Caffey interned at Barnes Hospital in St. Louis before traveling to postwar Europe in 1920, working with the American Red Cross and American Relief Administration in Serbia, Poland and Russia. He returned to the United States in 1923, completing a residency in medicine at the University of Michigan and then an internship in pediatrics at Babies Hospital in New York City. He opened a private practice in 1925 while maintaining admitting rights at Babies Hospital.[3]
He was given the position of head of radiology at Babies Hospital in 1929 after the chief of pediatrics overheard him complaining about the poor quality of a radiology conference at the hospital. When the chief of pediatrics asked if he could do any better, Caffey replied, "I could try."[4] Pediatric radiology would go on to become his life's work, and he would receive radiographs mailed from across North America for his expert opinion.[4] He was an avid researcher, publishing initially on the effects on the skeletal system of lead poisoning, rickets, bismuth, hemophilia, vitamin A poisoning, syphilis, and hemolytic anemias.[2][5] He published Pediatric X-Ray Diagnosis, the first definitive textbook on the topic, in 1945.[3] Caffey was the first to describe what is now known as shaken baby syndrome with a 1946 article on the association between long bone fractures and subdural hematomas in infants.[2][4] He also provided the first description of infantile cortical hyperostosis, also known as Caffey's disease.[3]
Caffey died on September 2, 1978, at Presbyterian-University Hospital in Pittsburgh. He had continued working up until the morning of his hospital admission.[1] The seventh edition of his textbook was published shortly before his death and, now known as Caffey's Pediatric Diagnostic Imaging, is in its thirteenth edition as of 2021.[4]
