A Life in Medicine, A Legacy in Humanity - Robert Kravetz, MD
By Dominique Perkins, Associate Editor, Arizona Physician
Photography by Noble Pictures, jeffnoblepictures.com
From Print Issue - Spring 2025
Some doctors leave a legacy in textbooks or on hospital walls. Dr. Robert Kravetz’s legacy lives in glass display cases, lecture halls, and the grateful memories of patients and students alike.
A retired bioethicist, gastroenterologist, collector of medical antiques, and beloved medical historian, Dr. Robert Kravetz, MD, embodies the golden era of American medicine while offering a thoughtful critique of the modern system. His story is a window into what medicine once was— and a guidepost for what it still can be.
AN EARLY CALLING AND A LASTING CONTRIBUTION
Dr. Kravetz found his passion, and his talent, for medicine early on. He greatly admired his uncle, who was a general practitioner. And as an Eagle scout he became very adept at first aid, winning tournaments and eventually becoming an instructor.
He entered medical school at the end of his third year of college, to avoid a language requirement he obstinately didn’t want to take.
“I tell my grandchildren I’m not a college graduate,” he said, laughing. “Isn’t that so strange to think?”
He attended New York University School of Medicine and completed a fellowship in gastroenterology at Yale New Haven Medical Center
Given the scope of his career, from private practice to education, Dr. Kravetz is uniquely positioned to comment on the significant changes in medical school education over the last decades. Lectures, lab, and general coursework filled the entirety of his first two years at medical school in 1956.
He didn’t see any patients until his third and fourth year, during clinical rotation. Today’s medical students begin training in doctoring in their first and second year, often pairing with a community physician mentor to learn communication and clinical skills and to gain early exposure to patient care.
“I think it’s better that they start seeing patients early, because then you can correlate your learning with the patients,” he said. But I would still change a lot.”
Dr. Kravetz joined the faculty of the University of Arizona College of Medicine—Phoenix, where he currently teaches clinical medicine to first- and second-year students. Dr. Kravetz also teaches medical history to fourth-year students, which marries two of his greatest passions: medical education and medical history. Dr. Kravetz gifts each of his history students a medical antique from his collection, selected for their chosen specialty to guide their research— and to start collections of their own.
A COLLECTOR OF STORIES AND SCIENCE
The first antique Dr. Kravetz purchased was a small porcelain toothpaste jar he found in a thrift store for 25 cents. A humble start to what has become the largest collection of medical and apothecary artifacts in the southwest.
“The antiques represent a window into the past and represent how far we have come in medical diagnosis and treatment,” Dr. Kravetz said.
During a fateful visit to a small New England town, he found a drug store that dated back to 1840. When he asked the owners if they had any old items he could see, they handed him the key to a storage room and told him to have a look.
“It was antique heaven!” he said. He purchased the entire collection on the spot, rented a large moving van, and drove away with 60 crates filled with 130 years of history. A few of his all-time favorite finds through the years: a drug chest from the revolutionary war; a complete amputation kit from the civil war; a 16thcentury Delf drug jar that he found someone using as a pencil holder; and a leech jar that he purchased from a drug store in Las Vegas for $250 and later sold at auction for $6,000. For Dr. Kravetz, each artifact is more than an object, it’s a story, a legacy, and a reminder that medicine is built on human experience. His donated collection is displayed in 40 cases at locations across the Valley, including Abrazo Central, Encompass Health, The Legacy Foundation, a museum of medical history at the University of Arizona College of Medicine—Phoenix, and at the Maricopa County Medical Society, where he has been a member since he first arrived in Arizona in 1965.
He was assigned to the Phoenix Indian Hospital through the Public Health Service and started his own practice shortly thereafter. The years he practiced have been considered by many to be the golden years of medicine – full of remarkable breakthroughs in research and technology, combined with physician autonomy and financial
independence.
The breakthrough that had the most dramatic impact on his practice was the introduction of fiberoptic endoscopy—an innovation that transformed gastroenterology diagnostics and therapeutics.
“We had rigid scopes; they were made of steel,” he recalled. “It was like swallowing a sword.” Fiberoptic technology made the procedure more comfortable, more accurate, and more widely accessible, offering a clear view of the body that was once impossible.
A PHILOSOPHY OF CARE
Even as new technologies reshaped clinical practice, Dr. Kravetz never lost sight of medicine’s deeper purpose. His approach was shaped not only by technical innovation, but by a humanistic model of care that placed compassion and dignity at the heart of the physician-patient relationship.
“I was fortunate to have trained with three of the most prominent humanists in medicine during my formative years,” he said, naming Dr. Lewis Thomas, celebrated author and mid-century physician-humanist, Dr. Edmund Pellegrino, a founding figure in modern medical ethics, and Dr. Howard Spiro, professor emeritus of medicine and founder of the Program for Humanities in Medicine at Yale School of Medicine.
Humanism is a philosophical movement that began during the Renaissance and has been at the core of the medical profession since its inception. The ideology positions human beings as essentially good and capable of great improvement through reason and learning. Human life and dignity are highly valued, and technology is considered essential for solving problems.
Throughout Dr. Kravetz’s career he has been a strong voice for preserving humanism in medicine, particularly through his book, Medical Humanism: Aphorisms from the Bedside Teachings & Writings of Howard M. Spiro, MD. Dr. Kravetz remembers a time when initial consultations with new patients were scheduled for a full hour.
Today, however, corporate interests have leaked into the noble practice of medicine, robbing physicians of autonomy, time with their patients, reimbursement, and public trust.
A broad sweep of misinformation, particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, has further eroded public trust in physicians, experts, and in essential medical innovations such as vaccines. Physicians everywhere are working to re-forge that trust and build connection with their patients in the little time they have.
“Every doctor should develop their own little technique,” Dr. Kravetz recommends. One of his? Moving his chair to sit beside patients as they talked. “If there wasn’t a chair in the room, I would go get one,” he said.
Taking an extra moment to ask about a patient’s day, making eye contact, a handshake, a personal farewell, small gestures can have significant impact.
A PHYSICIAN’S ENDURING TOUCH
After more than five decades in medicine, Dr. Kravetz has turned his attention to teaching, curating, and tending to the roots both literal and figurative—of a profession he has always loved.
His impact is woven through generations of students, the artifacts of medical history, and a philosophy that centers human dignity in care. Even in retirement, Dr. Kravetz continues to shape the future of medicine through his teaching and mentorship. In a healthcare system often defined by speed and metrics, his legacy reminds us to slow down, sit beside our patients and listen. â–
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Dominique Perkins serves as Associate Editor for Arizona Physician.