The Kentucky Experiment in Community Medicine

Abstract

This report reviews program in Community Medicine which was initiated at University of Kentucky in 1960. This unique departmental contribution to College of Medicine was suggested in 1956 by Vice-President and Dean, William R. Willard, in a memorandum1 outlining philosophy of medical education for new school: know health problems of area, some members of faculty must study them .... To accomplish this, community must be utilized as a laboratory in which medical school studies certain problems, just as hospital ward or physiology laboratory must be utilized for study of other problems. Commenting on academic responsibilities of departments of preventive medicine George Wolf emphasized that the responsibility of medical schools and their departments at this point is to define community needs in more precise terms.2 The major objective in Kentucky Community Medicine Experiment, which has persisted from inception of department, has been a clinical approach to identification and solution of health problems of populations or communities of people.3 To effectively carry out such teaching responsibilities, faculty equipped to teach and conduct research at clinical, laboratory,