'She died trying to get a big NIH
grant and never made it out of AMFR into ASCI/AAP.' But I have persisted even though I
have lived what Jim Wyngaarden once called the life of the 'academic
physician-investigator as an endangered species.'"
"I was at Duke from my teen right through early faculty status and come back
periodically for immunology program updates, medical grand rounds, and Medical Alumni
Council functions. All in all, I owe Duke a lot."
Today, McCarty is associate professor of medicine in the Division of Rheumatology and
Multipurpose Arthritis Center at Indiana University Medical Center, a top-20 academic
rheumatology unit. She is one of 41 people world-wide to publish in July 1999 the world's
first position paper on the clinical and serologic criteria for the diagnosis of
antiphospholipid antibody syndrome (APS). She has co-authored a textbook on
autoantibodies, written chapters in several rheumatology textbooks, and published more
than 60 manuscripts. Currently, she is working on a book for patients with APS.
McCarty, who is single, enjoys a "vicarious" family made up of her father,
siblings, nieces, nephews still in Durham, and the children of close colleagues and former
fellows. She has continually mentored both female and male medical students throughout her
career. Her niece, Ashley Richards, recently participated in the week-long Youth Looking
at the Future medical mentoring program for Durham high school students at Duke, so the
Duke legacy may come full circle here. Another niece, Cristin Clark, is participating this
summer in a similar Health Professionals Early Identification Program through Southern
High School. In her "spare" time, McCarty likes to jog, play tennis, down-hill
ski, drive sports cars, and scuba dive.
