What Dr. William J. Mayo Said

At Mayo Clinic we often remember and talk about "The needs of the patient come first." For convenience, we've shortened and modernized what Dr. William J. Mayo said back in 1910. Here is a more complete quote from the speech made by Dr. Mayo at Rush Medical College:

"As we men of medicine grow in learning we more justly appreciate our dependence on each other. The sum total of medical knowledge is now so great and wide spreading that it would be futile for any one man ... to assume that he has even a working knowledge of any part of the whole ... The best interest of the patient is the only interest to be considered, and in order that the sick may have the benefit of advancing knowledge, union of forces is necessary ... It has become necessary to develop medicine as a cooperative science; the clinician, the specialist, and the laboratory workers uniting for the good of the patient, each assisting in elucidation of the problem at hand, and each dependent upon the other for support."

Dr. William J. Mayo