Over the past year, the Riley Hospital Historic Preservation Committee worked to create a comprehensive history of the Indiana University School of Medicine’s Medical Educational Resources Program (MERP). Their 14‑month effort brought together decades of hard‑to‑find records, archival materials and firsthand recollections into a cohesive and detailed narrative.
With the encouragement of colleagues in the IU School of Medicine’s Department of Pediatrics and the Office of Continuing Education in Healthcare Professions, the team adapted this history into a four‑part series now featured on the IUSM Blog. This collaboration was made possible thanks to the ongoing support of the Department of Pediatrics Communications Team and the IUSM’s Strategic Communications and Visual Media Team, whose efforts helped bring the series to publication and ensure it reaches a wide audience.
Each post explores a different chapter of MERP’s impact, from the early days of statewide instructional technology, to pioneering uses of video in medical education, to expanding continuing medical education beyond the medical center. The series also draws on valuable primary recollections from Sharon Chenoweth Green, whose early involvement with MERP provided essential historical detail.
Readers can navigate all four posts through the “Suggested for You” section on each page or via the direct links:
- Building a Statewide Classroom: WAT 21 and IHETS (Dec. 18, 2025).
- Building a Statewide Classroom: The Indiana Plan and early video technology (Jan. 5, 2026).
- Building a Statewide Classroom: Pioneering use of video in instruction, continuing ed (Jan. 13, 2026).
- Building a Statewide Classroom: Innovations in teaching include newborn care, community service (Feb. 2, 2026).
In addition to the online history series, the Indiana State Library preserves the print editions of the MERP Memo newsletter in its Indiana serials collection, providing an important primary source record of the program’s development and day‑to‑day work. These newsletters capture MERP’s innovations, milestones and evolving role in medical education, offering researchers and historians a rare and detailed look at how the program operated in real time.
Together, these entries preserve and celebrate a significant chapter in Indiana’s medical education history, offering valuable reference material for researchers, educators and anyone interested in MERP’s lasting contributions.
You can also find a bound print copy of the blog articles in the Indiana State Library Indiana Collection.
This blog post was submitted by Michelle Frost, collections and outreach manager at the Indiana State Library.