This book is nearly forty years old, and like any forty-year-old history, it deserves an update. But like any good forty-year-old history, the stories that are told still transmit knowledge and wisdom. As a Vanderbilt Medical Center employee, I found the history of the medical center’s refounding in 1925 enlightening as it set a direction that continues to this day.
Before the era of government-funded biomedical research, most research was funded by private endowments from wealthy families. Shortly after the famous Flexner Report revolutionized American medical education, the Rockefeller Foundation’s General Education Board richly endowed Vanderbilt as its first big case that teamed up clinical work and research. It was so chosen in hopes that it would advance medical practice in the South, still recovering from slavery’s and the Civil War’s decimation. With ample funding, Vanderbilt disproportionately took off in national prominence through contributions like Ernest Goodpasture using egg yolks to reproduce viruses for vaccines. Vanderbilt was Flexner’s biggest test case, and it succeeded with flying colors.
After World War II, Vanderbilt’s research funding pivoted to newly emergent governmental sources. Though varying from basic research to clinical applications, federal grants always came with heavy pressure to advance patient healthcare, but the institution tried to keep its balance of scientific investigation and medical practice. The hospital, originally accepting pro bono cases for teaching purposes only, transformed into an insurance-driven entity serving Nashville and the region. Although Vanderbilt remains a private institution, its mission necessarily grew as an entity seeking public service since that’s where the funding lay.
Interestingly, this history did not address the topics of race and gender among medical students in depth. Perhaps this is so for women because some female physicians have been at Vanderbilt since around its rebirth in 1925. The racial angle is almost altogether silent, sadly. Even 37 years after this book ends, Vanderbilt continues to seek to balance education, research, and service. It’s helpful for me to see how these entities evolved over time and how past decisions continue to affect my workplace’s current trajectory.
Making Medical Doctors: Science and Medicine at Vanderbilt since Flexner
By Timothy C. Jacobson
Copyright (c) 1988
University of Alabama Press
ISBN13 9780817303150
Page Count: 368
Genre: History of Medicine
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