A New Department of Medicine—Aims, Goals, and Methods

Abstract

MANY factors seem to converge at this time to consider the formation and development of a new Department of Medicine—I have been in New Mexico since August 1962, an interval that seems to lend itself to introspection and assessment without the hazards of being entirely speculative; the national medical scene and some of our own faculty seek for better understanding of the role of a Department of Medicine in medical education; the University of New Mexico School of Medicine is one of several new schools with their own opportunities and problems; and, finally, the American College of Physicians with its deep interest in education affords a most appropriate forum for sharing thoughts, plans, reservations, and hopes. Instead of leaning heavily on several excellent treatises on the general subject, I have elected to make this a highly personalized albeit incomplete presentation. Many of us in academic medicine, as well as some