Shapiro, Alvin P. (Alvin Philip), 1920-

Alvin P. Shapiro was born on December 28, 1920 in Nashville, Tennessee, but grew up on Staten Island in New York. Throughout his career, he contributed significantly to the practice of internal medicine with his extensive research on hypertension and psychosomatic medical issues. Shapiro earned his medical degree from the Long Island College of Medicine in 1944, and spent his residency at the Goldwater Memorial Hospital in New York where he specialized in internal medicine. He then served as a captain in the U.S. Army Medical Corps and was stationed at the Army Air Base in Adak, Alaska. After military service, Shapiro was employed as an instructor and researcher in the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, and later at the Southwestern Medical School in Dallas, Texas. He joined the staff of the University of Pittsburgh's Medical School in 1956, and was an active researcher and author until his death in 1998. At the University of Pittsburgh, he was the director of the psychosomatic program and chief of the clinical pharmacology/hypertension section from 1960-1971. He was the associate dean for academic affairs at the University's medical school from 1971-1975, vice chairman of the department of medicine from 1975-1979, chief of Presbyterian University Hospital from 1977-1979, and chairman of the credentials committee from 1980-1986. From 1986-1993 he was the director of the internal medicine training program at Shadyside Hospital. Shapiro's research focused on hypertension, clinical pharmacology, and psychosomatic response, with a particular focus on the links between hypertension and stress, as well as renal function and hypertension related to systemic scleroderma. He headed the study section of the Hypertension Detection and Follow-up Program at UPMC, which, in the late 1970s, produced the first large-scale study in which men and women of diverse racial backgrounds were given a simple outpatient therapy for the treatment of hypertension. The initial paper that resulted from this study is considered a landmark in the field by the Journal of the American Medical Association.