As part of the Ruth and John Moskop History of Medicine Lecture Series, the Medical History Interest Group invites you to attend “The Scientific Revolution in Management Efficiency and Its Effects on American Medical Practice in the Early 20th Century and Its Enduring Changes in Medicine” on March 21, 2022. This lecture, presented by William C. Wood, MD, Col. (USAFR) Ret., Cardiovascular Sciences (retired), begins at 4:30 p.m. in the Evelyn Fike Laupus Gallery, fourth floor Laupus Library. The event will also be hosted on Microsoft Teams.

The Topic

The management innovations of Frederick Winslow Taylor in the early 20th century focused on practices to increase efficiency in factory settings. A number of individuals, among them Dr. Henry S. Plummer of the Mayo Clinic, were early adopters of these methods and applied them to group medical practice. Examples of these applications by Dr. Plummer and others in medicine will be discussed, and the influence of the efficiency doctrine to current medical practice will be emphasized.

The Speaker

Dr. Wood recently completed more than 48 years of medical practice, serving in military, private practice, academic, and Veterans Administration environments. He is a retired colonel in the USAF Reserve and maintains an active interest in medical history, military history, and military medical history. He completed his cardiology fellowship at the University of Tennessee in 1981. He has a particular interest in medical organizational history.

More Information

This event is free and open to the public.

Registration is required to attend the online version of this presentation. Please RSVP to carpenterl15@ecu.edu.

Directions and parking information.

If you’d like to travel by bus from Main Campus, take bus 302 from the Main Campus Student Center to the Allied Health Sciences Building. Click here for the 302 bus schedule.  

Lectures may be video recorded.

Learn more about the MHIG lectures and view an archive of previous recordings.