News Room
Saginaw surgeon architect of research clinic dream
by Barrie Barber | The Saginaw News
Don't tell Dr. E. Malcolm Field a Mayo Clinic-like facility can't rise in Saginaw.
The neurosurgeon who founded Field Neurosciences Institute in Saginaw Township two decades ago says there's no reason it can't happen here -- anymore than it couldn't happen in Rochester, Minn., headquarters of the highly respected Mayo Clinic.
"When people ask me, 'Why do you want to put it here' ... my other side of the question is 'Why not here?'
"If they could do it in Rochester, Minnesota, we could do it here."
Along with research into the neurosciences, it's hoped a clinic would branch into other specialties such as cardiology and cancer.
"Under those circumstances, you might have the nucleus to develop what might be a Mayo Clinic," he said.
Local leaders credit Field, 78, with the vision to one day build a facility in the Saginaw Valley that has set others such as Dr. Gerald R. Schell, a fellow neurosurgeon and chief of staff at St. Mary's of Michigan hospital, and Jeffrey R. Schell, manager of the project tentatively dubbed "Michigan Clinic," exploring ways to make it happen.
"He can be considered the architect of this vision," said Jeffrey Schell, 26.
And a philanthropist. Saginaw Valley State University named its performing arts center after Field when he pledged a gift of $3 million to endow professorships in two academic departments in 2005.
Gerald Schell, 53, said Field is a "doctor's doctor" who routinely works 12-hour days and often longer.
The Brighton native donated a family farm where he grew up to start the Field Neurosciences Institute in 1988, said Schell, who said Field inspired him to become a neurosurgeon.
Boosters would like to link a future clinic with a potential Central Michigan University medical school on the banks of the Saginaw River or in the Tittabawassee and Mackinaw area of Saginaw Township.
"An impetus (for the Mayo Clinic-like project) could be something like CMU coming to Saginaw," Schell said.
CMU President Michael Rao and Dr. Sam Kottamasu, a Saginaw radiologist and CMU Board of Trustees member, have championed the cause of a new medical school in mid-Michigan to handle the projected shortage of 600 physicians in mid Michigan by 2020. They made their case Friday to a group of about 60 community leaders.
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