A lasting legacy: Body-donor program helps MERI train doctors in new techniques

Feature story in The Commercial Appeal

July 11, 2010

The next time you or a loved one is to undergo surgery, consider that the performing physician may have been trained on that procedure or the procedure itself may have been developed right in the heart of Midtown Memphis.

Located near Union Avenue and Cleveland, the Medical Education & Research Institute — MERI — is conducting hands-on teaching and training for physicians who travel to Memphis from across the country and around the world. At the forefront of this education is the use of cadavers donated through the Genesis Donor Program for the express purpose of furthering medical know-how.

“Our mission is to impact patient safety and ensure that physicians have a way to learn the new procedures,” said Diana Kelly, manager of institutional development at MERI. “They are able to come here and practice on an uninvolved cadaver before they work on us. That’s a much-preferred method.”

The old adage “practice makes perfect” applies to sports and the arts, but possibly no place is it more apropos than in the medical field with those who take our lives in their hands on a daily basis.

“These techniques and improvements are coming at us very quickly, and there’s constantly a new and better way to do a surgical practice, so that’s where we come into play,” Kelly said.

MERI is a nonprofit, state-of-the-art facility begun 15 years ago through the inspiration of Dr. Kevin Foley and as a joint venture of Baptist Memorial Healthcare Corp., Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare Corp. and Semmes-Murphey Neurologic and Spine Institute … (read more)