The University of Minnesota has a unique history relative to advances in
cardiovascular research, surgery, and the development of medical devices. The
era from 1950 to 1967 was an incredible time of innovation at the University of
Minnesota's Department of Surgery in the newly emerging fields of open-heart
surgery and medical devices. There were many reasons for this, but most
importantly: 1) the University had excellent facilities including a unique
privately funded 80-bed heart hospital (the Variety Club Heart Hospital); and 2)
the Department of Surgery was chaired by Owen H. Wangensteen, MD (Figure 1), a leader who
"created the milieu and the opportunities for great achievements by many of his
pupils" and was considered the "mentor of a thousand surgeons" [1].
More specifically, Dr. Wangensteen encouraged his medical students, residents,
and junior faculty to innovate and solve problems in different ways. He also
believed strongly in collaborations with basic science departments, specifically
the Department of Physiology. To that end, Wangensteen instituted a two-year
research program for all residents; this surgical PhD program was the only one
in the country at its inception, and students were required to take various
advanced physiology courses.
In the early 1950s, the innovative surge was credited to the fact that many
surgical residents were returning from World War II, where they had experienced
life and death situations when managing surgical field units. They had little or
no fear of death and their generation was not afraid to "push the envelope" to
help patients. By today's standards, these residents would be viewed as
mavericks but, in fact, they had little to lose, not unlike situations they
faced on the battlefield. Their heart patients were dying and/or had little
chance of survival without the novel techniques that were successfully
implemented in Minnesota.
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