On July 27, 1926 then University of Minnesota President Lotus D. Coffman wrote a letter to Dr. H. M. Johnson, Chairman of the Committee of the Minnesota State Medical Association outlining the University’s business plan to put into practice the employment of full time clinical instructors and the use of the hospital facilities by private & per diem patients.

Many of the concepts in Coffman’s letter are echoed in today’s discussions regarding the clinical enterprise and partnerships. To see the parallels one has to look no further than last month’s presentation to the Board of Regents “Moving the Clinical Enterprise from Partnership to Integration: Conceptual Framework.”

Although the style of language for the most part reveals their age, read the following excerpts from the above two mentioned documents and see if you can guess their date of origin: 1926 or 2009.

1. Enhanced ability to recruit and retain faculty and compensate them at a competitive market rate. 1926 or 2009?
2. The problem of securing and keeping a staff of talented and enthusiastic teachers is one of the most difficult and continuous tasks that confronts any university. 1926 or 2009?
3. Greater access to a larger population for participation in clinical research and to support the education of the next generation of health professionals. 1926 or 2009?
4. The University here faces the practical necessity of providing enough hospital beds to insure those types of cases and diseases, and in sufficient numbers, that may be necessary for the education and training of those proposing to enter the professions of nursing and medicine. This is a great educational responsibility which the University cannot fail to discharge. 1926 or 2009?
5. Enable the health professions of the AHC to achieve relevance, leadership and excellence into the 21st century. 1926 or 2009?
6. Ambitious clinical and laboratory teachers will not associate themselves, even for high salaries, with an institution which cannot offer good opportunities for their continuing growth and intellectual development. 1926 or 2009?

Feel free to leave your answers in the comments and read the full letter from President Coffman as well as the details about the clinical framework at the University in 1926 below.

April 26 marked the 121st anniversary of the Department of Medicine as established by the Board of Regents, which included the College of Medicine and Surgery and Dentistry. Although the original charter for the University of Minnesota listed a medical school as a component of the University, it was not formally opened until 1888.

I was once told that in the minds of most people, history begins the day before you were born. All other things that happen during the course of your life seem like current events because you experienced them one way or another.

It can be curious then to see how others celebrated their own lived history long before present day. The book below is one such example. It is a collection of essays documenting the history of medical education in Minnesota from the mid nineteenth century up until 1908. The first 20 years of the Medical School takes center stage and the essays are presented primarily by the individuals who formulated its organization.

The book concludes with a look forward and to three primary needs for medical education in Minnesota: the addition of hospital & laboratory space; better cooperation with state institutions; and ways to diffuse medical knowledge to physicians & the public.

Before reading the book, consider the fact that more than 85% of the history of the Medical School has taken place since this historical evening. How will your life’s experiences fit into someone else’s history?