WIlliam L. Henrich, MD.
    Maryland’s New Chief of Medicine

By Jennifer Litchman

Pretend you’re a kid and your dad works for a major motion picture studio. It’s the 1950s — nearing the end of the golden age of cinema — and every Friday night you get to eat dinner at a cafeteria and then go to a private sneak preview screening of the latest movies. Is this heaven? No, it was Bill Henrich’s childhood.

Growing up in Dallas, Texas, Bill Henrich was a student of the arts. Being the son of an accountant for a major motion picture studio and an operatic soprano/concert pianist meant no shortage of free screenings and music lessons. His love of literature led him to an English major in college. Nevertheless, he became a physician.

When asked when he knew he wanted to be a doctor, Dr. Henrich replied, “Always. Although in college I intentionally majored in something other than the sciences, I naturally gravitated toward something I liked — literature.” In fact, when asked what he would do if he ever became unable to practice medicine, he said he hoped fervently that would never happen, but if it did he “would love to teach on the faculty of an English department. Or be the radio play-by-play announcer for a major league baseball team.”
But Bill Henrich is a physician and a good one! He is a renowned nephrologist specializing in analgesic nephropathy, chronic kidney disease, and hypertension-related renal disease. Dr. Henrich became the Theodore E. Woodward Professor and Chairman of the Department of Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in March of this year.

After completing his undergraduate degree at Columbia, Dr. Henrich returned to his native Texas, to attend Baylor College of Medicine. At Baylor, he considered the different routes he could follow within the profession, and he considered several. Baylor had a strong OB/GYN rotation, and he became very involved in it and tempted by it. He also flirted with pediatrics. But he decided finally on internal medicine, because, as he put it, “many of the most difficult problems in medicine from the health and public policy viewpoint reside in the specialty of medicine.”

Dr. Henrich completed his internship and residency in internal medicine at the University of Oregon, and then moved to the University of Colorado, where he completed a fellowship in renal diseases. It was there that he met his mentor, Robert Schrier, MD, chairman of the department of medicine at Colorado. They worked together in the lab for two years and are close associates to this day. At Colorado Dr. Henrich developed an interest in improving patients’ tolerance to the hemodialysis procedure. According to Henrich, “dialysis often makes patients feel unwell. I began working to make improvements in that area, and started several research projects aimed at ensuring blood pressure is well maintained. Often, it is low blood pressure that makes people feel ill during dialysis.” But it is heart disease that is the number one cause of death in dialysis patients. Dr. Henrich and a group of clinicians at Maryland have begun to study patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) to discover what factors affect blood pressure and the heart during dialysis, and are actively looking for ways to prevent death from heart disease in dialysis patients.

After completing his fellowship in nephrology, Dr. Henrich had no intention of heading back down to Dallas. However, he was offered a job that was too good to refuse at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, and in 1978 he joined the internal medicine faculty. He continued his dialysis tolerance research, and started research in another complementary area. He began to study renin, which is produced in the kidney to maintain blood pressure. “Over the years I have been studying the factors that cause the kidney to release renin,” Dr. Henrich said. He has been a consistent recipient of extramural funding for these research efforts, and he is the author of about 200 original articles, chapters and reviews. He is the editor of a major medical textbook on dialysis, The Principles and Practice of Dialysis, and is a member of several of the country’s most prestigious scientific societies.

Dr. Henrich took his research with him to Ohio, leaving Texas Southwestern after almost 18 years to become the chair of medicine at the Medical College of Ohio. He said that he decided to accept the job as chair to learn whether he would enjoy senior administrative leadership at a medical school.

He did enjoy it, and the University of Maryland School of Medicine was fortunate to lure him away from Ohio after four years there as department chair. Dr. Henrich says that he was drawn not only by Maryland’s clinical strengths, but also by the national distinction of its research. “One of my tasks will be to make certain that research in the department of medicine continues to flourish. I believe an active and rigorous research program is complementary to the provision of excellent patient care,” he said.

It is here at Maryland that Dr. Henrich continues to focus on his interest in analgesic nephropathy, or damage to the kidneys due to ingesting analgesics. Taking analgesics every once in a while is safe, but, according to Dr. Henrich, “daily consumption of certain types of analgesics can expose a person to risk of kidney damage.” Dr. Henrich and his staff at the medical school have created a multicenter group to study the problem in patients with end-stage kidney disease. A funding proposal has been submitted to the NIH, and Dr. Henrich hopes to begin the study soon.When he is not busy doing research, teaching students, or seeing patients, Dr. Henrich enjoys opera, reading, and exercise. “I am a frustrated triathlete,” he said. “I used to do several triathlons a year, but last year I did only one. Lately, all the competitions have been on days when I have obligations. The truth is I exercise to relax. I try, every day, to cycle, swim, or run. I have had to begin the day earlier and earlier to accommodate everything.” Dr. Henrich continued, “I enjoy challenges. I like being here in the medical school, helping young people to get started in jobs they enjoy. It is very exciting to see our talented faculty able to flourish. I have also enjoyed getting to know personally the faculty and staff in the medical school and within the medical system. I am very glad to be at Maryland,” he said.

And Maryland is very glad to have him here.

Back | Home