{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/presentation/3/context.json","id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/iiif/dz02z14k09/manifest","type":"Manifest","label":{"en":["Dr. David J. Mersy "]},"logo":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/246/original/CenterForHistoryFamilyMedicine_2c_RGB.png?1773344256","metadata":[{"label":{"en":["Description"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eDr David Mersy grew up in a small town in Northern Minnesota. He attended college at  the University of North Dakota, where he worked with a professor of physiology who sparked his interest in medicine. \u003cbr\u003eHe went to the two-year medical school at the University of North Dakota, then finished medical school at the University of Minnesota. \u003cbr\u003eAfter graduation he practiced family medicine in a small town in Minnesota. He started teaching medical students in his practice, which ultimately led to a career in family medicine residency education in Minneapolis-St, Paul. He became a residency director in 1987. He was active in the AAFP Residency Assistance Program (RAP), and served as a RAP Consultant. He became president of the Minnesota AFP and subsequently was elected president of the Association of Family Medicine Residency Directors. In 1998 he became chair of the Department of Family Medicine at Albany (NY) Medical College. He returned to Minnesota in 2002 as Site Chief for a Health Partners Clinic, He retired to Arizona in 2005 and spent the next 10 years working in part -time urgent care. \u003c/p\u003e (summary)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Rights Statement"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eThis item is protected by U.S. copyright and related rights. It is being made available by the Center for the History of Family Medicine as its rights-holder for noncommercial use, including sharing and adapting the work. No permission is required for noncommercial use so long as attribution is provided. All other uses require permission from the Center for the History of Family Medicine.  Disclaimer:  The views presented in this broadcast are the speaker’s own and do not represent those of CHFM or the AAFP Foundation. The information presented is for general, educational, or entertainment purposes and should not be considered legal, health, financial, or other advice. \u003c/p\u003e"]}},{"label":{"en":["Date"]},"value":{"en":["2019-03-28 (created)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Type"]},"value":{"en":["Oral History"]}},{"label":{"en":["Agent"]},"value":{"en":["Dr. Nancy Baker (Interviewer)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Format"]},"value":{"en":["audio file"]}},{"label":{"en":["Keyword"]},"value":{"en":["American Academy of Family Physicians","family medicine","family physician"]}},{"label":{"en":["Subject"]},"value":{"en":["David Mersy, MD (personal name)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Language"]},"value":{"en":["English (primary)"]}}],"summary":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eDr David Mersy grew up in a small town in Northern Minnesota. He attended college at \u0026nbsp;the University of North Dakota, where he worked with a professor of physiology who sparked his interest in medicine.\u0026nbsp;\u003cbr /\u003eHe went to the two-year medical school at the University of North Dakota, then finished medical school at the University of Minnesota.\u0026nbsp;\u003cbr /\u003eAfter graduation he practiced family medicine in a small town in Minnesota. He started teaching medical students in his practice, which ultimately led to a career in family medicine residency education in Minneapolis-St, Paul. He became a residency director in 1987. He was active in the AAFP Residency Assistance Program (RAP), and served as a RAP Consultant. He became president of the Minnesota AFP and subsequently was elected president of the Association of Family Medicine Residency Directors. In 1998 he became chair of the Department of Family Medicine at Albany (NY) Medical College. He returned to Minnesota in 2002 as Site Chief for a Health Partners Clinic, He retired to Arizona in 2005 and spent the next 10 years working in part -time urgent care.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e"]},"requiredStatement":{"label":{"en":["Attribution"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eThis item is protected by U.S. copyright and related rights. It is being made available by the Center for the History of Family Medicine as its rights-holder for noncommercial use, including sharing and adapting the work. No permission is required for noncommercial use so long as attribution is provided. All other uses require permission from the Center for the History of Family Medicine. \u0026nbsp;Disclaimer: \u0026nbsp;The views presented in this broadcast are the speaker\u0026rsquo;s own and do not represent those of CHFM or the AAFP Foundation. The information presented is for general, educational, or entertainment purposes and should not be considered legal, health, financial, or other advice.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e"]}},"provider":[{"id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/aboutus","type":"Agent","label":{"en":["Center for the History of Family Medicine"]},"homepage":[{"id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/","type":"Text","label":{"en":["Center for the History of Family Medicine"]},"format":"text/html"}],"logo":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/246/original/CenterForHistoryFamilyMedicine_2c_RGB.png?1773344256","type":"Image"}]}],"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/public/images/audio-default.png","type":"Image","format":"image/png"}],"items":[{"id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2195/collection_resources/153751/file/282861","type":"Canvas","label":{"en":["Media File 1 of 2 - Mersy_David_19_a.wav"]},"duration":1854.30897,"width":640,"height":360,"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/public/images/audio-default.png","type":"Image","format":"image/png"}],"items":[{"id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2195/collection_resources/153751/file/282861/content/1","type":"AnnotationPage","items":[{"id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2195/collection_resources/153751/file/282861/content/1/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"painting","body":{"id":"https://aviary-p-centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.s3.wasabisys.com/collection_resource_files/resource_files/000/282/861/original/Mersy_David_19_a.wav?1752676683","type":"Audio","format":"audio/wav","duration":1854.30897,"width":640,"height":360},"target":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2195/collection_resources/153751/file/282861","metadata":[]}]}],"annotations":[{"id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2195/collection_resources/153751/file/282861/transcript/81712","type":"AnnotationPage","label":{"en":["Dr. David Mersy interview transcript [Transcript]"]},"items":[{"id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2195/collection_resources/153751/file/282861/transcript/81712/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Tape 1, side 1\n\nDr. Baker: I am Dr. Nancy Baker, member of the Center for the History of Family Medicine Board of Curators, and I’m pleased today to be with Dr. David Mersy, interviewing him as part of the Oral History project for the Center. \n\nDave, welcome. Thank you. To begin with, I wonder if you could just tell us a little bit about your current position and place where you’re living. And if you are working at this time, what kind of work you’re doing.\n\nDr. Mersy: I’m now fully retired. Congratulations. Up till two years ago I worked part time in urgent care for ten years down in Tucson where we retired. But two years ago, when I turned seventy-five, the long hours kind of got to me and I finally retired. Thank you for your hard work.\n\nDr. Baker: One of the reasons I’m eager to interview you is because of your long and full history as a family physician. And I thought we would begin just with some questions about your childhood and upbringing and decision to go into medicine originally. Can you tell us a little bit about your family  of origin?\n\nDr. Mersy: I grew up in a small town of 300 people in northern Minnesota. My father was the railroad station agent. He had an eighth grade education. He moved to Minnesota from Michigan because his brother had moved there and had become a railroad station agent as well. \n\nAnd my mother was an RN, so I think through her I was always somewhat interested in medicine. But I didn’t think about going into medicine in school primarily because we were a bit disadvantaged. My father was a chronic alcoholic most of his life and we lived above the depot. No indoor plumbing, no hot water or anything like that. And I knew I had to put myself all the way through school. So my goal was just to get to college. And I was influenced to go to the University of North Dakota because one of my favorite teachers had gone there. He taught physics. So I went there thinking about science and actually ran into a dorm mate who was in some of my classes and we got to be pretty good friends. I can’t remember what the turning point was, but the two of us decided to go into medicine together. And unfortunately in those days the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) was required and this friend of mine was completely put off by ROTC and left school after only one year. But through a friend of his who was in medical school, he had a contact with a physiology professor, --. And so for several years I worked for the professor of physiology and did some research. So this was when you were in college and after college a little bit? Yes, after college a little bit, too.\n\nDr. Baker: So what was the physiology work you were doing?\n\nDr. Mersy: I was actually doing all the statistics for PhD students. But there were no computers in those days, so I remember doing analysis of variance by hand. And then, also, just being with the professor and working on experiments was interesting. He was an expert in shock. So during that time you developed more interest in pursuing a career in medicine? Yeah, exactly. And I only applied to the one medical school. Which was? The University of North Dakota. In those days they had a two year school. So everyone transferred elsewhere, so I transferred to the University of Minnesota to finish. And where was that two year program based? Grand Forks, North Dakota. \n\nDr. Baker: So then you came to Minneapolis/St. Paul, for the University of Minnesota Medical School? Right. Were there any experiences you recall during medical school that were particularly formative for you or that generated your interest in primary care?\n\nDr. Mersy: Not so much in medical school. I was driven mostly by the fact that I was still self-supporting both for undergraduate and for medical school. And Family Practice was the easiest route to get  out into practice and to start repaying my loans.\n\nDr. Baker: So you finished at the time prior to the more well-established residency programs. Is that correct?\n\nDr. Mersy: Right. I finished in 1968, which was before family medicine residencies.  There were a couple of general practice residencies, but, really, Family Practice didn’t become a specialty until ’69. And I was already in practice by that time.  \n\nDr. Baker: Did you spend any time doing a rotating internship? And if so, where was that?\n\nDr. Mersy: Yes, I did a one year rotating internship in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.\n\nDr. Baker: Can you tell me what you remember about your internship, in terms of highs or lows, or about important contacts that you had with any particular teachers or patients?\n\nDr. Mersy: I do remember they had a big pathology group at the hospital. I had done very well in pathology in medical school. In fact, I was at the top of the class, I guess. And this pathologist was very knowledgeable, he was Harvard trained. And he would have sessions with all of us interns and it got to include clinical materials. He was really an expert in not just anatomic pathology but clinical pathology. The interesting thing is my first practice in one of the little hospitals in northern Minnesota, needed pathology services, so I was able to contract with his group and he would actually come to this little town in Minnesota to oversee our lab and consult with us because that was required to have a pathologist. \n\nDr. Baker: Tell us a little bit about your decision to go to your first practice opportunity, where that was, some of the factors that influenced your decision as to where you went.\n\nDr. Mersy: Well, I went to a little town in northern Minnesota who had contacted me because they were short of doctors. That was Warren, Minnesota. How big a town is Warren? Probably 2,000 people. And how many physicians did they have? There were two physicians there. And the problem was the community was very desperate to add another physician.  And they did a good job, they helped me financially and in every other way. But for whatever reason, there was concern about these two doctors and they shielded me a bit. They shielded you? Yeah. And by that you mean? I didn’t have as much contact with them ahead of time.  So once I got there, I found out that they were really old school and they would “pooh-pooh” things that I had learned.  Like I wanted to put in monitors for heart patients and they said, “Oh, our heart attack patients have always done fine without monitoring.  We don’t need anything like that.” Thus, I stayed there less than a year and then moved to another town where there was a lot of support for their doctors. And I did it only because a friend of mine was going to join me in practice. When I arrived there, the hospital had closed and had to reopen. We had to reopen the clinic. And I felt with another doctor coming that we could do it together as a two-person effort with our similar training. Similar styles of practice? Yeah, he was a year behind me in practice. But somebody you knew from med school? Right. So he arrived, but it turned out he only stayed three months. So for several years I was the only doctor in the town. Did you have 24/7 call responsibilities? Right. I had a physician’s assistant. Though not formally trained as a PA, but rather as a medical corpsman, an RN.  One of the regional doctors from the Minnesota Medical Association said, “Why don’t you hire this fellow and sort of train him?” And that’s what I did.  He could split the call. I, of course, had to come in for deliveries. \n\nDr. Baker: What were one or two things that you liked most about that experience?\n\nDr. Mersy: I really liked the continuity of care, seeing the entire family. And, of course, taking care of all kinds of medical problems. And we were a bit isolated, but I had an excellent traveling surgeon that would come in. I had an internal medicine doc from a neighboring town and a urologist came in and did procedures. \n\nDr. Baker: If somebody had a medical concern that you felt was beyond what you could handle or the resources of your community, would you transfer that patient? And if so, where would be the closest, larger facility to whom you could transfer?  \n\nDr. Mersy: Well, depending on what the problem was, there were doctors twenty miles on either side, so I could use them. Would you say most of the time you felt like you were able to manage most of those concerns? Most of them. I would say 90%. But real complex things would usually go to Mayo. Not so much to the University of Minnesota because in those days, at least, they didn’t get reports back to you in a very timely fashion.\n\nDr. Baker:  You left private practice to come to academic family medicine. Can you tell us a little bit about what year that was and the influences that brought you there?\n\nDr. Mersy: The last few years I was there, actually I guess about three or four years before, the University of North Dakota had first year medical students that would come over for a summer experience and I enjoyed that teaching aspect. These were fourth year students? No, they were first year students. I think they were first year, because it was still just a two-year school. Maybe they were second year, I can’t remember exactly. Then, the last two years I was there I got involved in the UMN Rural Physician Associate Program (RPAP).  Were you an RPAP preceptor? Yes for two or three years. During RPAP,  3rd year medical students spend the majority of that year with you.  Right, nine to twelve months. Did you enjoy that teaching role? Yeah, definitely.\n\nDr. Baker: Was Dr. Vincent Hunt involved with your decision to come to the Twin Cities to be involved in academic medicine?\n\nDr. Mersy: I didn’t go directly into academic medicine. First, I joined a three to four-person Robbinsdale Clinic in the Twin Cities.  I actually ran into Dr. Hunt at a State MN Academy meeting.  At that time he was looking for faculty, in particular, a medical director for the residency clinic. And so not knowing if I was ready to do that full time, I went over and precepted at St. Paul Ramsey Family Medicine residency clinic.  I did that for about six months on my day off and then I went there full time. What year did you join the Ramsey faculty? That was 1979.\n\nDr. Baker: Can you tell me about your experience first as faculty in that program, working with new academic colleagues, as well as about some of the colleagues with whom you worked there.\n\nDr. Mersy: Ramsey had a relatively small faculty at that time. Vince Hunt was the residency director and Bob Derro was the associate director, an internal medicine physician.   There were a lot of part time people. I guess Milt Cornwall had been around.  He was a very memorable fellow, just an old-time family doc. He was very supportive and knowledgeable you know, who knew about everything.\n\nDr. Baker: Can you tell us about that residency program? What distinguished it from any of the other programs in the Twin Cities that you recall?\n\nDr. Mersy: Well, at that time it was similar to a program at Hennepin County Medical Center.  Both were sponsored by so-called county hospitals.  And they were academically affiliated with the University of Minnesota which helped.  The university had several Family Practice residency programs, but they were all administered by the university. Hennepin and Ramsey were the two that were independent, affiliated, but not administered by the University.\n\nDr. Baker: In terms of the residents that you recruited from around the country, can you tell us  about the places people they came from, or their background?\n\nDr. Mersy: They came from all over really. In those days it was kind of a heyday of family medicine. And Director Hunt had built a program that was very well respected nationally. He had gotten involved with the Residency Assistance Program and gave advice to developing residency programs to others. We had many more applicants than could be accepted, which I guess has changed somewhat now. And its focus was very community oriented, providing care to the disadvantaged, because it still had that county hospital flavor both in the clinic and in the hospital.\n\nDr. Baker: Having left private medical practice to become academic faculty isn’t always easy.  Did you feel respected at St. Paul Ramsey Medical Center.  Were you welcomed  as one of the members of the medical staff and teachers in the program?\n\nDr. Mersy: Yeah, I felt welcomed in, but, of course, I’d had significant experience. In those days I don’t know if we had anybody that hadn’t had some practice experience. \n\nDr. Baker: You mentioned the Residency Assistance Program. I believe you were, at one point, a RAP, or Residency Assistance Program consultant. Am I correct? Yes. Tell us how that came about and what you remember about that experience.\n\nDr. Mersy: That was a very good experience. Vince Hunt had been one. I think by the time I became a consultant, he had left  the panel. He had done it for several years. I started in ’89.  At that time, consultants had either been a department chair, a residency director had other faculty experience. Basically we were all required to do a couple of consultations per year. Visit two residency programs around the country? Yes. There would be a residency coordinator that would request a consultation either because they were having a problem or were anticipating a Residency Review Committee (RRC) visit. For accreditation ? Right, or they were developing a new program. Later on there were other reasons that they called on the panel, such as for financial concerns. In addition, all RAP consultants would come together to meet as a group a couple of times a year. This was very good because you would rub elbows with all kinds of educators from around the country.\n\nDr. Baker: Do you remember any particular faculty or leaders that you met in family medicine education during this time that influenced you in any way? And if so, how?\n\nDr. Mersy: Well, I remember Norman Kahn who was the Director of RAP at the AAFP at the time.  I certainly remember him as a very knowledgeable colleague and a very effective leader. I remember Bill Gillanders, who I think is still with RAP, now called Residency Program Solutions (RPS).  He has done a bunch of things around the country and was really an expert in the financial aspects of family medicine training.\n\nDr. Baker: After first serving as the Medical Director at St. Paul Ramsey Family Medicine, you became the program’s residency director and then held additional leadership positions. Can you tell us about that transition?\n\nDr. Mersy:  Dr. Hunt was recruited to go to a department chair position at Brown University, about ’85. I was named acting program director while the hospital did a search. It took a year and a half, but finally I was named program director.  In those days the residency director also held the position of department chair. In ’85 I was “acting” and in ’87 my appointment was permanent.     \n\nDr. Baker: What did you enjoy most about the leadership position, as you recall?\n\nDr. Mersy: The department chair and the residency director? I guess, for one, my relationship with the residents. Another one was the chance to develop programs. We were able to convince the hospital to fund a new clinic building and then we were able to get grant funds to do a number of things including developing an additional training track in a neighboring community health center. For a number of years, we had two additional residents per year doing all their ambulatory training there.\n\nDr. Baker: I remember the HHS grant and one of its purposes was to teach community-oriented primary care (COPC).  Its purpose was to put emphasis not only on medical care in the clinic, but also beyond, to extend outreach into the surrounding community.  Why was that important?\n\nDr. Mersy: I don’t know if it legitimized it or not … I mean the program had always been interested in community medicine, but that allowed some funding so that faculty could be freed up from some clinical responsibilities and have time to focus on their community medicine interests.  \n\nDr. Baker: And at that point you recruited a larger faculty. There were considerable more faculty than when you started with the program.\n\nDr. Mersy: That’s true.\n\nDr. Baker: And with the expansion to a second residency training site, the size of the residency program also increased, if I’m not mistaken.\n\nDr. Mersy: That’s true. When I became director, we had an 8, 8, 8 program and then, even before the track, we were able to convince the hospital to support two more residents per year. We became a 10, 10, 10 program. With the grant we went to a 12, 12, 12 program.\n\nDr. Baker: Where did the Ramsey graduates go following their training and what sort of work are they doing now? Do you stay connected with any of them?\n\nDr. Mersy: Well, they’re doing all kinds of things. Did the majority stay in Minnesota to practice? I think the majority stayed. In fact, we used to do an annual report and we included a map of where everybody was practicing. And the majority were in Minnesota, including in the metro area. But there were many in upstate Minnesota as well and all over the country.\n\nDr. Baker: Can you describe characteristics of your leadership style, or principles that are important to you? What do you remember about that phase in terms of how you led your colleagues? \n\nDr. Mersy: I think I focused on recruiting smart, dedicated people and then giving them responsibility to carry out things.  I tried to provide the resources to do the work, which didn’t happen overnight. I was pretty good at working with the hospital administration and administering the grants over time. That was a different time. I think things were easier because family practice was very well-respected and if you had a good plan, you could get the support. It wasn’t all based on the bottom line, you know.\n\nDr. Baker: Later you left St. Paul Ramsey to go to New York. Can you tell us about that shift and new role that you assumed?\n\nDr. Mersy: Well, there had been a lot of changes with Ramsey Hospital and the Ramsey Clinic physicians group. They had merged with a large managed care organization called Health Partners. I thought I owed it to myself to at least look around and see if there might be a need for a department chair in a medical school somewhere. So I did some interviewing and was selected to be department chair at Albany Medical College in New York.\n\nDr. Baker: Had you had any connection to the Albany, New York area prior to beginning that position or was that a new locale for you and your family?                 \n\nDr. Mersy: That was a new locale, yeah. I think some of the people there knew of me from a RAP consultation I had done in a New York residency program.\n\nDr. Baker: Can you make any general comments about the learning and academic environment in New York compared to what you had experienced in Minnesota?\n\nDr. Mersy: What I learned is that what they always said about the east coast compared to the Midwest, that family medicine was better developed and more respected in the Midwest than in the east coast. And what year did you leave for New York? I think it was ’98. \n\nDr. Baker: As you look back on that period, is there any particular teaching activity in which you engaged in while in New York that you’re especially proud and pleased about\n\nDr. Mersy: There were several things. We had a very good residency program. We had a lot of involvement with undergraduates as far as teaching, but the faculty did absolutely no research or writing.  A couple of things we did was get a research training grant through allowing faculty to do research and writing. We also spent a considerable amount of time developing mission statement, which was difficult because they had gone through a phase several years before when the medical center had tried to close down the residency department.\n\nDr. Baker: Now, you also served as the president of the Association of Family Practice Residency Directors (AFMRD), I believe. Is that correct? That was earlier. Can you tell us about this role and what you recall about that experience?\n\nDr. Mersy: It was in the early days when I was Ramsey’s residency director and we were still considered a community hospital residency program, not administered by the university, but affiliated with the university. And so at the program directors meeting and the RAP panel annual meetings, there would be sessions about how to get residency directors more involved with the residency review committees (RRC) for family practice and how to set up a mechanism so the resident executives could learn more about  how to do their jobs and how to communicate with one another.  I was included in some of those discussions. I was not the first president of the AFMRD group, but I got involved – and I think I was the third or fourth president. I think that was in ’94 to ’95, something like that.\n\nTape 1, side 2: Dr. Baker: I know you were also very involved with the Minnesota Academy of Family Physicians. Can you tell us about the different leadership positions you held in the Minnesota Academy? \n\nDr. Mersy: In the early days, I attended the Annual Meeting and got started with the continuing education planning committee. I’m not sure that I did that when I was in northern Minnesota, but certainly when we moved down to the Twin Cities. Eventually I was elected president of the MAFP. I think it was in 1987.\n\nDr. Baker: At one point, you were also the president of the Minnesota Academy of Family Physicians Foundation.\n\nDr. Mersy: Right. What happened there is that that had been in existence, but it wasn’t very active. I mean it wasn’t doing much. Following my term as president of the MAFP, I was on the ground floor of getting the foundation restarted and reinvigorated. It sounds like there have been a couple of organizations that you’ve been reinvigorating through your career. Well, I suppose that’s a good way of putting it.\n\nDr. Baker: In fact, there is now this David J. Mersy Externship for Medical Students and I’m wondering if you can tell us a little bit about that.    \n\nDr. Mersy: I wasn’t even sure quite how that evolved, but it was established a few years after I left the presidency of the MAFP Foundation, and I consider it to be quite an honor to have something named after me. And as I understand, each year there are several medical students that are given stipends specifically to do research.  Yes, the focus has shifted a little bit to be either research or to be involved in clinics projects and underserved outreach, especially in some of MN’s rural areas. Doing community outreach and partnerships on various health initiatives? Right.\n\nDr. Baker: You told me that when you were in New York you helped start an AHEC. Can you explain what an AHEC is and how you accomplished this?\n\nDr. Mersy: AHEC stands for Area Health Education Centers.  New York was just getting started with these. The department chair from one of the other medical schools was trying to get it started and established an AHEC office. He approached me at Albany Medical College to be the eastern New York branch that they had developed. Basically, its purpose is to encourage students to go into medicine and nursing and other health professions and to stay in more rural areas.  I was able to hire a PhD from the local area to be the local director of the eastern region and he was very good at data analysis. There were regular meetings and I think they had other people in other parts of New York to carry out the functions.\n\nDr. Baker: To your knowledge, is that program still in existence?\n\nDr. Mersy: Yes, it is.\n\nDr. Baker: You came back from New York to MN in what year?\n\nDr. Mersy: It was 2002.\n\nDr. Baker: And tell about what you did in terms of clinical work or educational activities once you returned to Minnesota.\n\nDr. Mersy: I rejoined Health Partners and became site chief at one of their clinics and was able to return to the Regions program as a part time preceptor for several years. Then in ’05 Health Partners decided to close most of the clinics on the Minneapolis side of the river, so the clinic where I worked closed. Instead of moving to another clinic, I decided to retire early.\n\nDr. Baker: I also wanted to ask about your family. Who compromises your family?\n\nDr. Mersy: Right now my wife and I are retired and living in a senior community in Tucson, Arizona. We have dogs living in the household. We have three adult children. Our daughter and her partner live in the Twin Cities which brings us back here periodically. They have two children, so we have two grandchildren, both boys. One is a freshman at the University of Minnesota and the other is a junior in high school. Our middle child also lives in Minnesota. He’s a night manager at a convenience store. The third, another son, lives in San Francisco and his new position is International Marketing Director for an internet startup and he married a woman from Brazil. So you get to South America sometimes? Yes, we went last year.\n\nDr. Baker: As you look back at the different roles that you’ve had, is there a standout, either a position, or a place that you worked, that you feel is the highlight of your professional career? \n\nDr. Mersy: It would have to probably be the Department Chair/Residency Director position at Ramsey. Although providing clinical service and have practiced in a community of 2,000 for a number of years also was meaningful in a different way.\n\nDr. Baker: What do you consider the most important facets of family medicine and how does that compare to what you remember from what you thought family medicine was when you started your career?\n\nDr. Mersy: Well, I think some of the most important things have been altered, unfortunately. The incentive to practice in the same town your entire career had left right before I went into practice. My predecessor at Ramsey had practiced in the same small community but at different times. He and I often talk about how being able to provide care for the whole family and take care of people in the hospital, calling people as needed. I think it was much more satisfying both to the providers and to patients probably than the current model we see. Few family docs do hospital work or deliver babies, and if they’re hospitalists they do very little in the ambulatory setting.\n\nDr. Baker: Would you have any recommendations to future family physicians in terms of things they should try to do to keep balance and happiness in their professional work life?\n\nDr. Mersy: I think if they’re going to rural areas, they need to make sure that they have a group of doctors with whom they work- not just mid-levels. When I retired from Health Partners in ’05, I worked for ten years in urgent care in Tucson and the model was always to have one physician and one mid-level. And by the time I left they shifted the model to entirely provided by mid-levels with only telephone supervision by MDs. I don’t know how to reverse that, or if it should be, but I think it’s a definite trend.\n\nDr. Baker: Is there any last comment or reflection that you want to share for the Center for the History of Family Medicine?\n\nDr. Mersy: Well, it’s been an interesting ride from clinical practice in a small town to working in a county hospital and being present and involved with seeing part of the takeover of a huge managed care organization to a short experience in an academic medical center on the east coast back to doing sort of family medicine at the end with a little bit of urgent care, which tends to have quite an interesting mix of patient problems to deal with.\n\n\nDr. Baker: Thank you very much on behalf of the Center and wish you the very best.\n\nDr. Mersy: Thank you.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2195/collection_resources/153751/file/282861#t=0.0,1854.30897"}]}]},{"id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2195/collection_resources/153751/file/282860","type":"Canvas","label":{"en":["Media File 2 of 2 - Mersy_David_19_b.wav"]},"duration":719.70007,"width":640,"height":360,"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/public/images/audio-default.png","type":"Image","format":"image/png"}],"items":[{"id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2195/collection_resources/153751/file/282860/content/1","type":"AnnotationPage","items":[{"id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2195/collection_resources/153751/file/282860/content/2/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"painting","body":{"id":"https://aviary-p-centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.s3.wasabisys.com/collection_resource_files/resource_files/000/282/860/original/Mersy_David_19_b.wav?1752676662","type":"Audio","format":"audio/wav","duration":719.70007,"width":640,"height":360},"target":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2195/collection_resources/153751/file/282860","metadata":[]}]}],"annotations":[]}]}