[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 8 (Wednesday, January 14, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S381-S382]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



  (At the request of Mr. Reid, the following statement was ordered to 
be printed in the Record.)

                      REMEMBERING DR. SHUKRI KHURI

 Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I welcome this opportunity to pay 
tribute to the life of Dr. Shukri F. Khuri who, until he passed away 
last September 26 from a brain tumor, was one of Massachusetts' 
foremost physicians and a true public servant, contributing especially 
to the health care of our veterans.
  Dr. Khuri was born in Jerusalem in 1943, and fled with his parents in 
1948 to Syria, later settling in Lebanon. He graduated from American 
University of Beirut, where he met his wife Randa, and also completed 
medical school at the university. He then completed his surgical 
training at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore and the Mayo Clinic in 
Rochester, MN.
  Dr. Khuri was remembered for the extraordinary way he answered the 
call to public service. He refused lucrative offers to join private 
surgical practices, and chose instead to combine his

[[Page S382]]

passion for research with his commitment to patient care. He joined the 
Surgical Service of the Veteran's Affairs Boston Healthcare System in 
1976, where he spent the rest of his career. He rose to become Chief of 
Surgery at the West Roxbury VA Medical Center in 1984, Vice Chairman of 
the Department of Surgery at Brigham and Women's Hospital in 1992, and 
Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School in 1987.
  Early in his tenure at the VA, Dr. Khuri realized the need for a 
methodology to assist surgeons in managing the health of the heart 
during cardiothoracic surgery. In his quest to identify a metabolic 
indicator of intra-operative myocardial ischemia, Dr. Khuri invented 
and patented a probe that would measure the pH of the heart muscle, a 
device currently in the final stages of research and development.
  In addition to his work in surgical heart protection, Dr. Khuri was 
deeply interested in improving the quality of care for all surgical 
patients. In 1978, at West Roxbury VA Medical Center, he established 
the first automated data management system in a surgical intensive care 
unit in the Northeast. Today, the electronic patient record in the VA 
is by far the most advanced and comprehensive electronic medical 
records system in the world.
  Dr. Khuri also led a unique national effort within the VA which 
established the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program in 1994. 
The program is now recognized by the surgical community as the standard 
for the comparative assessment of quality of surgical care and for 
continuous improvement in surgery. This program has now become the 
model for a joint effort between the VA and the American College of 
Surgeons to incorporate data in the private sector to see that all 
patients receive the best care possible.
  In the course of his outstanding career, Dr. Khuri achieved national 
and international prominence. His research laboratory at West Roxbury 
has been continuously funded for 24 years and has trained more than 60 
residents and postgraduate students in applied research. He was a 
member of numerous professional organizations, including the 
prestigious American Surgical Association, and he served on and chaired 
many regional and national committees, including a 3-year term as 
president of the Massachusetts Affiliate of the American Heart 
Association.
  Dr. Khuri was the author of more than 200 peer-reviewed publications. 
He was also a regular reviewer for more than ten scientific journals, 
and served on the editorial board of the Journal of Thoracic and 
Cardiovascular Surgery. He was the recipient of many prestigious 
awards, including the 1998 Frank Brown Berry Prize, which honors an 
outstanding physician in the federal health care system each year. Just 
days after his death, Dr. Khuri was named the recipient of the 2008 
Ernest Amory Codman Award for improvements in the safety of care to the 
public.
  As a Palestinian American, he felt the pain of the conflict in the 
Middle East firsthand, and he devoted much of his life to seeking peace 
in the region. He worked with groups in the Boston area to create and 
sustain dialogue between Israelis, Palestinians, and Jewish and Arab 
Americans.
  Dr. Khuri embodied the American story of hope, opportunity and 
service. He built a remarkably successful professional life as a public 
servant, and he also built a beautiful and loving home. His hobbies 
ranged from carpentry to photography to actively serving in his church. 
His love of life, his profound humility, his steadfast faith, and his 
eternally optimistic outlook will continue to inspire all those whose 
lives he touched. He is deeply missed by his wife and three children, 
his four grandchildren, his mother and brother, his many loving family 
members, his friends and patients, and the community he loved to serve 
and served so well. 

                          ____________________