John Robert Cobb

John Robert Cobb
Born	(1903-02-28)February 28, 1903 Brooklyn, New York City
Died	March 24, 1967(1967-03-24) (aged 64)
Residence	New York City
Nationality	American
Fields	medicine, physics
Alma mater	Brown University Harvard University Yale University
Known for	The Cobb Angle

John Robert Cobb (*1903-1967), was an American orthopedic surgeon,^[1] known for the Cobb angle, the preferred method of measuring scoliosis and post-traumatic kyphosis.

Education

Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York City, John R. Cobb attended the Staunton Military Academy in Virginia, and enlisted on a merchant ship at the age of 16 years. He studied English Literature at Brown University in Providence Rhode Island and earned the degree of Bachelor of Arts in Literature in 1925. In his senior year at Brown he decided on a career in medicine and attended Harvard University for one year of post-graduate study in biological sciences. He then attended Yale Medical School, from which he graduated with an MD (Doctor of Medicine) in 1930. He served a one-year surgical internship and a one-year medical residency in orthopedic surgery at Yale – New Haven Hospital. In 1934 Dr. Cobb became the Gibney Orthopedic Fellow at the Hospital for the Ruptured and Crippled in New York. In 1936 he received a Doctor of Medical Sciences degree from Columbia University.

Work

During his work after 1934 at the Hospital for Ruptured and Crippled (today: Hospital for Special Surgery) in New York City, Dr. Cobb developed and led the Margaret Caspary scoliosis clinic. At this time, not much was known about scoliosis or its cause, and there were few effective treatments available. Cobb experimented with various methods and concluded that the most effective approach was to use a turnbuckle plaster jacket in combination with spinal fusion. His studies of thousands of patients showed that only 10% of patients with scoliosis require such surgery. To obtain an accurate and consistent assessment of the severity of spinal deformity, so as to avoid unnecessary surgery, Cobb developed the simple and reliable method for measuring the angle of curvature which has now come to be known as the Cobb angle.
John Robert Cobb died on March 24, 1967.

Occupations

• Appointed professor of orthopedic surgery at the New York Polyclinic Medical School and Hospital
• Appointed orthopedic surgeon to the Seaview Hospital on Staten Island
• Assistant visiting orthopedist at the Willard Parker Hospital
• Consultant on the staff of the

St. Charles’ Hospital, in Port Jervis, Long Island,

Eastern New York Orthopedic Hospital School, in Schenectady,

Veterans Administration Hospital, in Castle Point.

• Fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine

Membership

• American Medical Writers Association
• Association of American Medical Colleges
• American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons
• American Medical Association
• American Geriatrics Society
• President of the Alumni Association of the Hospital for Special Surgery

References