Mercy Medical Center brings past, present together to inspire future

After a quick glance at his pocket watch, Dan Collins, senior director of media relations for Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore, looked up and announced with a twinkle in his eye, “It’s time for ‘Meeting of the Medical Minds.’” 

The classical music cued and so began an episode of Mercy’s four-part, hour-long series that brings historical medical figures together with modern-age Mercy doctors for a discussion on the challenges and advancements each have faced in the medical world.

“I wanted to do something different and unique,” Collins said. “I think it is important, and quite frankly, I enjoy it.”

The idea for the videos began a few years ago, when Mercy created its own in-house studio to produce various medical videos. Collins immediately started to think of other uses for the studio and recalled his fascination as a youth with the show “Meeting of Minds,” where a host had lively imagined discussions with historical figures such as Cleopatra, Ulysses S. Grant and Thedore Roosevelt.

“Why not feature key medical figures and real-life practicing doctors?” Collins said, who did extensive research on four historical figures – Hippocrates, Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, Dr. Joseph Lister and Dr. Charles Drew – before writing scripts for the actors who were interested in portraying them. For the doctors who were willing to participate, Collins did not provide scripts but provided ideas of possible questions and what to expect.

“It was fantastic. I was confused about it at first, but wow, it was absolutely amazing,” said Dr. Ashanti Woods, a pediatrician, of the experience of talking with Drew, a doctor from the 1950s who was influential for his work in creating modern-day blood banks.

“I learned so much about the details of his life and work and the impact it had and continues to have today,” Woods said of Drew. “The students had great questions. The teenage brain is most fascinating as they are entering adulthood. Teenagers are great, they can get bored so quickly, but that did not happen.”

All the roundtables were filmed in front of a live studio audience consisting of Mercy High School students participating in the Baltimore school’s Women in Medicine program. Students in the program are interested in health care careers, Collins said, and shadow Mercy doctors and nurses regularly to see “what happens behind the scenes.”

“They asked the toughest questions,” Jennifer Mikulski, an actor who portrayed Blackwell, the first woman to earn a medical degree in the United States, said of the teenage audience. She admitted she did a bit of research to understand her character better, including asking AI what type of questions teenagers would ask.

“It is a great program on so many different levels,” Mikulski said. “It is a good way to put it out there. This is how medicine was. How can we do it better in the future?”

Dr. Ann Peters, a gynecologist and surgeon who was featured with Mikulski, said the segment highlighted how far women had come in medicine.

“There really aren’t any obstacles for women in medicine anymore compared to what it used to be like,” Peters said. “There is a lot of ongoing misconception in my opinion that there continues to be huge differences between men and women in medicine that I don’t really find hold true and my hope was to highlight this for young students so they are not discouraged.”

She added, however, that a career in health care is not an easy path, with financial costs and impacts on starting a family.

“‘The Meeting of Medical Minds’ I thought did a nice job of trying to highlight some of these topics and incorporating history in an educational and fun way,” Peters said.

Collins is already looking forward to future episodes. From feedback he collected from Mercy High School, the program was a success, though students would like to see more historical female doctors featured.

“The students are all talking about it, saying ‘This is really different,’” Collins said, adding that according to teachers, that’s “the best compliment you can get from a teenager.”

Meeting of Medical Minds videos are available on Mercy Medical Center’s YouTube channel, www.youtube.com/mmcbaltimore.

Email Katie V. Jones at kjones@CatholicReview.org

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