Interview with Robert Ulstrom

Abstract

Robert Ulstrom begins the interview by describing his background, including his education, his service in the US Army, and why he became a pediatrician. He reflects on his mentor Irvine McQuarrie, and his colleagues John Anderson, Robert Howard, and Lyle French. He discusses his experiences in University of Minnesota Medical School, his move to UCLA, his return to the University of Minnesota in the mid-1950s, and his work as associate dean in the College of Medical Sciences. Other topics discussed include, his research, the private practice issue, relations with affiliated hospitals and their faculty after the expansion of the Medical School class size in the 1960s, the curriculum revision in the 1960s, the attempt to establish a medical school in St. Paul, the establishment of the Department of Family Practice, tensions between private practice physicians and Medical School physicians, the effort to establish a Minneapolis children’s hospital in the 1960s, tensions between Minneapolis and St. Paul physicians, the reorganization of the health sciences into the Academic Health Center in 1970, the Mayo Clinic and the Mayo School of Medicine.