PHYSICIAN

Frances Oldham Kelsey

1914 - 2015

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Dr Frances Kathleen Oldham Kelsey (née Oldham; July 24, 1914 – August 7, 2015) was a Canadian-American pharmacologist and physician. As a reviewer for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), she refused to authorize thalidomide for market because she had concerns about the lack of evidence regarding the drug's safety. Her concerns proved to be justified when it was shown that thalidomide caused serious birth defects. Kelsey's career intersected with the passage of laws strengthening FDA oversight of pharmaceuticals. Read more on Wikipedia

Her biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. Frances Oldham Kelsey is the 388th most popular physician (up from 452nd in 2019), the 186th most popular biography from Canada (up from 226th in 2019) and the 7th most popular Canadian Physician.

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Among PHYSICIANS

Among physicians, Frances Oldham Kelsey ranks 388 out of 726Before her are Eugene Botkin, Gottfried Reinhold Treviranus, Carlos Chagas, Ferdinand Sauerbruch, Willi Graf, and Filippo Pacini. After her are Luigi Carlo Farini, Moritz Kaposi, Robert Liston, Paul Hermann, Emil Aarestrup, and Johann Lukas Schönlein.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1914, Frances Oldham Kelsey ranks 150Before her are Bernd Freytag von Loringhoven, Gino Colaussi, Michael Grant, Yuri Levitan, Paul Tortelier, and Noor Inayat Khan. After her are Patrick O'Brian, Arno Schmidt, Jens Otto Krag, Hernán Siles Zuazo, Harry F. Byrd Jr., and Kazimierz Świątek. Among people deceased in 2015, Frances Oldham Kelsey ranks 148Before her are Carlo Furno, Harald Nielsen, Sergio Sollima, Władysław Bartoszewski, Klaus Roth, and Robert Conquest. After her are Egon Bahr, Dean Jones, Ernst Fuchs, Saud bin Faisal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Mile Mrkšić, and Ján Chryzostom Korec.

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In Canada

Among people born in Canada, Frances Oldham Kelsey ranks 186 out of 1,622Before her are Lorne Greene (1915), Nelly Furtado (1978), Christian Cage (1973), Brian Kernighan (1942), Evangeline Lilly (1979), and Wilfrid Laurier (1841). After her are Alex Wilson (1905), Vanity (1959), Maynard Ferguson (1928), Robert Langlands (1936), Bret Hart (1957), and Henry Czerny (1959).

Among PHYSICIANS In Canada

Among physicians born in Canada, Frances Oldham Kelsey ranks 7Before her are Frederick Banting (1891), Oswald Avery (1877), David H. Hubel (1926), Charles Brenton Huggins (1901), Norman Bethune (1890), and William Osler (1849). After her are Édouard Gagnon (1918), Lucille Teasdale-Corti (1929), Maude Abbott (1868), James Heilman (1979), and Alaa Murabit (1989).