Ralph Gruppo, MD, retires
After a career spanning 45 years at Cincinnati Children’s caring for children with bleeding disorders, Ralph Gruppo, MD, moved to emeritus status January 8, and will officially retire on June 30, 2018.
Gruppo was the first person Beatrice Lampkin, MD, hired after she became director of the Division of Hematology/Oncology in 1973. He had done part of his residency training in Cincinnati (1967-69), followed by a year at Johns Hopkins and two years in the US Army. He returned to Cincinnati Children’s in 1972 for a fellowship in Hematology/Oncology, and joined the faculty in 1974.
At the time, physicians in Hematology/Oncology took care of patients with blood disorders and cancer. “Yes, we did it all,” says Gruppo, “and when Dr. Lampkin started the bone marrow transplant unit, we did that too. And we did a fair amount of immunology, as well.”
Gruppo has directed the Comprehensive Hemophilia and Thrombosis Center since 1973. He was associate director of the Division of Hematology/Oncology from 1988 to 1991 and acting director from 1991 to 1994. In 2011 he received the Cincinnati Pediatric Society Founders’ Award.
Highs and lows
In his years treating children with hemophilia, Gruppo has experienced the highs of medical advances and the lows of devastating complications.
The Comprehensive Hemophilia Treatment Center at Cincinnati Children’s was the first in Ohio, established in 1966 soon after a method was discovered for preparing factor VIII from frozen plasma.
Treatment, however, was very disruptive, Gruppo explains, as the child would have to come to the Emergency Department for each bleeding episode, often four or five times a month. Among the first things he did as director was develop a self-infusion program and a service for delivering factor to the home.
This was a great advance — but challenging times lay ahead for patients, families and caregivers. In 1981, the CDC reported the first case of a patient with hemophilia developing AIDS.
“At that time, we did not have a test for it,” Gruppo recalls. “We didn’t know who was infected. We didn’t know the natural history of it. And as it turned out, it was the worst-case scenario.”
Over the next few years, many patients with hemophilia were infected by contaminated batches of factor concentrate. Eventually, safer treatment became available when the factor VIII and IX genes were cloned. In 1991, Gruppo participated in the first gene therapy trial for a patient with severe hemophilia. The trial was discontinued, but today, the Hemophilia Center is participating in a gene therapy trial for factors VIII and IX.
Gruppo has also contributed to advancing care for children with thrombosis, a condition that has become more common with increasing use of central lines and intensive therapies. He has collaborated with other divisions to develop gene chips to test for inheritable causes of excessive blood clotting, to identify the link between blood thrombosis and Legg-Perthes disease, to create a thrombolysis procedure for dissolving dangerous clots, and to diagnose and treat children with unusual complement disorders.
“Ralph Gruppo has enjoyed a long and distinguished career,” says Russell Ware, MD, PhD, director of the Division of Hematology in the Cancer and Blood Diseases Institute. “His dedication to his patients is legendary, providing the best medical treatments possible, as well as offering empathy and compassion. His commitment to teaching and mentoring is also widely respected, and the next generation of hematologists owes him a large debt of gratitude. He will be missed!”
Reflecting on his many years of practice, Gruppo comments, “I always tell the residents, Hematology/Oncology is unique. I have never had a boring day. I have never regretted once doing what I’m doing. It has been a wonderful career.”
