His focused on the field on education, research, and collaboration with other colleagues in medicine and rehabilitation services, a framework for professional activities that remains relevant for PM&R in the 21st century.
This experience with the “rest cure” and “fresh air” used for treating tuberculosis at the time stimulated his interest in the use of physical agents in medicine.
Labeled “embryonic” in the Flexner Report of 1910, a critical survey of American medical schools sponsored by the American Medical Association (AMA), it provided an opportunity for Krusen to demonstrate his innate leadership ability, and he quickly developed organizational and political skills to improve the school's rating.
He required just 2 years to raise the necessary funds to build a new medical school, overhaul the curriculum, establish clinical clerkships, and garner a “Type A” rating by the AMA.
The integrated group practice model at Mayo Clinic proved to be an ideal environment for Krusen to develop the specialty of physical medicine.
Statements in Krusen's diary suggest that it is likely the unique practice environment at the Mayo Clinic that facilitated his efforts to expand the field in a number of ways.
Krusen's intellectual, organizational, and interpersonal skills found their perfect expression at the Mayo Clinic, where his efforts resulted in physical medicine gaining needed visibility within an internationally known medical institution.
In 1938, Krusen included the following comments in his personal journal on his experience at the Mayo Clinic: “As in past years, the relationship to other departments has been most satisfactory from our standpoint.
The feeling of cordial cooperation which exists throughout the institution is a never-ending source of pleasure” (internal document, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN).
Krusen realized that the growth of the field of physical medicine required an ongoing commitment to research, and he was an early proponent of outcome studies and evidence-based practice.
During World War II and shortly after, Krusen published several articles on the need for rehabilitation training within the United States defense programs.
After all, this is the culmination of my eighteen years of effort in the field of physical medicine and now as I look back over my diary, I realize that I have had the unique privilege of participating in and contributing toward the birth of a new medical specialty.
It is hard for me to put into words my feelings of gratification in the realization of the fact that at last the long fight has been won and that the years of labor to establish this specialty, to train workers in the field, to develop practice, teaching and research have finally been rewarded by proper recognition from organized medicine as a whole,” according to an internal document from the Mayo Clinic.
In 1948, Howard Rusk, MD, another widely acknowledged pioneer in the field of PM&R, pushed to introduce the word “rehabilitation” to the specialty to better emphasize its holistic aspect of care for a broad range of diagnoses.
This view was facilitated by government interest in the rehabilitation of World War II veterans, for whom trained physicians were in short supply.
In the 1950s, Krusen continuing his work at the Mayo Clinic but increasingly devoting his time to defending the new specialty from groups within organized medicine intent on limiting the scope of practice of the field, particularly with respect to the concept of rehabilitation.
From 1959 to 1963, he once again used his skills of diplomacy and leadership to help save the Foundation from insolvency, secure the future of its training programs, and restore the institution's image.
The year prior to his death, the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation established The Frank H. Krusen, MD Lifetime Achievement Award[1] to honor him.
The Krusen Award is the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation's highest honor, and recipients of the gold medallion are selected on the basis of their outstanding and unique contributions to the specialty in the areas of patient care, research, education, and administration.