History of the Department of Family Medicine and Public Health
In the early 1970s, the Michigan Academy of Family Physicians (MAFP)
was actively working to convince the Michigan state legislature of
the need for a WSU-based academic DFMPHS. The state realized the need
for more primary care and tied this interest in with the development
of the Detroit Receiving Hospital-University Health Center complex,
and the DFMPHS was created in 1973-74. Drs. Hank Gardner, the first CEO
of the UHC, Theodore Goldberg, then Chair of Community Medicine, and
George Mogill, as chief of Family Practice at Harper Hospital, were
also instrumental key supporters of academic Family Medicine and Public Health Sciences
in the
Detroit Medical Center, and in the School of Medicine.
Three dedicated family physicians made the family practice residency
program a reality by merging their practices into the first DFMPHS
clinical service to support the residency training program. Drs.
Dwight Dutcher, Sol Leland, and Darwin Beldon joined the full time
faculty of the new DFMPHS in 1974, and brought their patients into
the FP residency program that was located in McLaughlin Hall next
to Harper Hospital. The first residents entered the FP residency
program in 1975. Raymond Demers, MD transferred into the program
with advanced standing after completing a 3-year internal medicine
residency, and was the first program graduate in 1977. The first
full class graduated in 1978. Today, the residency program is located
at Sinai-Grace Hospital. The program is responsible for training
almost one third of the family physicians on staff at the Detroit
Medical Center.
Joseph Hess, MD was the first academic chair of the DFMPHS (1974-1985).
Dr. Hess was an internist and geriatrician, and his appointment
raised important issues about the qualifications of existing family
physicians to head the academic unit and the appropriateness of
a non-family physician chairing a Family Medicine and Public Health Sciences
department. After
Dr. Hess retired in 1985, John J. Dallman, MD became the second
chairman of the DFMPHS from 1985-1990. Dr. Paul Werner started in
the DFMPHS as Director of Predoctoral Medical Education, and then
served as chair from 1990 – 1998. During his tenure, Dr.
Werner strengthened the teaching programs of the department and
invested extensively in programs of faculty development, created
the Division of Medical Education, and initiated the process of
stabilizing the full-time faculty of the department. Dr. Maryjean
Schenk joined the DFMPHS as faculty in the OEH division, and then
succeeded Dr. Werner in 1998 to become the fourth chair of the
DFMPHS, and the first woman to head a clinical department at the WSU
SOM. Drs. Dallman, Werner, and Schenk are all family physicians.
The DFMPHS Occupational and Environmental Hedicine (OEH) education
program started in 1986-87 with a one-month rotation developed
by faculty member Dr. Demers. Many area residency programs sent
their residents to this unique program with its unusual emphasis
on industrial site visits. This set the stage for developing a
2-year OEH residency program. In 1994, the OEH residency program
accepted its first two residents Drs. Brian Hollibush and Beverly
Blaney, who were the first two program graduates in 1996. In 1997,
The DFMPHS GME program began to offer a four-year FP/OEH combined
residency. Dr. Beth Carter-Sims was the first FP/OEH resident to
complete the combined program in 2000.
In 1991, Dr. Demers became the Director of Epidemiology at the Michigan
Cancer Foundation (now the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute).
This set the stage for a very active and growing research component
of the DFMPHS. Drs. Schenk, Schwartz, and Severson have joint appointments
in the DFMPHS and the Karmanos Cancer Institute. Dr. Severson is the
DFMPHS Associate Chair of Research and Dr. Kendra Schwartz is the Co-Principal
Investigator of the Surveillance and End Epidemiology Results program
of the National Cancer Institute and Director of the DFMPHS’s Division
of Practice-based Research. The research expertise of these individuals
and Dr. Victoria Neale is now focused towards building capacity in
the DFMPHS in Family Practice research, specifically directed at practice-based
research. The academic unit is now committed to addressing those questions
that family physicians have in the daily care of their diverse patient
populations in community settings.
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History