Google honors addiction treatment pioneer Dr. Herbert Kleber with Doodle

Oct. 1 (UPI) -- Google paid homage Tuesday to psychiatrist Dr. Herbert Kleber with a new Doodle for Kleber's pioneering work in addiction treatment.

Google's homepage features artwork of Kleber speaking with a patient by Massachusetts-based artist and author of graphic memoir Hey, Kiddo Jarrett J. Krosoczka. The Doodle was made on the 23rd anniversary of Kleber being elected to the National Academy of Medicine.

Kleber, born June 19, 1934, volunteered for the United States Public Health Service in 1964 and was stationed at a prison hospital in Lexington, Ky. There, he developed a new method to treat patients dealing with addiction.

Kleber viewed addiction as a medical condition and would not shame or punish patients for relapsing. Kleber said research would help keep many patients from relapsing through the use of medication and therapeutic communities.

He was appointed deputy director for demand reduction at the Office of National Drug Policy by former President George H.W. Bush. Kleber also co-founded the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse and helped establish the leading U.S. research program on substance abuse at Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons with Dr. Marian W. Fischman.

Kleber died in 2018 at the age of 84.

"Dr. Kleber changed the landscape of addiction treatment, allowing patients to be diagnosed and treated rather than shamed -- and saving countless lives in the process," Google said.