Clinic in the Cornfields: The Improbable Rise of the Mayo Clinic, 1864-1945
From a remote prairie outpost to a global medical empire--the definitive early history of the Mayo Clinic
Founded by William Worrall Mayo more than 160 years ago, the Mayo Clinic, now considered one of the world's preeminent medical institutions, was established in the small town of Rochester, Minnesota. The Clinic's founding in the hinterlands might have been serendipitous, but through unprecedented access to the institution's archives, Anthony Bianco shows how its remote location was essential to the success of what has always been a powerfully idiosyncratic institution. Tracing the highs and lows of Mayo Clinic's early years, Bianco reveals how it shaped Rochester into what a New York Times reporter dubbed in 1928 "the only clinic city in America"--and transformed the practice and culture of medicine worldwide.
At a confluence of character, industry, location, and timing, the Mayo Clinic invented a revolutionary model of clinical care: multispecialty group practice. This approach was so innovative that it was condemned by America's medical establishment as a treasonous manifestation of socialism. In this definitive history, Bianco chronicles how an institution founded on operating room excellence achieved astonishing medical breakthroughs: the Clinic was instrumental in first introducing insulin as a diabetes treatment following World War I and later performed the clinical trials that catalyzed mass distribution of penicillin during World War II. By establishing itself as a leader in aviation medicine, the Mayo Clinic engineered oxygen masks, g-suits, and other life-saving devices while also staffing Army field hospitals deployed around the world.
Alongside these remarkable advancements, an appalling institutional paradox is also uncovered by Bianco's analysis. Throughout this era, the Clinic violated its own professed code of conduct by systemically discriminating against Black people, Jews, and non-Northern European immigrants and by participating in Minnesota's state program mandating the sterilization of citizens deemed "unfit."
The first of a two-volume history recounting Mayo's growth and behind-the-scenes stories, Clinic in the Cornfields draws on sources ranging from the Mayo brothers' personal papers to internal operational records, creating a riveting narrative inextricably linked to the birth of modern medicine.
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