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\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nWorld War II had just ended, and America’s mood was upbeat. But in North Carolina, the celebration of victory and peace was tempered by the shame. North Carolina had more men rejected for military service because of poor health than any other state. During one six-month period in the middle of the war, the rejection rate hit 57 percent. Also, North Carolina ranked near the top in infant and childbirth deaths and near the bottom in the number of doctors and hospital beds per capita.<\/p>\n
In 1945, the North Carolina Hospital and Medical Care Commission, which the governor appointed to study the woeful state of health, recommended that North Carolina build new community hospitals and modernize existing ones where the need was greatest. The commission also called for expanding the two-year UNC School of Medicine into a four-year school and constructing a large general hospital to affiliate with the medical school. <\/p>\n
An influential member of the Medical Care Commission – and perhaps the most passionate proponent of its recommendations – was Reece Berryhill, MD, dean of the School of Medicine. <\/p>\n
“Dr. Berryhill’s intelligence, canniness, knowledge of the state, loyalty, doggedness and absolute devotion to the medical school allowed him to organize a movement of faculty and alumni, prominent and lowly citizens, and political leaders – lay and medical – of the state that ultimately came to be called the Good Health Program,” recalled the late William Blythe, MD, in his Norma Berryhill Distinguished Lecture in 1991.<\/p>\n
Among those enlisted to promote the Good Health Plan was big-band leader Kay Kyser, a Tar Heel who later retired in Chapel Hill. At his request, the famous songwriting team of Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne composed a song, “It’s All Up to You,” to help generate public enthusiasm for the Good Health Plan. Kyser and his band recorded the song with two young singers named Frank Sinatra and Dinah Shore, and radio stations played it statewide.<\/p>\n
“Even Superman supports the Good Health Plan;
He knows what it will do.
Spread the health alarm to every town and farm,
And preach the Good Health view.
It’s all up to you.
It’s all up to you.”<\/i><\/p>\n
“We need vitamins and medicines and beds to spare;
Places where the sick can go to get some care.<\/i><\/p>\n
If we do these things, then we will be the state
Where the weak grow strong and the strong grow great.”<\/i><\/p>\n
– From “It’s All Up to You”
Sung by Frank Sinatra and Dinah Shore<\/i><\/p>\nStarting from scratch<\/b><\/h3>\n
In 1947, the legislature approved the Good Health Plan and the budget to begin implementing it, including the expansion of the medical school and the construction of N.C. Memorial Hospital.<\/p>\n
William McLendon, MD, professor emeritus of pathology and laboratory medicine, said of Dean Berryhill: “He wasn’t someone who would bowl you over with charisma, and he wasn’t an outstanding public speaker, but he was so successful in getting and building the four-year school because of his conviction and incredible integrity.”<\/p>\n
Plans were delayed as political leaders haggled over where to locate the facilities. Eight cities coveted the prestige and economic stimulus that such a medical complex would bring, and four of them – Charlotte, Greensboro, Raleigh and Chapel Hill – presented strong cases. The issue was decided when out-of-state consultants recommended putting the four-year medical school and hospital on the UNC campus.<\/p>\n
Dean Berryhill proved to be a masterful recruiter, luring people of national prominence to chair the school’s new clinical departments – Charles Burnett for Medicine, Edward Curnen for Pediatrics, Robert “Daddy” Ross for Obstetrics and Gynecology, George Ham for Psychiatry and Nathan Womack for Surgery. Understanding the importance of building a strong research program, he brought in Kenneth Brinkhous to chair Pathology.<\/p>\n
It was an impressive bunch. <\/p>\n
“Dean Davison at Duke was reported to have commented that Dr. Berryhill had the best collection of clinical chairmen of any medical school since Johns Hopkins opened in the 1890s,” Dr. McLendon said.<\/p>\n
Members of the medical school’s first four-year class arrived in 1950 and began their clinical education in 1952. N.C. Memorial Hospital admitted its first patients on Sept. 2, 1952.<\/p>\n
A happy marriage; looking ahead<\/b><\/h3>\n
One of the keys to the success of UNC Health Care and the UNC School of Medicine’s success has been the interaction between the basic sciences and clinical medicine. <\/p>\n
Overall, the quality of health care, access to health care and health status of North Carolinians have improved immensely over the past 60 years. And UNC Health Care and the UNC School of Medicine have played a crucial role. <\/p>\n
Arguably, the greatest impact has been in educating students and training residents who have chosen to practice in North Carolina. Beginning with the graduation of the first four-year class, the medical school has produced more than 5,400 new physicians. More than 3,000 physicians – one-fifth of all those currently practicing in North Carolina – are UNC School of Medicine alumni or former UNC Hospitals residents. <\/p>\n
About 40 percent of UNC medical graduates remain in the state, as do a large percentage of physicians who complete their residencies here.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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