Camera Ready

Timothy Johnson, MPH '76

Television viewers tuned into the ABC News program "20/20" one Friday night last June were offered a glimpse of what co-anchor Barbara Walters called a "revolutionary" new treatment for heart disease. The segment was narrated by the network’s Medical Editor, Timothy Johnson M.P.H.’76, whose characteristic professional yet compassionate persona has earned the respect and trust of two generations of television-watchers. For the next 13 minutes, Johnson guided the program’s roughly 19 million viewers through a complicated story about a renegade Brazilian cardiac surgeon’s new technique to treat an enlarged heart by cutting a chunk of heart muscle away from the lower left ventricle. The fast-paced segment intercut shots of Dr. Randas Batista, the Brazilian cardiologist, in his "jungle" operating room with footage of Batista being interviewed by Johnson, Batista riding a horse on his 300-acre brush ranch, and animated graphics illustrating the procedure.

Much has changed, both in television and in medicine, since Johnson’s first 30-minute broadcast aired nearly 20 years ago, when he hosted a local program called "Housecalls." In that time, Johnson–"Dr. Tim," as he is known to his colleagues and public–has led the way in the competitive world of broadcast medical journalism. Practically every day, he shifts between reporting on new medical findings or controversies and providing basic information about the importance of screening for colon cancer and hearing tests for children.

"Some say that I’m providing cheap entertainment for hypochondriacs, but I like to think it’s more than that," says Johnson.

"He has the best public health education job in the country," says colleague Terry Schraeder, who interned with Johnson before becoming a medical reporter at WCVB News (Channel 5) in Boston. Former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, a friend and colleague of Johnson, agrees. "When you educate patients the way Timothy Johnson is doing, you empower them to take a larger role in their health care," he says. "It changes the paradigm of passive patient and active physician."

A graduate of Albany Medical College, Johnson was practicing emergency medicine in Lynn, Massachusetts, when he was recruited to host the local television venture "Housecalls." The half-hour show’s low-key format consisted primarily of Johnson and a guest discussing a single health topic, such as cataracts or chest pain. The few graphics employed were decidedly low tech. In the early 1980s, Johnson hosted a half-hour-long newsmagazine called "Healthbeat"–a precursor to his current Channel 5 News segment of the same name–that included five or six short segments. In 1984, Johnson went national when he joined the abc News organization as medical editor.

During this time, Johnson’s on-air patter has quickened a few beats to keep time with the new demands of the mediuim. But while the pace of broadcasting has changed, Johnson has earned respect for not abandoning his unique, physician cum journalist style, which integrates the perspectives of the patient wanting information, the physician concerned that his patient get the right information, and the reporter asking the tough questions to get it.

"He is enough of an expert that he rises above the daily grind of news stories and becomes an educator, an on-air adviser to the public on health matters," says Phil Hilts, medical writer for The New York Times.

Johnson came to the School in 1975 specifically to learn to evaluate studies more rapidly and accurately and to hone up on statistics. He credits Professor Marge Drolette with providing an "excellent" instruction in biostatistics. Drolette, who earned her M.P.H. from the School in 1954 and taught most of the required biostatistics courses, was known for her unbridled enthusiasm towards both her students and her subject. In a memoriam that appeared in the Alumni Bulletin in 1987, she was called the "best-loved teacher in the history of the Harvard School of Public Health." (She also served as chief coordinator for the M.P.H. program from 1977 to 1985, and every year at commencement, to show their appreciation, graduating students kissed her as she handed out diplomas. This tradition led former Dean for Academic Affairs Elkan Blout to call Drolette "the most kissed faculty member" he had ever known.)

While at the School, Johnson also collaborated with Steven Goldfinger, dean for continuing education at Harvard Medical School, to create the Harvard Health Letter, a lay person’s newsletter on medicine and health.

"Tim was a man full of ideas that were well thought-out and creative," says Goldfinger, who now heads the Harvard Health Publications Group, the umbrella organization that publishes the Harvard Health Letter as well as five additional letters dedicated to specific health topics, such as women’s, digestive, mental, and cardiovascular health.

Johnson was also having a great time, says William Ira Bennett, who replaced Johnson as editor-in-chief in 1979. Headlines from the first few issues of the Letter reflect Johnson’s sense of humor toward his subject: "What You Should Know about Heart Attacks Before You Die from One," and "What You Always Wanted to Know about Colds and Flu, but Felt too Rotten to Ask." But the Harvard Health Letter also sought to provide useful information to people, especially about preventive measures such as tests ad screening, and to do so in a way that was informative and respectful. "The basic decision not to talk down to people was something I really respected," says Bennett.

Today the health letter started by Johnson and Goldfinger reaches some 250,000 people every month. Through his new medium, however, Johnson numbers his audience in the tens of millions. During any given week, Johnson appears several times on abc’s news programs "20/20", "Nightline", "ABC News", "Good Morning America", and "World News Tonight". He also continues to do spots called "HealthBeat" on the local ABC news affiliate.

"He’s always on the go," says Judy Burke, who has been his assistant for 20 years and who produced some of his earlier programs. Johnson has won two Emmy Awards from the Boston/New England Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, and the Lewis Thomas Award for Communications from the American College of Physicians. And in a 1995 TV Guide poll of the most trusted television news personalities in America, he ranked second, behind Walter Cronkite.

"What is so good about what Tim does," says Marcia Angell, executive editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, "is his ability to put science into language the public can understand." Angell describes Johnson as an essential "link" in the chain of health information.

"A link to people being healthier and receiving better health care is good accurate information," says Johnson. "I like to see myself as a public health teacher, albeit in a different way than many."

- Terri L. Rutter