A climb for health and history

“What do the Blumenfeld lab, 27 flights of stairs, and the pictures below have in common?” So read an invitation from Hal Blumenfeld, M.D., Ph.D., to his lab. “We have a lab outing every year,” said Blumenfeld, professor of neurology, neurobiology, and neurosurgery, and director of the Yale Clinical Neuroscience Imaging Center. “This year I thought I would combine historical tours and stair climbing. I walk the stairs regularly. It’s a good way to be fit and healthy.”

The pictures in the invitation were of locations on the outing—dubbed CFANHY, Climb for Fitness And Neuro-science History at Yale—in which a dozen members of Blumenfeld’s lab joined him on March 20. Their stair-climbing tour took in the Cushing Center, the top of the Sterling Hall of Medicine, the Clinic Building, Smilow Cancer Hospital, and the helicopter landing pad at Yale-New Haven Hospital. At each high point Blumenfeld arranged for discussions of history that covered neurosurgeon Harvey Cushing, New Haven’s hospitals, and the era of Dean Milton Winternitz, M.D. The tour ended with lunch at BAR.