About MEC

The Medical Exchange Club was first organized in 1920 by a group of physicians in Boston including Dr. Francis Minot Rackemann, Dr. James Means, Dr. Earnest Goodpasture, Dr. Philip Wilson, Dr. Ernest Crabtree, Dr. Elliott Cutler, Dr. Andrew Sellards, Dr. George Minot and Dr. Cecil Drinker. The intention for founding the club was to organize congenial, informal, but highly informative evenings during which members shared medical advances and discussed healthcare issues.

The club became more formalized in 1943 when participation and discussions at the meetings were recorded. The first meeting was recorded by the then secretary, Dr. Rackemann on January 25, 1943 and the initial discussion was based around current activities of the Thorndike Memorial Laboratory which was attached to the Boston City Hospital followed by an interesting talk by Dr. Minot on Irises.

John Franklin Enders, a virologist and microbiologist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his part in the development of the polio vaccine joined the club in 1943. He presented his research on cultivating the poliomyelitis virus in nonnervous-tissue cultures at a club meeting in June of 1949.

MEC, as it is known to its members, continues to provide a collegial and warm hearted venue for the intellectual exchange of discoveries, concepts and occasional social issues with the wrestling of ideas occurring over dinner at the St. Botolph Club in Boston. The St. Botolph Club’s founding purpose was to provide a place for those with a love of arts, sciences and humanities to gather and converse and so provides the perfect backdrop to the MEC meetings. Until relatively recently, meetings were held at the home of the member giving the presentation, and on occasion, at the Somerset or Harvard Clubs. Moving to the St. Botolph Club has enabled an increase in membership and invitations to partners to some meetings. Current membership stands at 40 active members.

Meetings are held between September and June, generally five or six a year, and members either present their own research or invite speakers from the research community to give a talk that describes the arc of their career, dives into details on a very specific topic, presents provocative academic vision or is relevant to present day scientific and healthcare issues that will resonate with the members and elicit insightful comments and in depth discussion.

During the unprecedented year since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, we have successfully pivoted to virtual meetings and continued to grow from strength to strength despite the challenges we face. The virtual platform has allowed for greater attendance from the members and an appreciation of the informative meetings and some social interaction. The plan moving forward is clearly to return to the St. Botolph Club, beginning with a hybrid system of some in person and some virtual meetings, as soon as CDC and Massachusetts State guidelines and vaccination allow for this.