Academic Health Center History Project

Base Hospital No. 26

By Erik Moore September 28, 2010
AHC documents, Hospitals, Medical school, Nursing

Every war requires that doctors and nurses become soldiers. The University of Minnesota Medical School first became involved with such an effort as World War I spread across Europe.

In October 1916, half a year before the United States declared war with Germany, the University of Minnesota and the Mayo Clinic began preparations for establishing a base hospital at the request of the Surgeon General. The unit, known as Base Hospital No. 26, organized itself over the summer of 1917 under the auspices of the American Expeditionary Forces and waited for the call to active duty. In December 1917, the War Department mobilized the unit. It was not until June 20, 1918 that the unit reached its destination of Allerey, France. In sum, the unit’s equipment and staff were designed to support a 1,000 bed hospital. It cared for nearly 6,000 patients through 1919.

Historical information about Base Hospital 26 is available from a variety of sources. The Minnesota Alumni Weekly chronicled the activities of the Base Hospital through regular articles and published letters from the unit’s staff. Also, several archival collections have material related to the unit including the papers of Dr. Moses Barron, a University of Minnesota pathologist who served as an officer in the unit. Included are photographs, correspondence, diaries, and related information all pertaining to Base Hospital No. 26.

See a short typewritten history below of Base Hospital No. 26 as an example of the materials available in the Barron papers at the University Archives.

Above the fold

By Erik Moore September 10, 2010
AHC documents, Hospitals

This last week marked the 99th anniversary of the dedication of Elliot Memorial Hospital. The September 5, 1911 afternoon edition of the Minneapolis Journal announced the dedication taking place that day “rain or shine.”

Erected at a cost of $155,000 dollars, the Elliot family provided approximately $115,000 to honor Dr. Adolphus Elliot, a former Minnesota physician who passed away in 1902. The legislature provided the remaining $40,000 plus another $44,000 for equipment.

The site of the new hospital anchored the proposed new campus south of Washington Ave. Elliot Hospital spanned the southern edge of the new campus along the Mississippi River and the new anatomy building (now Jackson Hall) marked the northwestern corner. University President George Vincent ceremoniously laid the anatomy building’s cornerstone on the way to the hospital dedication.

In tandem with the gift from the Elliot family, 38 prominent individuals of Minneapolis provided the $42,000 to purchase the land for the new hospital as a gift to the University. Many of the family names are familiar today including Pillsbury, Dunwoody, Shevlin, McKnight, Gillette, Donaldson, and many others.

The 115 bed Elliot Memorial Hospital served two key functions. First, it was a modern clinical teaching facility for medical students integrated into the campus environment. Second, it provided free health care services for charitable cases from across the state. Initially all hospital services were offered free of charge.

Elliot Memorial Hospital is now the Elliot Wing of the Mayo Memorial Building.

Read more about the dedication and construction of the hospital from the Minneapolis Journal. Articles from below the fold or on subsequent pages are available at the University Archives. Also note the articles related to the State Fair.

What’s in a name?

By Erik Moore August 31, 2010
AHC documents, Lexicon

When did the Academic Health Center become the Academic Health Center?

For the first twenty-some years, the Academic Health Center was actually referred to as the University of Minnesota Health Sciences Center. At some point the moniker changed and we became the Academic Health Center.

Sometimes it is the simple questions that can be the most difficult to answer. A name change is usually a fairly significant event, but in certain cases it can be elusive to pin point an exact date especially if a string of attributive adjectives gives way to a proper noun.

The phrase “academic health center” is a common term found in the discussion of health sciences education since the 1940s. Yet, documenting the use of the name as it relates to Minnesota helps narrow the specific point we stopped referring ourselves as the Health Sciences Center and became the Academic Health Center.

The Board of Regents organized the Health Sciences in July of 1970 without using the term Academic Health Center or Health Sciences Center.

In January of 1992, the use of the proper noun is first documented in the Board of Regents minutes, yet it is only a cursory mention in the motion to acquire the Interstate Medical Center, P.A. in Red Wing and is not an official designation. This part of the motion reads

“WHEREAS, the Board of Regents, in recognition of the changing health care delivery environment, wishes to support and encourage the administration, the University of Minnesota Hospital and Clinic (UMHC) and its Board of Governors to seek new relationships — including but not limited to, joint ventures, affiliations, collaborative relationships and acquisitions — to assure the Hospital and Clinic’s ability to fulfill its mission of supporting the clinical, educational and research needs of the schools, colleges and programs of the Academic Health Center and enhancing its statewide service mission;”

Jump ahead to May 17, 1994 when the Board of Regents appointed William Brody as Provost. This documents the still institutional use of Health Sciences Center.

“President Hasselmo called the meeting to order, stating that the purpose of the meeting was to appoint the Provost of the University of Minnesota Health Sciences Center.”

On September 9, 1994, President Hasselmo presented to the Board of Regents the “Recommendations on Organizational Structure for Central Administration” and specifically discussed the creation and appointment of the provost position overseeing the Academic Health Center. Hasselmo noted the Regents’ approved the creation of the Provost, Academic Health Center in December 1993, but the actual terminology used in the minutes is Health Sciences Center. He also inaccurately stated that the recruitment of the Provost, Academic Health Center, occurred in May 1994 when in reality it was of the Health Sciences Center as documented above.

It turns out it is Hasselmo’s presentation and his anachronistic references that are the true first documented uses of the proper noun Academic Health Center and its replacement of Health Sciences Center at the University of Minnesota. They are further institutionalized by inclusion into the Regents’ minutes that same day as an approval of the “Restructuring Central Administration” motion.

Nostalgia & institutional memory

By Erik Moore August 16, 2010
AHC documents

Nostalgia is a formidable foe to institutional history. The “good-old-days” is a powerful posture to overcome using records and archival materials. Counter narratives exist to all tales of “glory days,” but can sound like sour-grapes without supporting documents.

It is always interesting then to find such a document that gives one pause in understanding how the organization functioned and what was the institutional culture of the time.

We know that the present day Academic Health Center formed in 1970 after the reorganization of the Health Sciences by the Board of Regents based on an external review committee’s recommendations. It also was in part the result of several internal reviews and projections on the future needs of training, space, and planning. This internal review began in 1964 under the leadership of President Wilson.

But what were the internal organizational flaws that would contribute to such a review and necessitate an administrative change?

Written in 1977, the following list gives somewhat of a contemporary account of the institutional culture of the health sciences from the previous decade. Written by John Westerman, then director of the University Hospitals, the list was part of an evaluation of the office of the Vice President for Health Sciences. Westerman notes that the list is based on “a number of difficulties” presented to the Board of Regents and President Wilson by the College of Medical Sciences and the School of Dentistry in 1964.

1. Space problems — Little was constructed since the completion of Mayo Tower in 1954.

2. Planning — No health sciences plan existed. One piece of real estate was the object of the six units involved.

3. Planning Funds — No capital finance fund or even plans was in place.

4. Operating Funds — The units were underfunded for the manpower obligations and were becoming the have nots of academic health units — with all the implications of recruitment, retention, attraction of research funds, etc.

5. The clinical facilities were functionally obsolete in a highly competitive marketplace.

6. The units showed little evidence of cooperative efforts or even awareness of each others goals and programs.

7. The units displayed an uncommon talent for lobbying with central officers, regents and the legislatures on an individual or even programmatic basis.

8. There was little knowledge of the combined characteristics of the center and increasing demand to deal with the health sciences as a totality.

9. Public demand of the early ’60’s called for increased health manpower from each of the units.

10. There was no effective mechanism for administrative coordination of the units and providing an effective interface with the many university interrelationships.

Reading the evaluation you will notice that it does not contain the actual performance review. This document is merely a copy and was not annotated. However, it is interesting to see by what criteria the VP for Health Sciences was evaluated.

Stepping down

By Erik Moore August 3, 2010
AHC documents

Recent conversations in the Academic Health Center tend to focus on the pending retirement of Senior Vice President Frank Cerra, MD. Dr. Cerra plans to step down after nearly fifteen years as the administrative head of the health sciences in December.

Of course, Dr. Cerra is not the first vice president for health sciences to step down. In total there have been five fully appointed vice presidents/provosts; Dr. Lyle French (1970-1981), Dr. Neal Vanselow (1982-1989), Dr. Robert Anderson (1992-1993), Dr. William Brody (1994-1996), and Dr. Cerra (1996-2010), and one long-term acting vice president, Cherie Perlmutter (1989-1992).

Of all the vice presidents, Drs. French and Cerra have the most in common. Both served as departmental chiefs at the University of Minnesota before their appointment. Both served in their position for more than ten years. Both oversaw major physical expansions of the health sciences complex. And finally, both indicated an interest to return to their departments to pick up the mantle of research & teaching.

Vice presidents Vanselow and Brody left the University to serve as Chancellor of Tulane Medical Center and President of Johns Hopkins, respectively. Dr. Anderson retired from academic life.

Pictured: 1983 Oil portrait of Dr. Lyle A. French.

Read the 1981 press release announcing Dr. French’s plan to step down and the accompanying summary of his time in office.

ABCs of facility planning

By Erik Moore July 20, 2010
AHC documents, Facilities

In 1964 University of Minnesota President Wilson initiated the University Long-Range Planning Committee for the Health Sciences. Part of this committee’s charge was to determine the needed facilities to maintain and grow the programs in the Health Sciences.

The Health Sciences Design Coordinating Committee developed a framework for this growth in 1968 and published its schedule in the Health Sciences Planning Report.

The expansion project quickly became known for its use of alphabetical monikers to denote the new construction. Many of these alphabetical references are still used today often interchangeably with the facility’s given name.

Find your own building’s place in the alphabet and its original purpose then see which letters never made the transition from paper to brick and mortar.

Unit A: To house general dental clinics, School of Dentistry administration, basic science, medical, and public health teaching labs as well as general classrooms. The first of the expansion projects, the facility would later be named the Malcolm Moos Health Sciences Tower.

Unit B/C: To provide outpatient and ambulatory care, new emergency room, surgical and other research facilities, diagnostic radiation facility, and additional hospital beds. Designated at its design as the Phillips-Wangensteen Research Building.

Unit D: Subterranean facility adjacent to the Masonic Memorial Cancer Hospital to house radiation therapy. Considered part of the first phase of development to be initiated by 1973, the unit was unable to reach the revised 50-50 match required by federal guidelines in 1978.

Unit E: Designed to be a service center for storage, supply, and dietary kitchens with a proposed cafeteria and dining service on upper levels. Later named the Health Sciences Receiving and Distribution Center the unit is accessible via the delivery access area on East River Parkway underneath the Dwan Variety Club Cardiovascular Research Center and the Masonic Cancer Research Building.

Unit F: To provide additional shared classrooms and house the College of Pharmacy. Modified in 1975 to also include the School of Nursing, the building is now Weaver-Densford Hall.

Unit G: Proposed to expand shared classrooms and teaching labs, the building’s tower would house the remainder of the School of Public Health. The 1977 legislature removed funding for this unit and made the School of Public Health the only school to be without a building plan in the expansion project. The unit would have been built on the northwest corner of Harvard & Delaware, the current location of the Phi Chi Medical Fraternity house and the hospital parking ramp.

Unit H: Subterranean structure to tie the old and new hospital units together via a ground level concourse and provides expansion for surgery suites. Unit H became unified with Unit J as part of the second phase of expansion through 1986.

Unit J: Proposed new hospital facilities located on the former site of Powell Hall. Today’s University of Minnesota Medical Center, Fairview.

Unit K: Expanded cardiovascular research center with a probable location west of the Variety Club Heart Hospital. Unit K would later be combined with Unit E development to form Unit K/E. Today Unit K is the Dwan Variety Club Cardiovascular Research Center.

There is no mention of a Unit I. View a 1968 illustration of the proposed development through 1986.

Back to the future of continuing medical education

By Erik Moore July 6, 2010
AHC documents, Medical school

Predicting the future is a popular means to finish a review of past accomplishments. Often, these forecasts rely heavily on current trends in technology to safely guess advances and efficiencies.

An example of one such prediction is in the 1955-1957 Biennial Report of the Department of Continuation Medical Education.

Formalized in 1937, the Department of Continuation Medical Education, formerly known as Postgraduate Medical Education and today named the Office of Continuing Medical Education, enjoyed a major boost to its programming in 1945 through a nine year, $250,000 grant by the Kellogg Foundation to increase opportunities for participation in its teaching programs. Although review courses for practicing physicians were part of the Medical School’s curriculum for decades, the department provided a permanent home for the “interdepartmental” education program.

The 1955-1957 report cites recent developments in the audio-visual field as a major future trend. Specifically it looks toward the use of television as a means to distribute postgraduate medical education. The report then imagines a world where continuing medical education moves past the limited scope of closed-circuit television and will be

“widely disseminated allowing physicians, even in remote areas, to keep abreast of medical progress simply by watching their TV screens for appropriate periods each week.”

An equivalent modern predication might be live-streaming of lectures or procedures via one’s smart phone or other mobile device. Gone will be the tether to the lecture hall or conference room. And as for the future of PowerPoint as an educational tool? The Magic 8-Ball says “Ask again later.”

Read the 1955-1957 Biennial Report below. The report also includes an overview of the department beginning with the 1945 Kellogg grant through current programs.

Joining the fold

By Erik Moore June 21, 2010
AHC documents, Veterinary medicine

This year marks the fortieth anniversary of the Academic Health Center at the University of Minnesota. The anniversary specifically acknowledges the reorganization of the health sciences units on campus into a new administrative structure that combined the schools and colleges of medicine, nursing, public health, pharmacy, and dentistry under the leadership of the newly created office of the Vice President for Health Sciences.

Notice, however, that the College of Veterinary Medicine is not apart of the original grouping?

In the document Health Sciences Mission Statement and Proposed Structure and Governance, approved by the Board of Regents on July 10, 1970, the relationship between the restructured Health Sciences and the College of Veterinary Medicine is described as close, but separate. The document explains that

“The Regents have authorized a unified organization of the health sciences that will bring together in a single administrative structure programs in medicine, nursing, public health, dentistry, pharmacy, and the University hospitals. Veterinary medicine which has related interests will be joined closely to this administrative unit.”

And continues

“The Regents recognize the multi-lateral relationships in which the College of Veterinary Medicine is involved. The affairs and activities of the College of Veterinary Medicine will be important to the Health Sciences and vice-versa. It is proposed that the Dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine carry adjunct status in the Health Sciences to facilitate coordination and cooperation but that the status of the College otherwise remain as it is at present.”

The status of the CVM was a free standing professional graduate program led by a dean who reported to the senior vice president for academic affairs.

This organizational structure differs from the recommendations put forward by the External Committee on Governance of the Health Sciences in 1970 that encouraged the Dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine report directly to the Vice President of Health Sciences.

When did the College of Veterinary Medicine officially join the Academic Health Center?

On September 13, 1985, the Board of Regents approved the recommendation of the Education Planning and Policy Committee to change the administrative reporting structure of the College of Veterinary Medicine so that it

“Shall be designated as a unit of the Health Sciences with a line reporting relationship to the Vice President for Health Sciences.”

This year actually marks two anniversaries: First, the 40th anniversary of the Academic Health Center, and second, the 25th anniversary of the full partnership of the College of Veterinary Medicine.

Map it: Then & now

By Erik Moore June 8, 2010
AHC documents, Photographs

Day to day activities tend to undermine an appreciation for institutional history. The memory of what has come before is often lost to the slow, incremental changes that keep moving us forward. It is easy to forget that things have not always been this way, nor have they always looked as they do today.

In an attempt to better visualize the history of the Academic Health Center and the longer history of the health sciences on campus, the map below overlays photographs and documents from the archives onto a modern day map of the campus.

See Medical Hall (now Wulling Hall) in 1901; watch the growth of the University Hospitals from Elliot Memorial in 1912, the additions of Eustis, Todd, and Christian in the late 1920s, and finally the completion of the Mayo Memorial; and view the initial excavation for Unit A (Moos Tower) while reading the remarks given at the groundbreaking ceremony in 1971.

Interact with the map or follow it to a full page version that allows street views to better compare the then and now.

View Academic Health Center History Map in a larger map

The photographs and documents represent a sampling of material from the archives. Additional material will be added in the future. Check back to see the changes.

Report of the External Committee

By Erik Moore May 13, 2010
AHC documents

In the recent State of the Academic Health Center address, Dr. Frank Cerra, Senior Vice President for Health Sciences, referenced a 1970 report by the External Committee on Governance of the Health Sciences to then University President Malcolm Moos.

In December 1969, President Moos asked the committee, chaired by Alexander Beard of Vanderbilt University, to address the following issues:

1. Is there a need for a Regents’ definition of the missions and responsibilities of the health sciences?

2. Given the history, current situation, existing competence and needs of the health sciences, both within and without the University of Minnesota, what alternative administrative structures could be developed for units in this area? Such administrative structures should also take cognizance of the needs of the allied health professions.

3. How should the responsibilities for continuing and graduate education in the health sciences be divided between the health science units, the Extension Division, and the Graduate School?

4. What steps should be taken to assure satisfactory relationships between all professional units in the health sciences and the hospitals?

5. What steps should be taken to assure satisfactory relationships between all professional units and the basic science departments?

6. What should be the pattern of relationship sought with affiliated hospitals, and other community agencies and services and the locus of decision making on contracts specifying these relationships?

The report outlines the committee’s suggestions on the mission, administrative structure, and relationships to basic sciences, allied health, the University Hospital and affiliations, and the Graduate School.

As an audience member at the State of the AHC noted, the report called for the establishment of a School of Allied Health Sciences, an achievement now taking form.

The groundwork for the report came from a campus visit in January 1970 as well as two supporting documents: Discussion Papers for External Committee on Governance of the Health Sciences and Background Information for External Committee on Governance of the Health Sciences.

Read the final February 26, 1970 report in full below.

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