Generous Patient Wills Neurology Professorship

Two decades ago, a patient suffering from a rapid onset of neurological symptoms was referred to Jerry Wolinsky, M.D., director of the Multiple Sclerosis Research Group and Magnetic Resonance Imaging Analysis Center at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston.

Jerry Wolinsky, M.D.

Today, thanks to the generosity of that grateful patient and a strong physician-patient relationship, Wolinsky has been named the holder of the Opal Rankin Professorship in Neurology.

"J. Taylor Wharton, M.D., now professor of gynecologic oncology at M. D. Anderson, called and told me about Mrs. Rankin,” Wolinsky recalled.“Her initial symptoms had suggested that she probably had a brain tumor, but it turned out to be a demyelinating disease that proved to be multiple sclerosis. That began my two decades of taking care of her for multiple sclerosis.”

Rankin had just moved to Horseshoe Bay in 1984, when a year later she was stricken with multiple sclerosis. She soon relocated to Houston to be near her medical treatment team, which was headed by Wolinsky, and remained until her death in 2004.

“She had been significantly disabled from the original attack, so over the years we battled with her disease, and I made house calls from time to time. I got to know her friends and those around her,” Wolinsky said. “It was a privilege to take care of her over most of my time spent in Texas. Others here at the university were also involved in her care, particularly toward the end.”

In addition to the endowed professorship created through her will, Rankin made annual gifts to Wolinsky’s research fund while a patient.

“She was a very generous lady. When I found out about the professorship, I was surprised and touched,” he added.

Shirley Raines, friend and guardian to Rankin, said that even in the face of her illness, she was a delight who kept everyone laughing with her dry sense of humor.

“She truly was a generous person,” Raines said. “She created the professorship in an effort to say thank you to Dr. Wolinsky for the care he had given her all of those years.”

That generosity has contributed to a growing multiple sclerosis research enterprise under Wolinsky’s direction.

“Over the years the research has transitioned, but always one way or another, it has been heavily involved in investigating new drugs and therapeutic approaches for the treatment of multiple sclerosis,” Wolinsky explained. “We have been involved in almost all the major clinical trials of this disease and have had an ongoing and productive interaction with Dr. Ponnada Narayana because of his interest in MRI.”

Narayana, director of Magnetic Resonance Research and professor of diagnostic and interventional imaging, and Wolinsky have collaborated on a successful imaging program that monitors the progression of multiple sclerosis patients.

“This research has been helped by the generosity of Mrs. Rankin over the years and now into the future with the professorship. Others, including the Bartels family, Clay Walker and his Band Against MS, the Clayton Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and our colleagues in the pharmaceutical industry, also have funded what has turned into one of the dominant research groups in the country, internationally known for its work with imaging and clinical trials,” said Wolinsky, who also holds the Bartels Family Professorship in Neurology.

“Folks like Opal Rankin have brought into the open this difficult problem that needs to be solved and managed, and they have the vision to see beyond their own fight with multiple sclerosis to help make it better for others in the long run,” he said.

By Darla Brown, Medical School