The Role of the Medical School in Health Care in Oklahoma: A Case Study

The broad and diverse activities associated with a modern university school of medicine are commonly described under the term "medical center." I have been asked to present a "case study" of the evolving relationships of the University of Oklahoma Medical Center to its state community. Case Presentation In the fall of 1964, I was introduced to the problems of this 50-year-old "institutional patient." Using the traditional medical approach, I would describe the case as follows: Chief Complaint.— Anxiety, fatigue, loneliness, and a sense of having been abandoned by the parent community. Present Illness.— The present illness appears to have had its onset about 15 years ago, when a fulltime clinical faculty began to replace the voluntary faculty. Although this transition appears to have been accomplished with a minimum of sibling rivalry, this was at least partially due to an almost passive withdrawal from any major consideration that might have precipitated