Wayne State University School of Medicine - Yearbook (Detroit, MI)

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William R. Keast, Ph.D., President, Wayne State University. but Gordon H. Scott, Ph.D., Vice President for Medical School Development.

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OUR MEDICAL HERITAGE Our work re.s'l.s'-more, fzerhopx, Zhao llzal of any ollzer professiorz--on the acconzpllslzrnenls of our f1redece.s'.for.s'. A k?10ZUl6Il'g6fU. what lhey have given lo me1lz'cz'ne and lo lzzonanily .vlzozzld lherefore be por! :J our background, and no! for reasom' ofprofexyional senllnzenl alone, bu! for reo.fon.s' ofgood common .s-ense. Pursuing hzla' career, llze frlzyxzczan must of course slrloe lo maintain a forward lookg for il is ahead llzal bolh ofzporlznzily and dj0i'e11l!z'e.s' lie. fel despile modern conzlolexilies, mos! of our practical prohlezm' rexelrzble llzose rj our preclece.v.ror.s'. The problems ahead are recurrences, minor vorirznls' ofllzoxe in lhe frasl-lhe pos! of our elders not our own. Frorn our Iboinl of view lhey seem lo come al Zl.S fI'I1I7I in fronl, and lo bear a fresh label. Bu! benealh lhe wrappings lhere is zzsuolly an old frrohlem, already examined and even, sornelirnex, disposed rj. By borrowing ex- perience and wisdom from ,bredeces.s'or.x' we can view cerlaln .filualions as zf in relrospecl, and view them wllh L'llI1I'l7Z0l1.Y fmjil. l'lzy.s'ici11n.s' will do well lo look ahead for problems. Paraa'oxz'cally, however, lhey should look l1ehz'nd for guidance, and a .fludy :J medical hislory fJ70ZllI1'6.f an excellent rear-view mirror cj lheir medical heritage.

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'lr' - ?'l2!l- Ernest D. Gardner, M.D., Dean, School of Medicine. Our School of Medicine is on the eve of its centennial. The growth of the School and the dramatic changes it has undergone since 1868 reflect similar growth and change in nearly all American medical schools. Medical education in the United States has a complex heritage. Most of the early medical schools were proprietary. They developed in part as an extension of the American apprenticeship system, and in part because of the influence of the hospital-based schools of England and France. From about 1880 on, the American university began to develop around the concept of the graduate school and research, and professional schools began to be associated with universities. These changes were heavily influenced by the German and Austrian university tradition. The School of Medicine of Wayne State Uni- versity began as a privately owned college, the Detroit College of Medicine. In 1919 it became part ofthe College of the City of Detroit, which, in 1933, became Wayne University. ln the United States as a whole, the development of medical school- university relationships, coupled with the increasing importance of laboratory- based scientific courses and the increasing use of the scientific method in teaching and practicing, led to a sharp decrease in, and eventual disappearance of, proprie- tary schools and diploma mills. During this same time also, from the latter part of the last century, research began which led to the fantastic knowledge explosion we face today, and which saw the end of centuries of medicine practiced solely as an art. Today, medicine is practiced best when it includes the artistic use of the scientific method.