Shortly before I left the hospital, the trustees of the hospital asked for my advice with respect to my successor. I told them that the new professor had just been chosen for the Brigham, that I had spoken with him and that he was very eager to see a close relationship with the... with Beth Israel. Indeed, I said to the trustees, I... I have difficulty in visualizing two completely independent Harvard teaching hospitals within a few hundred yards of each other indefinitely, and if it were possible to pick a chairman for each of these institutions, that is, to pick a person who would chair medicine in both hospitals and surgery in both hospitals, it could be an undertaking that might have extremely important outcome for the... for Harvard Medical School and for the institutions in question. Braunwald, the new chair of medicine for the Brigham, had indicated his willingness to take responsibility for the two departments if he were invited. Bill Silen knew that the chairman of surgery at the Brigham was... would be retiring shortly, said he would be willing to step aside and, if the committee chose him, he'd be glad to take on the two institutions. If it chose someone else he'd be willing to work with the person whom it chose. That was a proposal that I offered that was considered, but it did not come to pass.

Subsequently, when the Department of Medicine at the Beth Israel was not doing as well as people would like, the head of the hospital, Mitch Rabkin went to the new chairman not... now not so new any longer, chairman of medicine at the Brigham, and invited him to share responsibilities, to share his activities taking charge, not only at the Brigham but at Beth Israel, and Braunwald did that for a few years until that department was strengthened.