The McGovern Award Lectureship in the Art and Science of Medicine was established by a $61,000 endowment from the late John P. McGovern, M.D.., Founder/Consultant, McGovern Allergy Clinic, and President and Chairman, John P. McGovern Foundation and the McGovern Fund for the Behavioral Sciences, Houston, Texas.

Dr. McGovern, a distinguished pediatrician, allergist and medical educator focused his career on practice, teaching and research. He published 250 papers and 22 books and received awards and honors too numerous to mention. He had honorary doctorates from a host of universities, including his Alma Mater, Duke University, where he earned his M.D.. degree. The new Museum of Health and Medical Sciences in Houston bears his name, as does the Historical Collections and Research Center in the Texas Medical Center Library.

The McGovern name also graces numerous professorships, lectureships, scholarships, grants to a variety of organizations and medical teaching awards with financial support.

The McGovern Award Lectureship in the Art and Science of Medicine is dedicated to the central mission of the doctor: caring and healing. Reaffirming the validity of the oldest description of medical practice, "the healing art," the award stresses the importance of blending intrinsic healing attributes of those who practice the art with the highest scientific skills. Without the fusion of the healer and the scientist, there can be no "compleat" physician, for only the "compleat" physician can be a person of science when facing the disease, a person of compassion or empathy when facing the patient, and a person of leadership when facing the community.

Past McGovern Lecturers

• 2005 - Robert Kiser, M.D.., M.A., Insecurity, Borccoli, and a Life in F.A.A.G.P.the Profession of Medicine
• 2004 - Randolph B. Schiffer, M.D.., Doctors Mistakes: The Matrication of the Patient, Category Errors in the Care of the Sick
• 2003 - Abraham Verghese, The Search for Meaning in a Medical Life
• 2002 - John D. Stobo, M.D.., The Impact of Sir William Osler on Humanism in American Medicine
• 2001 - Susan Rudd Wynn, M.D.., Hearts and Minds: Exploring Physician-Patient Communication
• 2000 - Edmund D. Pellegrino, M.D.., M.A.C.P., Personal vs Professional Values in Medicine
• 1999 - Albert R. Jonsen, Ph.D., The Birth of Bioethics
• 1998 - Howard Brody, M.D.., Ph.D., Professionalism in Medicine
• 1997 - Michael A. LaCombe, M.D.., Stories from Medicine: Where They Come From and How To Tell Them
• 1996 - Nancy W. Dickey, M.D.., Ethical Issues in Managed Care
• 1995 - Dewitt C. Baldwin, Jr., M.D.