With great sadness, the ASPEN Board of Directors announces the passing of Virginia (Ginny) M. Herrmann, MD, CNSP. She will be remembered for her commitment and many contributions to the advancement of clinical nutrition and patient care.
Dr. Herrmann, who died on October 16, 2023, was president of ASPEN from 1998 to 1999 and served on the ASPEN Board of Directors from 1994 to 1999.
“She had a remarkable career as a general and trauma surgeon at St. Louis University School of Medicine, where she was also head of the nutrition support service. Ginny had a particular interest in the ethics of nutrition support,” said M. Molly McMahon, MD, FASPEN, ASPEN Rhoads Research Foundation president and ASPEN’s 41st president.
Dr. Herrmann later joined the faculty of the Washington University School of Medicine and focused her surgical career on the treatment of breast cancer. She was a nationally recognized breast cancer specialist at the Siteman Cancer Center until her death.
Dr. Herrmann received her medical degree and completed a surgical residency at St. Louis University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri. She broadened her training with a nutrition research fellowship at Harvard Medical School with PN pioneer Douglas W. Wilmore, MD, FASPEN, in Boston.
Dr. Herrmann joined ASPEN in 1979, at the beginning of her career. She served as chairman of education and professional development in 1992 and 1993 and was named a director-at-large in 1994. She was the first woman elected to serve as ASPEN’s president.
“ASPEN was very fortunate to have Dr. Herrmann’s steady and insightful leadership during a very turbulent and demanding time in healthcare. In 1998, three major national reports detailing serious quality-of-care concerns were issued. It had been termed ‘a watershed in the quest for improvement in the quality of healthcare’,” said ASPEN President Phil Ayers, PharmD, BCNSP, FMSHP, FASHP.
“With Dr. Herrmann’s guidance, ASPEN was ahead of this sweeping call for quality. In response to several incidents involving the improper preparation and administration of parenteral nutrition solutions, the Board of Directors charged the National Advisory Group to develop guidelines as standards of practice for the safe provision of parenteral nutrition. These guidelines, Safe Practices for Parenteral Nutrition Formulations, were approved in January 1998.”
In her ASPEN presidential address, Nutrition Support: Ethical or Expedient, and Who Will Choose?, Dr. Herrmann said, “As a Society, ASPEN must have a dynamic and flexible strategic planning process that adapts to the changing healthcare environment. As individuals, we must continually be educated and support certification processes.”
“Join the ethics committee of your hospital or organization,” she urged ASPEN members. “Play a part and contribute to the Institutional Review Board at your institution. You will learn a great deal, but more importantly, you will contribute to the welfare of your patients and the overall health of our profession.”
Dr. Herrmann closed her address asking all to “Tell the truth—to your patients, your colleagues, and most importantly, to yourselves. Honest introspection will mature you as individuals and safeguard the trust that your patients place in us every day and will elevate your work to the level of professionalism that it most certainly deserves.”
Memories of Dr. Herrmann may be left in the family’s guestbook.