About This Site

This web-based history, by Ellen More with major research assistance from Heather-Lyn Haley, of the UMass Medical School Family Medicine Residency in its early decades represents the first installment of a much larger project by the Lamar Soutter Library's Office of Medical History and Archives (OMHA) to document the history of UMass Medical School. The idea originated when Heather-Lyn Haley, Ph.D., a sociologist and faculty member in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health (FMCH), mentioned to Ellen More, Ph.D., medical historian and head of the OMHA, that FMCH would be holding a Thirtieth Anniversary Reunion weekend for its residency alumni in June 2006, a weekend planned largely by Dr. Lucy Candib. Haley suggested we conduct formal interviews with as many of the residency graduates as possible, asking about their memories of the program and their colleagues, what brought them here in the first place, and how things have gone in their careers since then.

During one interview, Dan Doyle, M.D., one of the early graduates, happened to mention the highly charged political events of the residency's first few years at Worcester City Hospital. Haley was able to track down one of the key participants, a former union organizer, now living in Maine, who loaned us a fascinating trove of news clippings and homemade news sheets ("The Blunt Probe"), detailing these events. Dan Lasser, M.D., Department Chair, took many photos at the reunion. More decided that a history of the program could be produced for the web that might be of general interest not only to alumni and faculty, but also to anyone interested in the role of primary care medicine in the U.S. since the 1960s.

Ultimately, with significant research help from Dr. Haley, documents contributed by Dr. Lasser, and crucial web design and production assistance from the Library's Bob Vander Hart and Julia Powell, and audio assistance from Audio Journal, we have produced a site that includes photographs and audio clips of many participants, images of primary sources, links to the full interviews, selected bibliography, and an appendix listing the residency graduates from 1976 to 2006. We hope you enjoy and learn from the site. In addition to crucial support from Dr. Elaine Martin, Director of the Lamar Soutter Library, for which we are most thankful, we also wish to acknowledge, in alphabetical order, the following individuals for their support and assistance:

• Lucy M. Candib, M.D.
• Tamara Cullen
• Elaine Desjardins
• Daniel Lasser, M.D.
• Vincent Lombardi
• Donald L. Madison, M.D.
• Melissa McLaughlin
• Eugene Petit

Contact information: For additions or corrections, please contact Dr. More by telephone at 508-856-7633, by email at Ellen.More@umassmed.edu, or by postal mail at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Lamar Soutter Library, 55 Lake Ave North, Worcester MA 01655. For technical assistance with the website, please contact Robert Vander Hart at Robert.VanderHart@umassmed.edu

Ellen More, Ph.D.
Head, Office of Medical History and Archives, Lamar Soutter Library