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History
of Urology in Memphis and the University of Tennessee
The University of Tennessee was founded, initially as Blount College, in 1794 in Knoxville, Tennessee. About 120 years later, shortly following the Flexner report, five independent medical colleges located in Memphis joined together and in 1911 formed the University of Tennessee, Memphis Medical School. This first and only University of Tennessee Medical School has remained on the Memphis campus since its inauguration. Dr. George R. Livermore was appointed as the first University Professor of Genito-Urinary Diseases and Orthopedics (a rather unusual combination). Dr. Livermore apparently did his genitourinary. training in Europe. Of interest, a local internist (Dr. Henry Rudner, Sr.) is said to have been the first to bring cystoscopy to Memphis having learned the technique while interning at Bellevue Hospital in New York in 1916 under Dr. Edward L. Keyes, Jr. Dr. Livermore continued as Chairman of Urology through 1944 without a formal urologic training program in place. However, although records are non-existent, apparently a few individuals were trained in urology with Dr. Livermore as preceptor. During his tenure as departmental Chairman, Dr. Livermore was active in national AUA politics and served as AUA president in 1933. The departmental name was changed from "Genito-Urinary" to "Urology" during or following World War I. The
Memphis Urologic Society was organized in December, 1924. Some of the initial
members were Drs. J. Logan Morgan, Hubert K. Turley, Sr., D.S. McGown,
John Ragsdale, O. P. Walker, Isaac Duncan and Thomas D. Moore. Of interest,
this organization preceded the establishment of the Southeastern Section
of the AUA by at least eight years. In 1932, the Memphis Urologic Society
purchased one of the first resectoscopes and Davis-Bovie electrosurgical
units. This unit was placed in the Baptist Memorial Hospital and in the
City of Memphis (charity) hospital also known as the John Gaston Hospital. The
1931 annual meeting of the American Urological Association was held in
Memphis, Tennessee (the first and only time it has been held in Memphis).
Memphis urologists serving as AUA presidents were Dr. George R. Livermore
(1933), Dr. Thomas D. Moore (1951) and Dr. Samuel L. Raines (1964). The
executive secretarial headquarters for the American Urological Association
was located in Memphis under the direction of Dr. Thomas D. Moore for a
period of three to five years during the late 1940's. The
Southeastern Section of the American Urological Association held its annual
meeting in Memphis on three occasions; 1951, 1966, and 1979. Several Memphis
urologists have been president of the Southeastern Section: Dr. George
L. Livermore (1938), Dr. Hubert K. Turley, Sr. (1947), Dr. Samuel L. Raines
(1955), Dr. Alfred D. Mason, Jr. (1962), Dr. Hubert K. Turley, Jr. (1974),
and Dr. Fontaine B. Moore, Jr. (1985). Urological
Training Programs in Memphis
In
1945, Dr. Thomas D. Moore became Chairman of the Department of Urology
at the University of Tennessee, Memphis. An official three year urological
training program was organized and the residency program was accredited.
Dr. Moore had been a practitioner of urology in Memphis for several years
prior to his appointment as Chairman. He had received his urological training
at the Mayo Clinic. In order to fill the program initially, Dr. Moore arranged
for trainees completing the Mayo Clinic program to spend six to twelve
months in the UT Memphis program. It was said that Mayo Clinic residents
were not given the opportunity to train in open surgery and this arrangement
was considered a "win-win" proposition for both the residents completing
the Mayo Clinic program as well as for Dr. Moore who needed senior residents
to fill the upper levels of his program while junior residents were entering
the three year program beginning in 1945. Records are incomplete; however,
several Mayo Clinic residents completed six to twelve months of "post resident
training" at UT Memphis. Some of those were Drs. Gordon W. Strom in 1946,
Donald H. Pattison in 1947, Louis R. Devanney in 1955 and Dieter Kirchheim
in 1956. This arrangement (between Mayo Clinic and UT Memphis) apparently
continued sporadically from 1945 into the early 1960's. Dr.
Moore married the former Ruth Brown whose family owned a large portion
of land known as "Graceland" on the periphery of Memphis. In the early
1940's, Dr. Moore and his wife completed what was then a large home on
the property and thereafter the property and the home was referred to as
"Graceland". This home was eventually purchased by one Elvis Presley in
the late 1960's. Of course, it remains a Mecca to thousands of faithful
and the curious who no doubt have little interest in or knowledge of its
wartime construction by a former president of the American Urological Association
who was the first Professor and Chairman of an accredited urological training
program in Memphis, Tennessee. Dr.
Moore, with the stalwart and ever present assistance of Dr. Raymond F.
Mayer, trained a total of 13 residents during his tenure as Chairman. The
training was almost exclusively confined to the City of Memphis Hospital
(John Gaston Hospital) and its associated charity clinics. For the most
part, his trainees were successful practitioners in those financially secure
years following World War II. Aside from the vicissitudes of beginning
and maintaining a new accredited program (which undoubtedly is in itself
a significant accomplishment) no major impact resulted from the UT Memphis
program during these years. Dr. Moore served as president of the AUA in
1951 and prior to this maintained the executive secretarial office of the
AUA in Memphis for several years. In fact, Dr. Moore's second marriage
was to the secretary who carried out the day-to-day AUA activities in Memphis. In
1955, Dr. Samuel L. Raines was appointed Professor and Chairman of the
University of Tennessee, Memphis Urology Department and Director of the
Urology Training Program. Dr. Raines continued as Chairman through 1969.
He was greatly assisted in resident training by Dr. William H. Morse and
subsequently by Dr. Raines' stepson, Dr. Albert W. Biggs. Resident training
continued to be carried out primarily in the City of Memphis Charity Hospital.
However, a resident rotation was eventually developed at the Baptist Memorial
Hospital adjacent to the University of Tennessee campus. During Dr. Raines'
tenure as Chairman a total of 28 residents completed the program. All 28
of these individuals became successful practitioners, mostly in the Mid-South.
Dr. Albert W. Biggs was subsequently appointed as Chairman of the Department.
Dr. Abdul A. Tawfik returned to his native Iraq and subsequently was killed
in one of the numerous revolutions occurring in that area of the world. Dr.
Raines had achieved prominent status as a Memphis practitioner of urology
prior to his appointment as departmental Chairman. During the 1950's and
1960's, Dr. Raines was a significant force in national AUA politics which
culminated in his presidency of the AUA in 1964. Dr. Raines was also president
of the Southeastern Section of the AUA in 1955. Dr. Raines resigned as
departmental Chairman in 1969 and his stepson, Dr. Albert W. Biggs, was
appointed as Chairman from 1969 through 1972.Biggs'
tenure as Chairman was relatively brief due to his promotion in 1972 to
the position of Vice Chancellor of the University Hospital in Knoxville,
Tennessee. During his chairmanship, a total of six residents completed
the program, all successful practitioners in the Mid-South region. Although
records are incomplete, Dr. Biggs was probably the first full-time Professor
of Urology at the University of Tennessee. All of his predecessors apparently
relied upon private practice income rather than a university salary. Dr.
Biggs was assisted briefly during his chairmanship by a full-time Assistant
Professor, Dr. Harold P. McDonald, Jr. Memphis
Veterans Administration Medical Center The
history of the Memphis Veterans Administration Medical Center in Memphis
and its separate urological training program is somewhat unique. The first
general medical surgical Veterans Bureau hospital in the south was established
in Memphis in 1921. This hospital, purchased for $859,000, was located
at Crump and Lamar Avenues and on August 14, 1922 it became the 88th hospital
of the Veterans Bureau. This hospital remained active until its closure
in 1958. In 1943, the United States Army opened a 3,000 bed hospital in
Memphis on Park and Shotwell Streets. This hospital, which was made up
of 128 buildings was named for Brigadier General James Kennedy, a distinguished
army surgeon and veteran of the Spanish American War. Shotwell street was
immediately renamed "Getwell" street to avoid harming the morale of the
wounded soldiers. As the war ended in 1945, the hospital had a census of
6,000 service men. The facility had accumulated a distinguished group of
medical personnel with Dr. Michael Bowers as Chief of Surgery. On July
1, 1946, Kennedy Army Hospital was transferred to the Veterans Administration
and was known for several years as the "VA Medical Teaching Group Hospital".
This Teaching Group Hospital was the only VA Hospital (with the possible
exception of the Edward Hines, Jr. VA Hospital in Chicago) to carry out
a full teaching program (residency programs) without medical school affiliation.
Affiliation with the University of Tennessee, Memphis was finalized in
July of 1961 for medicine and surgical services, but was not affiliated
with the UT Memphis Urology Program until 1968. This Kennedy VA Administration
Hospital was closed in 1967 with the construction of a new Veterans Administration
Medical Center adjacent to the UT Memphis Medical School campus. The VA
Medical Center Teaching Group Hospital provided for a three year urologic
residency commencing in 1946. These VA residents were provided some rotations
in the City of Memphis Hospital, but for the most part their training was
confined to the Veterans Hospital. A total of 21 urology residents were
trained in this program before its merger into the University of Tennessee,
Memphis Program. Many of the early residents were general medical officers
recently discharged from active duty at the conclusion of World War II. In
1968, with the appointment of Willis P. Jordan, M.D. as Chief of Urology
at the new VA facility adjacent to the Medical School, the independent
VA Urologic Residency was phased out and merged with the UT Memphis Urologic
Residency Training Program. Compiling a list of residents training in the
independent Memphis VA program has been a major task in that records from
the Kennedy VA Hospital are non-existent. From recollections of the urologic
technician stationed at the Kennedy Army Hospital who subsequently remained
as a urology technician for the Kennedy VA Hospital and scattered records,
the accompanying list of urologists trained at the Memphis Veterans Administration
Medical Center Urology program was generated. Department
of Urology University
of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis Dr.
Clair E. Cox from Bowman Gray University was appointed Chairman in 1972
and continued in that position until 1999. Dr. Cox trained at the University
of California, San Francisco. Early faculty members, along with Dr. Cox,
were Drs. William W. King, Peter J. Quinn, Gilbert A. Dale, Jr., Lynn W.
Conrad, Richard M. Pearson, and Stephen W. Hardeman. Mark S. Soloway joined
the department in 1975 and continued as Professor of Urology through 1991.
At that time, he became Professor and Chairman of Urology at the University
of Miami. Dr. Raymond F. Mayer returned to the University in 1979 from
a successful private practice of urology and remained as a full-time Professor
in the department until his retirement in 1989. During his tenure as Chairman,
Dr. Cox trained 88 residents who all became board certified and remain
in active practice, mostly in the southeastern portion of the United States.
Several, however, chose academic pursuits. Dr. H. Norman Noe is currently
Professor of Urology and Chief of the Division of Pediatric Urology at
the University of Tennessee, Memphis and Dr. Gerald R. Jerkins is an Assistant
Professor of Urology in the Division. Dr. Anthony L. Patterson is an Associate
Professor of Urology and Residency Program Director at the University of
Tennessee as well as Chief of the Memphis Veterans Administration Medical
Center Department of Urology and Dr. Robert W. Wake is Chairman at the
University of Tennessee, Memphis. Dr. Howard Goldman is an Assistant Professor
of Urology at Case Western Reserve in Cleveland, Ohio. Dr. Craig Thomas
completed his residency under Dr. Wake and is now an Instructor at University
of Tennessee, Department of Urology.
In 1999, Dr. Cox resigned as Chairman and Dr. Steiner was appointed Professor and Chairman of the Department of Urology. Dr. Steiner resigned as Chairman in 2003 and Dr. Wake served as interim Chair until his appointment in December 2004. Dr. Robert W. Wake graduated from the University of Tennessee School of Medicine and after completing his urology residency at University of Tennessee, Memphis in 1990 he joined the Department as a faculty member. Dr. Mitchell S. Steiner graduated from the University of Tennessee School of Medicine in 1986. After completing a urology residency at the Johns Hopkins University, he joined the faculty at Vanderbilt University until 1994 when he returned to the University of Tennessee as Associate Professor of Urology and the Director of the Urologic Research Laboratories. |
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