Don Eugene Detmer papers

Access and use

Location of collection:
University of Virginia, Special Collections Dept.
Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library
University of Virginia
P.O. Box 400110
160 McCormick Rd
Charlottesville, Virginia 22904-4110
Contact for questions and access:
POC: Brenda Gunn
Phone: (434) 924-1037
Phone: (434) 243-1776
Fax: (434) 924-4968

Summary

Extent:
31 Linear Feet Boxes 1-9 are from the first accession. Boxes 10-31 were processed together from three separate accessions donated between 2017-2024.
Creator:
Detmer, Don Eugene
Language:
English

Background

Scope and content:

The Don Eugene Detmer papers contain speeches, reprints, policy documents, committee meeting records, articles, correspondence, editorials, and born-digital materials that relate to the professional life of Don Eugene Detmer. Materials particularly document Dr. Detmer's work during 1973-2004 working at the Department of Surgery at the University of Wisconsin, the Department of Surgery and the Department of Medical Informatics at the University of Utah, the University of Virginia, and the University of Cambridge. Other materials relate to the Institute of Medicine, the UVA Health System, the American Medical Informatics Association, the China Medical Board of New York, the Friends of the National Library of Medicine, the American Association of Medical Colleges, and the Nuffield Trust.

This series contains articles, editorials, chapters, and book reviews written by or co-authored by Dr. Detmer.

Most articles are based on Dr. Detmer's surgical experience. However, as he assumed an administrative role, he made statements before the U.S. Congress and wrote about computer-based patient records.

Most of these articles are related to the UVA Health Sciences Center.

Some sub-series were previously divided into years and placed in notebooks with a Table of Contents. See the physical folder for speech titles. Some files contain correspondence related to the speeches.

This item consists of a speech Don Detmer made at Dean Robert Carey's Courtyard Dedication and a card from Carey's daughter thanking Detmer for his speech.

This series contains materials such as CV/resumes, photographs, licenses and certifications, and reappointment documents.

This series contains letters of correspondence between 1961-2024.

This series contains materials related to Dr. Detmer's activities with the Institute of Medicine from 1972-2003.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison related documents series includes materials related to Dr. Detmer's career starting in 1973 as assistant professor in the department of preventive medicine, department of surgery at the University of Wisconsin and rose to a full professor. He left Wisconsin in 1984 to be a professor in the department of surgery, department of medical informatics at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City where he also served as Vice President for Health Sciences.

This series contains materials related to Dr. Detmer's career at the University of Virginia where he was the Vice President for Health Sciences, a professor in the department of surgery, and a professor of business administration at the Darden School. From 1992-1999 to Dr. Detmer was Co-director of the Virginia Health Policy Center. From 1993-1996 he was Vice-President and Provost for Health Sciences at UVA as well as a university professor of health policy and professor of surgery. From 1996-1998 he was the Senior Vice President at UVA. From 1996-1999 he was a professor in health policy, health sciences policy, surgery, and health evaluation sciences.

This series contains a variety of materials that record Dr. Detmer's professional activities in many organizations. Materials include notes, clippings, photographs, unpublished and published papers, documents related to the University of Utah and The Nuffield Trust, Dr. Detmer's work in China and Myanmar, and his professional service to state associations and federal committees.

The box includes a variety of born-digital materials: 8 zip drives, 6 2HD hard drives, 5 CD Roms, 2 floppy disks, and 5 IBM cards.

A CD ROM of the Biological Timing Tutorial by the NSF Science and Technology.

A floppy disk of a presentation for the CIHLP, April 28, 2000.

A CD ROM of reports presented at the Institute of Medicine Annual Meeting, Day 2.

Biographical / historical:

Don Eugene Detmer was born in Kansas in 1939. He studied at the University of Kansas and the University of Durham in Durham, England before earning his MD in June 1965 from the University of Kansas. He also received an MA from the University of Cambridge in 2002. His postgraduate medical training was done at Johns Hopkins Hospital (1965-1967) and at the Duke University Medical Center under Dr. David Sabiston, Jr. from 1969 to 1972. He spent a year from 1972-1973 at the Institute of Medicine, National Academies in Washington DC. His military service was as a clinical associate, Surgery Branch at the National Heart Institute at the National Institutes of Health from 1967-1969 and as a surgeon with the U.S. Public Health Service from 1972-1973.

Dr. Detmer served a joint appointment in preventative medicine and surgery at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he was assistant professor (1973-1977), associate professor (1977-1980), and professor (1980-1984). In 1984, he joined the University of Utah, serving as Vice President for Health Sciences and professor of surgery and medical informatics until 1988. Dr. Detmer was instrumental in developing the University of Utah's Integrated Academic/Advanced Information Systems (IAIMIS).

In 1988, he came to the University of Virginia where he was the Vice President for Health Sciences, a professor in the department of surgery, and a professor of business administration at the Darden School. From 1992-1999, Dr. Detmer was co-director of the Virginia Health Policy Center. From 1993-1996, he was Vice-President and Provost for Health Sciences at the University, as well as a professor of health policy and a professor of surgery. From 1996-1998, he was the Senior Vice President at the University, also lecturing as a professor in health policy, health sciences policy, surgery, and health evaluation sciences until 1999.

From 1999-2004, Dr. Detmer was the Dennis Gillings Professor of Health Management at Cambridge University and is a lifetime member of Clare Hall College, Cambridge. From 2005-2015, he was a visiting professor at the Centre for Health Informatics and Multi-professional Education, University College London.

Dr. Detmer's professional activities include working with the American Medical Informatics Association, the China Medical Board of New York, the Friends of the National Library of Medicine, the Institute of Medicine, the American Association of Medical Colleges, and the Nuffield Trust. He additionally served as the Chair of the Board of Regents at the National Library of Medicine, the Chair of the Board on Health Care Services at the IOM/NAM, and like Kerr White and John Ashley before him, as Chair of the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics. His professional affiliations, memberships, honors and awards were many. He served on editorial boards; advisory groups in the US and the UK; on government boards and committees; and as a consultant to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; the U.S. Congress; to the states of New York, Virginia, and Wisconsin; and to various universities and foundations. He is a frequent visiting lecturer, both national and internationally. His bibliography has nearly 200 entries and includes articles related to surgery, health policy, physician assistants, computer-based patient records, physician workforce, medical informatics, quality of health care, and the academic health center.

He was married to Mary Helen McFerson (1939-2018) and has two daughters. In October 2024, he married Sharon Hauff.

Processing information:

In the weeding process duplicates of reprints and speeches were discarded. Bills, receipts, and personal financial information documents were shredded. Several documents were moved to UVA Medical Center records. Most of the correspondence, speeches, talks, chapter articles, and reprints were organized by date into bulky notebooks. The order was retained but the notebooks were discarded. The resultant collections size was thereby reduced to approximately two-thirds of the orginal in terms of linear feet.

This process was repeated in 2024 when the collection was reprocessed to include new accessioned materials and previous additions to the collection that were donated during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Some files contain correspondence related to the folder contents.

Some files contain correspondence related to the folder contents.

Some files contain correspondence related to the folder contents.

Some files contain correspondence related to the folder contents.

Arrangement:

This series is arranged alphabetically.

This series is arranged chronologically.

This series is arranged chronologically.

This series is arranged chronologically.

This series is arranged chronologically.

Physical description:
The materials are in good condition.
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard