Leslie Leighton
Instructor, Honors College Affiliate Faculty History- Education
B.A. with high distinction, Phi Beta Kappa, University of Virginia
M.D., The Johns Hopkins University
M.S., Georgia Institute of Technology
M.A., Emory University
Ph.D., Emory University
- Specializations
United States History since 1865
History of Medicine
History of Public Health
Research Interests
History of Cardiovascular Diseases
- Biography
Leslie Leighton is a medical historian and physician who practiced as a gastroenterologist in metro Atlanta for nearly 20 years. Leighton, an instructor in the Department of History, holds an M.D. degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, an M.S. degree in history from Georgia Institute of Technology, and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in American Studies from Emory University. Leighton has taught medical school students in Georgia and he is the president of the Atlanta Medical History Society. His research interests include the examination of the cause of the decline in coronary artery disease mortality that occurred in the United States in the late 1960s. He has published papers in medical journals and has contributed to the Conversation on current medical and historical topics.
- Publications
Leighton, Leslie S. "Ignaz Semmelweis, the doctor who discovered the disease-fighting power of hand-washing in 1847." www.theconversation.com. April 14, 2020.
Leighton, Leslie S. "Quarantines have tried to keep out disease for thousands of years." www.theconversation.com. February 3, 2020.
Leighton, Leslie S. “The Story of the ‘Cardiac Chair’ and the Resistance to Its Use in Patients with Myocardial Infarction, 1950-1961.” American Journal of Cardiology 2017;120;1674-1680.
Kushner, Howard I., Leighton, Leslie S. “The Histories of Medicine: Toward an Applied History of Medicine.” Chapter in book: Eleonora Belfiore and Anna Upchurch, Editors. Humanities in the Twenty-First Century: Beyond Utility and Markets. London: Palgrave Macmillan (2013).
Cohen, David E., Leighton, Leslie S., and Carey, Martin C., “Bile Salt Hydrophilicity Controls Vesicle Secretion Rates and Transformation in Native Bile.” American Journal of Physiology, 263: G386-G395, 1992.
Leighton, L.S., Carey, M.C., “Bile Salt Hydrophilicity Determines Whether the Physical State of Native Hepatic Bile is Predominantly Vesicular or Micellar.” Gastroenterology, 86:1157, 1984.
Carey, M.C., Leighton, L.S. “Formation of Cholesterol Gallstones.” Boucher, Ian N.D., et al., editors. Textbook of Gastroenterology. Bailliere Tindall. London. 1984: 1389-1400.
DeMarinis, M., Leighton, L.S., Johnson, J.W.C. “Fetal Heart Rate Monitoring during Cesarean Section.” American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 1977.