Medicine. The innovative idea was that UF should designate the Florida State
Program in Medical Sciences in Tallahassee as its rural campus, and designate
Jacksonville as its urban campus. Actually, it was already sending all of its students
to Jacksonville to get urban medical training, as it still does today. In short,
my proposal was for UF to embrace the Australian model of distributed medical
education, which I describe in the next chapter. (In retrospect, of course, I’m
thankful he turned down my idea. It would have complicated the birth of the
FSU College of Medicine a few short years later.)
Many years later Ocie Harris, who was a member of their faculty (and a
member of their governing council), told me that they actually had considered
adopting my idea but, guess what? Clayton Christensen had hit the nail on the
head: They couldn’t adopt the model because of history and tradition. Their
resources were all invested in the traditional departments of medicine, so they
couldn’t afford to adopt this new idea.
Back to 1998 and that Harvard classroom: When I was sitting there listening
to Clayton Christensen, I had an epiphany: FSU had no medical center. No
tradition in medical education. No investment in traditional medicine departments.
No opposition from tradition and history. In other words, it would be
highly likely that we could succeed with this innovative Australian model proposal
at Florida State.
And I decided at that moment that it would be worth every ounce of effort I
could put into working toward adoption of this model. That my scientific career was
not worth as much to the state of Florida as this enterprise. Think of the medical
students who would benefit, and the medical care they could deliver to communities
that really needed it. This was a highly worthwhile enterprise. And the
“Disruptive Innovation” book showed me that we were highly likely to succeed –
if we could get the Legislature to pass the bill. We could do it. We’d have to work
hard for several years to make it happen, but we could do it.
I left Harvard Macy energized and empowered. I came back to Tallahassee
and told my partners, Sandy D’Alemberte and Durell Peaden, that we could
succeed – that we had to succeed. We needed to dedicate all our energy toward
success. And ultimately we did succeed.
But I had overlooked one huge obstacle: the LCME, our accrediting body. I
had no idea at that time that the LCME was the main defender of “history and
tradition” in this story.
The LCME delayed us by several years. I hadn’t factored it into the equation
at all. A big mistake. •
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