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 | | Dr. David Blatt and Dr. David Moore | | | Inducted 2007 | | | Photo: HAL BAIM / WINDY CITY TIMES | | Dr. David Blatt, 56, and Dr. David Moore, 57, partners, groundbreaking medical practitioners and advocates in HIV/AIDS care, known for their personal attention to their patients. | |
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| In 1982, when the AIDS epidemic had only
begun to have its impact in the United States, Imany in Chicago’s LGBT communities were
in denial. Amid suffering and indifference, two
visionary physicians, life and professional partners
David Blatt and David Moore, emerged as models
of selfless commitment in the face of death and
dying. They created the exemplary Unit 371 at
Illinois Masonic Medical Center, treating AIDS
patients and serving their partners or other family
members by creating a safe haven where people could spend unlimited time with
beloved friends and relatives. They were known as “the gay presence” at Illinois
Masonic, putting a human face on AIDS, offering comforting reassurance to
frightened patients at a difficult time, and even making house calls.
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| Unit 371 became a model for AIDS units at medical centers across the United States.
Today, Drs. Blatt and Moore still get up and go to work at 3000 North Halsted Street
to care for their HIV/AIDS patients, offering the same compassionate professional
and personal attention as they did a quarter of a century ago. | |
| David Blatt grew up in Indianapolis, Indiana, in the 1950s and 1960s, where he
attended public schools. He began his medical career by working in the emergency
room of the local public hospital, Marion County General, as an orderly. He
graduated from Harvard College and The George Washington University School of
Medicine in Washington, D.C., and subsequently moved to Chicago for a residency at
Cook County Hospital, where he met and fell in love with David Moore. | |
| David Moore is a 1971 honors graduate of Southern Illinois University and earned his
doctorate at the Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine in 1975. After his Cook
County Hospital internship and residency, he earned his board certification in
internal medicine, worked as a teaching attending internist at Mount Sinai Hospital,
and in 1981 joined with Blatt to form their celebrated partnership practice. Moore has
also taught at the University of Illinois College of Medicine and at Rush Medical
College. | |
| The Blatt–Moore internal medicine practice focused on gay health issues from the
very beginning. The two doctors treated, comforted, and nourished—often to life’s
end—patients who in many cases were also their close friends. Blatt and Moore
reassured frightened patients by putting a human face on AIDS care. | |
| Today, Moore is a practicing internist and a teaching clinic attending physician at
Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center. Blatt also continues to be engaged
actively in the clinical care of persons with HIV and AIDS and is an assistant
professor of medicine at the University of Illinois College of Medicine. | |
| Drs. Blatt and Moore have, for more than 25 years, been outstanding advocates and
champions of the LGBT and HIV/AIDS communities, but as important as their
professional commitment has been their abiding love for each other across several
decades. | |
| This biography is as of the induction date. It has not been updated. |
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