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A Leader in Medical Education and Innovation The School of Medicine has trained medical students, served the community, and been at the forefront of discovery in the City of Cleveland for 165 years. On November 1, 1843, five faculty members and sixty-seven students began the first medical lectures at the Medical Department of Western Reserve College (also known as the Cleveland Medical College). Incidentally, the fees of attendance were seventy-two dollars which was divided among the Professors and Lecturers of the Medical Department. The Medical Department of Western Reserve College was located in downtown Cleveland for 81 years (half of its existence), longer than any other Western Reserve University (WRU) school or department. In 1852, the medical school became the second allopathic medical school to graduate a woman, Nancy Talbot Clarke. Emily Blackwell, the younger sister of Elizabeth Blackwell (the first woman to graduate from medical school), was the second graduate at the WRU medical school and the third in the US to receive a regular medical degree. During the next four years, five more women were to graduate from the school, giving it the distinction of graduating six of the first seven female allopathic physicians in the United States. In 1887, the School also began its program of research while downtown, constructing two buildings (the H.K. Cushing Laboratory and the Physiological Laboratory) for this purpose. - Excerpts from The Lives of University Hospitals of Cleveland In 1909, Arbraham Flexner, a graduate of Johns Hopkins University was commissioned by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching to compile a report on the then-current state of medical education in North America. One of the series of investigations of various aspects of education conducted by the foundation, "Bulletin #4: Medical Education in the United States and Canada" would come to be considered a watershed document in the history of American medicine. Flexner surveyed and evaluated each of the one hundred and fifty-five medical schools then extant in North America. The results of his investigation proved shocking: most "medical schools," for example, had entrance requirements no more stringent than either high school diploma or "rudiments or the recollection of a common school education." Only sixteen schools required at least two years of college as an entrance requirement, and of these, Johns Hopkins, Harvard, and Western Reserve were still the only ones to require an undergraduate degree. Although Johns Hopkins represented his ideal, Flexner also singled out the Medical Department of Western Reserve University for its praiseworthy admission standards and facilities. Flexner referred to Western Reserve as "already one of the substantial schools in the country." In a letter to Western Reserve president Charles F. Thwing he said, "The Medical Department of Western Reserve University is, next to Johns Hopkins..., the best in the country." - Excerpts from Western Reserve University Centennial History of the School of Medicine A little over forty years later, in 1952, the Western Reserve University School of Medicine revolutionized medical education with the "new curriculum of 1952" and more advanced stages in 1968. This was the most progressive medical curriculum in the country at that time, integrating the basic and clinical sciences. The Western Reserve curriculum of 1952 was led by Dr. Joseph T. Wearn, Professor of Medicine and Dean, Dr. T. Hale Ham, the planning chief, and "the one man Admissions Committee", Dr. John L. Caughey, Jr. The changes were based on the premise that the curriculum should conform to students' needs and interests, and various features were later adopted and emulated by many American and British medical schools. Central design of the new curriculum were these approaches: that teaching be based on problem solving, rather than the memorization of facts, and the students accept responsibility for self-education; that since it is impossible to learn all of medicine in four years, basic principles should be emphasized, and this is the responsibility of the faculty as a whole; that the curriculum should be designed as a logical continuum by faculty subject committees (ex. cardiovascular committee, renal committee, etc.) and not by departments (ex. biochemistry, pharmacology, etc.); that teaching should be interdisciplinary since medical knowledge derives from many disciplines; that basic medical sciences should be integrated with clinical medicine; and that the product of this experience should be an undifferentiated physician educated to think both scientifically and humanistically, inasmuch as both science and concern for the individual patient are essential to good medical care. The revision of the curriculum at Western Reserve shook the world of medical education for some years. Cleveland became a medical tourist attraction. It became the fashion for curious academic physicians to visit the Medical School and then go back home and summarize in their writings what they found about the clash of old and new in medical teaching. Some saw the experiment as the most significant development in American medical education since the Flexner report. (Sinclair, 1955; Miller et al., 1961; Lee, 1962; Jason, 1962; JAMA editorial, 1963; Stetten, 1968). Wearn's commitment to change generated an enthusiasm widely recognized as the active ingredient in the Western Reserve phenomenon, reflecting some educators' perceptions of a need for spiritual reformation in the institution called medical school and challenging the wisdom of many who expressed doubts about the validity of the changes proposed. Whatever happened, emotionally or intellectually, it found national recognition in the bestowal of the Abraham Flexner Award for Distinguished Service by the Association of American Medical Colleges on three members of the Reserve faculty - on Joseph T. Wearn, in 1965, for liberal, imaginative, and aggressive leadership; on John L. Caughey, Jr., dean for student affairs, in 1974, as a free-thinking, true friend of students; on Thomas Hale Ham, first chairman of the Committee on Medical Education, in 1975, as "a key architect in the structure of medical education today," citing "his catalytic role in the Western Reserve experiment, the second quantum change in medical education in this century." - Excerpts from Western Reserve's Experiment in Medical Education and Its Outcomes Historic research highlights include: Development of the modern technique for human blood transfusion using a cannula to connect blood vessels; first large-scale medical research project on humans in a study linking iodine with goiter prevention; pioneering use of drinking water chlorination; discovery of the cause of ptomaine food poisoning and development of serum against it and similar poisons; first surgical treatments of coronary artery disease; discovery of early treatment of strep throat infections to prevent rheumatic fever; development of an early heart-lung machine to be used during open-heart surgery; discovery of the Hageman factor in blood clotting, a major discovery in blood coagulation research; first description of how staphylococcus infections are transmitted, leading to required hand-washing between patients in infant nurseries; first description of what was later named Reye's syndrome; research leading to FDA approval of clozapine, the most advanced treatment for schizophrenia in 40 years at the time; discovery of the gene for osteoarthritis; and creation with Athersys, Inc., of the world's first human artificial chromosome. Today the CWRU School of Medicine is the largest biomedical research institution in Ohio and the one of the largest in the nation, as measured by funding received from the National Institutes of Health. The School of Medicine has eight Nobel Prize holders among its alumni and former and current faculty:
The School of Medicine also has graduates who have distinguished themselves as U.S. Surgeons General: Jesse Steinfeld, MD, and David Satcher, MD, PhD, and the current the Director of the CDC, Julie Gerberding, MD. More detailed history will be added in the soon... The Buildings of the School of Medicine
Medical Department of Western Reserve College 1843-1885 located at E. 9th and St. Clair
The Medical Department of Western Reserve Medical School 1887-1924 at E. 9th and St. Clair. This was the last downtown home of the School of Medicine.
The "new" home of Western Reserve's School of Medicine, the first element of Cleveland's academic medical center, was dedicated on October 9, 1924. Later, was named the Harland Goff Wood Building.
Today, these are the buildings of the School of Medicine. The building on the left is the Biomedical Research Building built in 1991. The building on the right is the Harland Goff Wood Building. Various School of Medicine Photographs Artifacts
In 1843, the first classes were held by the Medical Department. Students had to contact each teacher to enroll in that teacher’s course, and pay a stated fee. The picture on the left is an example of the "admission ticket" required to enter the lecture hall. Tuition in 1844 was $72 and the total enrollment was 109 students.The picture on the right is the cover of the Medical School catalog of 1868/69 which features a drawing of the first medical building built in 1846. The picture on the left is an admission ticket to attend a Pathology and Obstetrics Lecture in 1848. The picture on the right is that of Nancy Talbot Clark who graduated from the Medical Department of Western Reserve College in 1852. She was the second woman in the United States to receive a regular medical degree.
In 1860, the Medical Department graduation requirements included 3 years of study, a thesis, testimonials of "good moral character" and an examination. Those holding a Bachelor of Arts degree could be graduated after 2 years; and those who had been in practice for 4 years could graduate after 1 year.
The picture on the left from 1873 is a list of resources available to Medical Department students included a library of several thousand volumes, leading medical journals, natural history specimens, and anatomical models. The picture on the right is of The Faculty Room in the 1887 building (looks quite posh).
The picture on the left is of a medical diploma from 1883. The Medical faculty voted that the diplomas should hereafter be in English. Earlier diplomas had been in Latin. The second picture is an invitation to the 50th Commencement ceremony in 1894.
In the 1896, the first affiliation agreement was approved between Western Reserve University and University Hospitals of Cleveland (Lakeside Hospital).
Since many Case and Western Reserve University students were commuters, transportation was a daily issue. At a time when automobiles were uncommon, many students rode streetcars to and from the campus every day. University Circle received its name from the streetcar turn-around on Euclid Avenue.
In 1917, the Lakeside Base Hospital Number Four, comprised of 256 men and women, including faculty from the School of Medicine, sailed for Europe one month after the United States entered World War I. The picture on the right is from May 18, 1917 when the Lakeside Nursing Unit was received by King George V and Queen Mary at Buckingham Palace.
In 1922, groundbreaking ceremonies were held for the new School of Medicine building in University Circle (later named the Harland Goff Wood Building). The Medical School and University Hospitals were moving from their downtown locations to a shared medical campus in University Circle.
The picture on the left is of a dissection room in 1921. The picture on the right is J. J. R. MacLeod, 1923 Nobel Prize winner and WRU Professor of Physiology (wearing suit) in surgery class.
The picture on the left from 1954 is of Dr. Frederick C. Robbins, Western Reserve University professor of pediatrics, received the Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology. Robbins was later dean of the School of Medicine and University Professor. The picture on the right from 1956 is of the first class using the newly revised Medical School curriculum graduated. The new curriculum introduced a first year student to patient care and the clinical setting.
Historical Information and Excerpts Obtained from: Western Reserve University Centennial History of the School of Medicine. Fredererick Clayton Waite. Cleveland, Western Reserve University Press, 1946. Western Reserve's Experiment in Medical Education and Its Outcome, Greer Williams; assisted by Margaret Henning. New York, Oxford University Press, 1980. The Lives of University Hospitals of Cleveland. Mark Gottleib. Cleveland, Wilson Street Press, 1991. |
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