A MECCA OF LEARNING, RESEARCH AND INNOVATION
In 1972, what is now known as the RUSH University Medical Center brought its medical, nursing and graduate school programs under the RUSH University banner. The Chicago Tribune reported on the change that year, noting that the new institution would “graduate 100 doctors, 500 nurses, and an undetermined number of technicians and other health workers each year.”
As RUSH University, this mecca of medical education was continuing the legacy of its founder, Dr. Daniel Brainard, more than 100 years earlier. Brainard, like the founders of the Chicago Tribune in 1847 and other pioneering leaders,
This interview was conducted by an independent writer on behalf of RUSH University System for Health. Neither the Tribune newsroom nor Editorial Board was involved in producing this content.
Although RUSH Medical College was first founded in 1837, two days before Chicago received its city charter, and would be part of an ever-growing and changing medical system in Chicago, RUSH University was not created until 1972. How did that development, 50 years ago, elevate the RUSH system?
DR. THOMAS DEUTSCH: The medical college suspended operations in 1941 for a variety of reasons, but a number of clinicians urged Dr. James A. Campbell to renew operations, and RUSH Medical College officially took in a class starting in 1971. The curriculum was largely created by excellent physicians who constituted the clinical faculty of the medical school. Great young clinicians such as Stuart Levin and Alex Doolas were critical to the concept of clinical experiences that cemented the classroom learning of the first part of medical education. The College of Nursing was established in 1972 along the same principles, with Luther Christman’s genius, and with two operating colleges, RUSH University came into
saw potential in the booming metropolis of Chicago. Now, RUSH educates more than 2,800 students, from 18 countries, and trains more than 700 medical residents and fellows. It has an alumni network of more than 16,000 people around the world.
This is the second of a three-part look at RUSH University Medical Center’s role in Chicago’s history. In this conversation, Dr. Thomas Deutsch, the former dean of RUSH Medical College and a professor of ophthalmology, discusses how the “practitionerteacher” philosophy of medical education has driven RUSH’s growth.
existence and was then accredited. Overnight, RUSH went from being an outstanding clinical institution to growing its academic reputation.
When Dr. Brainard founded RUSH Medical College in 1837, he felt strongly that medical students needed an experience that combined lectures with practical patient care. How has that early approach influenced RUSH University’s approach to training medical professionals today?
TD: The fundamental thing that is consistent through all of the education programs in RUSH University, from the medical school, through nursing, allied health and research, is that students engage in the practical experiences that set them up to be outstanding practitioners in their disciplines for their entire careers. This is RUSH University’s secret sauce!
How did Dr. James A. Campbell, the university’s first president, and Luther Christman, founding dean of the College of Nursing, shape the university’s early years?
TD: These were two brilliant health care thinkers; today we would say that they could “think outside of the box.” Dr. Campbell worked tirelessly to transform RUSH from just an excellent place to get care to an academic health center. Dr. Christman saw outstanding nursing as a key to great care, but also the fusing of teaching and practice as a way to turbo-charge the excellence of patient care. During that period the phrase, “practitioner-teacher” became a common one around RUSH. Later, we used the tagline, “we practice what we teach.”
From its first days in the 1800s, RUSH provided free or affordable medical services to the surrounding communities in need. For the past 30 years, the RUSH Community Service Initiatives Program (RCSIP) has addressed those needs. How do today’s programs connect with RUSH’s past?
TD: Ever since the Great Chicago Fire, when RUSH Medical College moved to the West Side of Chicago, RUSH has been embedded in a community in need on so many levels. We see the lack of equity in health care every day because our patients and our community are the victims of it, and just as Daniel Brainard championed the mitigation of that inequity, great RUSH leaders have followed suit. The RCSIP initiative started as committed medical students who were searching to make a difference in our community, and was championed by Ed Eckenfels. Today, David Ansell, Larry Goodman and the RUSH Board are leading RUSH’s equity and community focus, and demonstrating that an anchor academic medical center can work, slowly but surely, to create transformation.
RUSH is also known as a strong research institution. In RUSH’s earliest years, Dr. Brainard made important advancements in surgery, and was doing important research into how cholera spread — before succumbing to the disease himself. What other notable discoveries were made in RUSH’s early years?
TD: Two of the most important findings in the history of medicine were made by one man at RUSH. In the early 20th century, Dr. James Herrick described both the cause of what became known as sickle cell disease and coronary artery disease, which is the cause of heart attacks.
And notable research happening now that might surprise readers?
TD: Investigators at RUSH have made multiple discoveries that have given insights into the causes, and possible preventive measures for Alzheimer’s disease. Led by Dr. David Bennett, RUSH researchers have been studying Alzheimer’s for over 30 years. The late Dr. Martha Clare Morris described a diet that probably reduces the chances of Alzheimer’s, and other researchers have found that increased socialization among aging people reduces Alzheimer’s risk.
What about your story — what brought you to RUSH, and what’s your path been with RUSH University?
TD: My grandfather, Emil Deutsch, immigrated from Hungary to Chicago in 1909 speaking almost no English, and by 1917 had graduated from medical school. He spent several years training to be an ophthalmologist, and by 1922, 100 years ago next month, had started a practice downtown. Within a few years he joined the medical staff of St. Luke’s Hospital. His son, my father, William Deutsch, also became an ophthalmologist and practiced at St. Luke’s, then Presbyterian-St. Luke’s, RUSH Presbyterian-St. Luke’s, and ultimately RUSH University Medical Center. I went to the reopened RUSH Medical College starting in 1975, three years after the university was created, and after my ophthalmology training, returned to RUSH in 1984. I was the director of the residency program in ophthalmology, then the Chair of Ophthalmology succeeding my father, and then Dean of RUSH Medical College and Provost of RUSH University. Now, my daughter, Rebecca Deutsch Sarran, is also an ophthalmologist at RUSH. It’s hard to believe that our family has been part of RUSH for nearly a century, and that I’ve been part of RUSH for 47 years, nearly half of it!
For more on the Chicago Tribune’s 175th anniversary, visit chicagotribune.com/175.