WORCESTER MEDICINE
Medicine in Worcester
John Meyers, MD: Steering the Future of Health Care Delivery Continued Because Blue Cross went on to form its own HMO, it withdrew its relationship with FCHP soon after its creation. By 1984, the Fallon Clinic had over 30 locations throughout central Massachusetts, close to 300 physicians in the group practice, and FCHP had over 225,000 enrollees. He retired from practice in 1986 but continued to engage in health care issues such as patient drug compliance and improving medical access for seniors. Dr. Meyers somehow found time for non-medical pursuits, and his primary focus was steadfast devotion to his family and grandchildren. He enjoyed classical music, including opera, gardening in his “spare time,” photography and he was recognized as an accomplished sculptor. His sculptural pieces are featured in local churches and synagogues, as well as gifts to colleagues. His sculpture of Dr. Lamar Soutter, the first Chancellor at UMass Medical School, adorns the entry to the medical school library. His numerous accomplishments in health care were recognized nationally and locally. In 1983 he received the National Medical Executive Award by the American College of Medical Group Administrators. In 1987, he received Honorary Doctor of Humanities Degrees from UMass and from Anna Maria College in 1989. His interest in improving the delivery of health care through primary care initiatives was formally recognized by the creation of the Meyers Primary Care Institute in 1996, a joint venture by UMass Medical School, Fallon Clinic, and FCHP. + Herbert M. Dean, MD, FACP Former division chief of hematology/oncology and Former Executive, Vice-President, Fallon Clinic; Former President, FCHP
Homer Gage, MD: Envisioning the Mass Med Society with a Journal Patricia Giunta, MA
W
hen homer gage left worcester to begin his medical
training, the surgical field was in a period of rapid and revolutionary change. In 1846, Worcester County dentist Willian Morton held the first public demonstration of surgical anesthesia at the Ether Dome, ushering in an era of radical new procedures and expanding the boundaries of surgical intervention. In the late 1800s, while Gage was training in Boston, Joseph Lister applied Pasteur’s germ theory to patient care, proposing a controversial antiseptic technique that would counter the high mortality rates that plagued surgery. Emboldened by these breakthroughs, surgeons experimented with increasingly more invasive methods and intervened surgically earlier in the course of disease. In the annual oration to the Massachusetts Medical Society in 1913, Dr. Gage, then the president of the Worcester District Medical Society, reflected on this turbulent period of progress and offered an opposing perspective. Rather than taking these advances as carte blanche for experimentation, surgeons must remember “the only justification for JULY / AUGUST 2021
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