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UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN, LAWRENCE, KANSAS
THURSDAY, MAY 11, 1950
HURSI
Medical School Is Distinguished By Continued Progress
By FRANKIE WAITS
(Editor's note: This is fourth in a series of articles about the various schools in the University).
The story of the founding, establishment, expansion, and growth of the University of Kansas School of Medicine reads like a pioneer's tale. What the school has accomplished in the past 60 years seems impossible. It has been a struggle for the students in medicine, the doctors and professors connected with the school, and the laymen who are interested in the success of its projects. The medical pioneers at K.U. before 1888 had a difficult time trying to interest the citizens of the state in medical education.
But the state medical society was in earnest and never gave up their dream of a School of Medicine. The majority of the faculty members were horrified when the society petitioned for permission to secure a
To list all of the improvements and additions to the Medical Center
Kansas legislature and the United States Public Health service.
At
OPERATING PROCEDURE at the University of Kansas Medical Center shows the television equipment in action. The earphone in the surgeon's left ear enables him to hear questions asked by students and doctors in distant classrooms. The surgeon's descriptions of each step in the operating procedure reaches the observers through a two-way sound system.
Chancellor Francis Huntington Snow, who followed Mr. Lippincott, recommended a complete medical course, but his suggestion wasn't adopted until 1894 when Dr. Simeon B. Bell gave the necessary amount of land to build a Medical Center. A School of Medicine was organized in 1899. Enrollment was small, however, and dwindled with the years, until after the arrival of Chancellor Frank Strong in 1902. Chancellor Strong felt that Dr. Bell's offer was the answer to the problem of the school and it was renewed, extended, and utilized. By 1905 there were 90 students enrolled at the Kansas City Medical Center and 60 at K.U.
cadaven for dissection. This incident put the medical society out of commission until 1888.
a few of the improvements made in the last few years.
Today there are 400 medical students in the school. At the Medical Center there are approximately 280 medical students, 25 interns, 50 resident physicians, 10 dietary interns, 15 studying medical technology, 10 in physical therapy, three in X-ray techniques, three in occupational therapy, and 125 in nursing. There has been an increase in the intake of medical students up to 25 per cent, from 80 to 100 students a class. This spring there are 83 in the graduating class of the school.
Since Franklin D. Murphy became the fourth dean of the school there have been additions and buildings completed totaling one million dollars. At the present time the school is planning expenditures of an additional $4,700,000 from the
Most students do not enter medicine until they have secured their B.A. or B.S. degree in the College. At present, medical students spend one and two half years at the K.U. campus and two and one half years at the Medical Center. From freshman to graduate, the medical students study the fundamental sciences; at the Medical Center during their last two and one half years much of the work is done at the bedside so that the students may observe methods of treatment and the processes of making a diagnosis and prescribing treatment.
would be impossible in this article. It's a big project, a big school with big ideas, and big accomplishments. There have been complete new units added to the campus in Kansas City, Kan., additions to buildings already in operation, and new instruments installed for cancer and heart disease research—and these are only
—Photo by Frankie Waits
DR. FRANKLIN D. MURPHY, dean of the school of medicine, speaks with Chancellor Malott in one of Dr. Murphy's hurried though frequent visits to the University.
The Medical Center includes Bell Memorial hospital, Hixon laboratories, clinical buildings, a tuberculosis division and psychiatric ward. The Medical Center directs the residency programs at the veterans hospitals in Topeka, Wadsworth, and Wichita, Kan, and Excelsior Springs, Mo.
Dr. Murphy's varied activities leave him little time of his own. When he does have some spare hours, he likes to play a few holes of golf, or read the murder mysteries of Agatha Christie. Dean Murphy reads a great deal, with emphasis on documentary writings. He is married and has three girls: Joyce, seven; Martha, five; and Carolyn, who is one year old.
Franklin D. Murphy, dean of the School of Medicine, said that the divided campuses of the medical school pose problems which he hopes can soon be resolved.
The department of nursing is another division of the school that has continued to grow in enrollment each year. Under a new plan, the B.S. degree in nursing is now being granted by the faculty of the School of Medicine.
Dean Murphy is one of the most active men in medicine in the country today. He was recently elected vice-president of the American Association of Medical colleges and
—Photo by Frankie Waits
was chosen by the United States Chamber of Commerce as one of the ten outstanding young men in the nation in 1949.
The amount of research at Kansas City and at K.U. has tripped in the last two years. The curriculum is now being altered to include a program of conservation in hearing.
MEDICAL STUDENTS are determining the basal metabolic rate of "patient" Leon Berube, freshman in the School of Medicine. Left to right the men are: Paul Wilhelm, Thomas Batty, and Roy Peterson, all graduate students.
One of the outstanding things at the Medical Center of which the students and doctors are especially proud is the Logan-Clendening collection of books and the general library. These together constitute perhaps one of the best medical libraries in the Middlewest.
Another of the outstanding features offered by the School of Medicine are the postgraduate courses. Monthly courses are scheduled at the Medical Center and faculty members give postgraduate lectures in strategically located spots over Kansas once a month.
Dean Murphy said, "The postgraduate course offers one of the most diversified programs of this type in the entire country. I feel
2. A guarantee of continued excellence in doctors through the postgraduate courses at the Medical Center.
that our television is most valuable in this method of teaching."
"Our main purpose in the School of Medicine," said Dean Murphy, "is to turn out a citizen-physician. We want our students to be more than skilled technicians. We want them to recognize their responsibilities as participating citizens."
1. More and better physicians for Kansas which means better health for the entire state.
3. A renaissance in research reflecting great credit upon the University and the people of Kansas in the contributions to medical science.
All those persons connected with the school are working toward three common goals, in the way of helping the people of Kansas, said Dean Murphy:
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