Roland B. Scott

Roland Boyd Scott (April 18, 1909 – December 10, 2002) was an American researcher, pediatrician and authority on sickle cell disease. Scott authored a key paper in 1948 describing the incidence of sickle cell in infants that eventually led to the establishment of routine screening for newborns. He chose to study at Howard University. He was also accepted at University of Chicago. His mother believed the predominantly African-American Howard would provide a more comfortable social environment for him. Scott studied chemistry and then began medical studies after completing his BS degree. Scott decided to focus on pediatrics, influenced by Alonzo DeGrate Smith, professor of pediatrics in the medical school. He conducted his earliest research into nutritional diseases, including a study of rickets and the use of vitamin D to treat it. Scott completed his study of medicine at Howard in 1934, graduating with an MD degree.

Career Scott completed his internship in Kansas City, Missouri. Despite limited interest at the time in the specialty, he decided to pursue residency in pediatrics and spent four years as a pediatric resident and fellow in Chicago at Provident Hospital, Cook County Hospital, and the Municipal Hospital for Contagious Diseases. Scott passed the examination of the American Board of Pediatrics in 1939. After completing his postgraduate training in pediatrics in Chicago, he returned to Howard to join the faculty. Scott was one of the first two black physicians in the United States to be admitted to membership in the American Academy of Pediatrics, after he was initially rejected because of race and had to reapply. Scott was the first black physician to become a member of the American Pediatric Society and the Society for Pediatric Research.

At that time an assistant professor of pediatrics at Howard University was paid $3,000 per year, leading Scott to negotiate for permission to work part-time as a pediatric consultant. In 1945, Scott was appointed acting director of pediatrics. In 1949, Scott was instrumental in turning the pediatric division into a department from the Department of Medicine, of which he became Chairman. He remained as head of pediatrics for twenty-eight years.

In 1950, Scott took a sabbatical to study allergic diseases at Roosevelt Hospital in New York City. Upon his return to Howard, he started allergy clinics for children at D.C. General and Freedmen's Hospitals. Scott became board certified in both allergy and clinical immunology. In 1971, Scott and others lobbied Congress, which then passed the Sickle Cell Control Act. Following the act, increasing funding was made available from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for studying and treating sickle cell disease. Soon after, a grant was awarded to establish the Howard University Center for Sickle Cell Disease, as one of ten centers created to ensure more productive research and more effective clinical treatment for patients. Scott directed the Howard University Center for Sickle Cell Disease from its creation in 1971 until his retirement in 1990.

Scott authored or co-authored more than 250 scientific publications. He was interviewed by Carl Pochedly of the American Journal of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, and mentioned coping with racism in the United States as a significant and lifelong problem.

Personal life In 1935, he married Sarah Rosetta Weaver. They had three children. Scott died on December 10, 2002, at the age of 93 of congestive heart failure at the Washington Adventist Hospital in Washington, D.C.

Awards American Academy of Pediatrics’ Jacobi Award Pioneer in sickle cell research award from the Advisory Board of the Comprehensive Center for Sickle Cell Disease of the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons Special award from the National Sickle Cell Disease Program for "leadership and pioneering efforts in directing national and international attention to sickle cell disease."