Marjorie S. Sirridge

Marjorie S. Sirridge, M.D.
2010 Alma Dea Morani Renaissance Award Recipient

Throughout her life Dr. Sirridge has shown that women can achieve great things without sacrificing other aspects of their lives. "I feel that I have been an important role model for women and men because of my openness about my personal life and my commitment to family."

Marjorie S. Sirridge, M.D., has long recognized the benefits of exchange and collaboration in medical education and practice. She has launched initiatives to help teachers learn from their students, and to improve opportunities for women in medicine to the benefit of their colleagues and patients. As an exemplar of her own philosophy she is also proud to serve as a role model for physicians who balance family life with a demanding career.

In 1944, Dr. Sirridge graduated first in her class from the University of Kansas, School of Medicine. During her post-graduate work, Dr. Sirridge was informed that it was not acceptable to become pregnant while completing the residency program, so she dropped out of medicine for a time. When she later returned to medicine she specialized in hematology. Her book, Laboratory Evaluation of Hemostasis and Thrombosis, first published in 1967, has already gone through three editions.

As one of the founding faculty members of the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) School of Medicine, Dr. Sirridge has taught medical philosophy to countless students since the school was established in 1971. Unlike most medical schools, UMKC combines undergraduate and medical programs to fully integrate the humanities, liberal arts, basic science, and clinical medicine throughout its six-year curriculum. A key component of the school's new model of medical education was incorporating early and continuing contact between students and a team of clinician-scholars called docents. One of the schools three original docents, Dr. Sirridge explained that the best patient care occurs when the health professionals themselves work as partners. This partnership includes the senior physician, the junior physician, and the student physician, and each teaches and is taught by the other.

While working closely with all levels of students through the docent system, Dr. Sirridge chaired the medical school's council on curriculum and was assistant dean for curriculum from 1985 through 1992. In 1997, Dr. Sirridge became dean of the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine and directed the school for two years. Because of their commitment to furthering the medical humanities, in 1992 Dr. Sirridge and her husband William Sirridge, M.D., endowed the Sirridge Office of Medical Humanities at UMKC and she was the Director until 2004.

Through her work at the school and her nationally published writings, Dr. Sirridge has helped women succeed in the medical profession. In 1983, Dr. Sirridge established the UMKC Programs for Women in Medicine to assist women students, physicians and faculty achieve equality in a still male-dominated system. Nationally, through articles in the Journal of the American Medical Women's Association and other publications, Dr. Sirridge has stressed the need for women to develop mentoring relationships with other women physicians. In one of her wide-reaching mentoring efforts, Dr. Sirridge compiled "Through a Woman Physician's 'I'," a collection of autobiographies of women physicians. Her own autobiography was included in In Her Own Words, published by E. P Dutton in 1989. In recognition of her efforts for women in medicine, each year the UMKC School of Medicine hosts the Marjorie S. Sirridge, M.D., Outstanding Women in Medicine Lecture series.

Dr. Sirridge’s model of achievement without personal sacrifice is an inspiration to her own family. One son followed his parents' footsteps and is a physician; another son coupled a law degree with a master's degree in health sciences; the third son has a Ph.D. in psychology; and Dr. Sirridge's daughter, Mary, holds her Ph.D. in philosophy.

Biography from the Foundation for the History of Women in Medicine website, here.