Pulse
The Webmaster
Ken Berge has found a way to stay on the cutting edge of both medicine and technology.
On one hand, it’s not surprising that Ken Berge, M.D., is working as an editor. The primary care internist appears to have spent his whole life grooming for the job. In high school in the early 1940s, he was just one of two boys to sign up for typing class. As an internal medical resident at Mayo Clinic in the 1950s, he took an elective evening course on medical writing. And throughout his career at Mayo Clinic, Berge served on a number of publications’ editorial committees and boards.
On the other, it’s downright impressive that at 80 years old, Berge is working at all, especially in the world of online publishing.
"At first, my friends and peers were kind of surprised that I was doing this,” says Berge, who retired from direct patient care in 1992 at age 66 and thought he’d spend his days building model ships and radio-controlled airplanes. But Berge soon discovered that he wanted something more. “I had built my life around people, and I missed that.”
So for two years, Berge did stints at Mayo, handling correspondence with international patients seeking second opinions and auditing medical records to document services rendered. And when he was asked to serve as medical director for CD-ROM versions of the Mayo Clinic Health Book, he was eager to try it. “I said ‘Sure. I like editing, I like computers,’” he recalls.
About the same time, he jumped at the opportunity to join the team planning what was then called “Mayo Clinic Health Oasis,” the precursor to what is now the mayoclinic.com Web site. Berge’s job was to sort through e-mails sent by readers with medical questions and select the ones that could be answered on a feature called “Ask a Specialist.” Today, Berge also edits other health content on the Web site, ensuring that articles are medically accurate, up to date, and free of jargon.
For this, age and experience have proved to be an asset. “He brings a real understanding of what the reader wants and needs, which he learned in his many years of practicing medicine,” says Kris Pavek, a Web content producer for Mayo who has worked on the site with Berge for about six years. “He has such a good perspective on things because he’s seen it all, heard it all, done it all, and he knows the history of everything.”
But Pavek notes that Berge brings more than experience to the job. “Ken has just always been open to new ideas and new ways of doing things,” she says. “He was ahead of his time in that regard.”
That’s Progress
Berge bought his first IBM PC in 1984, long before computers were a fixture in homes. He took classes on word processing and organizing data, then taught himself how to do things such as add memory and install a hard drive.
He became aware of the Internet around 1986, when he read an article in American Scientist that touted its promise. “It was just getting started and seemed very futuristic,” he recalls. Berge, who stops short of calling himself a techie, admits that progress has made his life better. (In addition to computers, he has a cell phone, but he hasn’t caught the Blackberry or iPod bug.) In fact, he once told an audience of younger colleagues during a presentation about the history of computers, “If I can understand this at my age, you can. Why don’t you get with it?”
Berge clearly stays with it. Today, he spends about 12 hours a week editing articles and offering advice for the Web site. He normally arrives at his office in downtown Rochester around 8:30 a.m. and some days works remotely from home.
He has no immediate plans to retire completely. “I haven’t really thought about it,” he says. “I know myself well enough to know that if I feel I’m losing the edge, I’ll back off.”
For now, Berge is happy to do what he’s done all his life—blend his keenest interests—in medicine, editing, and technology.—Jennifer Gangloff