The Founding Generation of Mayo Clinic — Part 2 #throwbackthursdays

By Kelley Luedke • July 24, 2014

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Maud Mellish joined Mayo in 1907 to organize the medical library and provide editorial support when physicians and scientists wrote papers for professional journals. She became nationally recognized as a medical editor and helped establish Mayo Clinic’s reputation for excellence in medical scholarship. She married Louis Wilson, M.D., in 1924. In 1926, she founded what is now Mayo Clinic Proceedings, an internationally acclaimed medical journal.

Known as the "diversified genius" of Mayo Clinic, Dr. Plummer joined the Mayo practice in 1901 and made many contributions to medicine and science. He developed the model of integrated multispecialty care that is the hallmark of Mayo Clinic. He invented the unified patient record system that is still in service, making Mayo Clinic the world leader in medical documentation. Proficient in art as well as science, he played a key role in designing the early buildings of Mayo Clinic.

Working closely with Dr. Plummer, Mabel Root developed a system that is known to every patient of Mayo Clinic — the numeric registration. By assigning a number to each patient, this system ensures accuracy, privacy and easy access to the millions of records at Mayo Clinic. Patient registration numbers have been issued since 1907.

Kelley Luedke

Kelley Luedke is a Marketing Channel Manager at Mayo Clinic Laboratories. She is the principle editor and writer of Insights and leads social media and direct marketing strategy. Kelley has worked at Mayo Clinic since 2013. Outside of work, you can find Kelley running, traveling, playing with her kitty, and exploring new foods.