Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons - P and S Yearbook (New York, NY)

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7, f7Ae Class Cf 7965 I am particularly happy to be able to address the Class of 1965 on this oc- casion, since the current academic year is my twenty-fifth on the Faculty. More- over, it is the first year in which I have taken sabbatical leave and I cannot be held officially responsible for anything said here, since this brief note was written before the period of leave ended. Temporary retirement from the teaching program was an interesting experi- ence. It brought to my attention, more vividly than ever before, the immense bene- fit that teaching brings to the teacher himself. It is he, of course, rather than the student, who gains most from their association, in part because the teacher must attempt to focus his attention fully and accurately on all aspects of his subject, and equally because he is brought into challenging contact with a large group of inquiring young minds that never get older and never lose their enthusiasm or vigor. In considering many of the relationships between faculty and students, I was reminded again that doctor really means teacher and I was hard put to decide just who teaches whom. Having more time in which to read and to work again at the laboratory bench, I consequently had a greater opportunity to worry about the deluge of new in- formation in all areas of medicine, but I also remembered what Gliver VVendell Holmes had to say about the uselessness of inert facts, as well as Whitehead's classic remark that Uknowledge keeps no better than fish. In this latter connection. I could not restrain the thought that the teaching machine is a dangerous snare - almost as dangerous, in fact, as its human counterpart who believes that the direct transplantation of facts or techniques is his chief function. I mused, too, once more about the relation between science and medicine and could not avoid the conclusion that a good deal of scrcalled medical science is un- avoidably nothing more than medical technology, rooted in empiricism. Unavoid- ably, because the scientific method can be applied to medicine - or anything else for that matter - only in so far as the imaginative hypothesis can be tested by ac- curate observation or controlled experiment. The key word here, of course, is imagination, which undergirds the art, the science, the practice and the future of medicine. I can only hope that the Class will enter its professional life with the healthy skepticism which is the hallmark of the scientific attitude, that it will consider graduation only the beginning of a life-long education, and that many of its mem- bers will contribute to the lasting verity of VVhitehead's epigram. Harry M. Rose

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ocoogfng orcwcrrcl- 5241111 Bred The P815 Class of 1965 will be actively engaged in the practice of medicine in the year 2000. lndeecl, most of you will have attained the position of elder statesman in whatever area of medicine you have chosen to specialize. Most of you will have stopped the rigorous study associated with formal education at the end of medical school, internships or residencies. Further education will then bee come largely a spare time activity. The constant effort required to keep up with developments in basic medical sciences, Biochemistry, Microbiology, Pharmacology, Pathology, will not be possible - indeed it is not possible even for the basic scientists. Yet one must continue to be receptive to developments and to learn and maintain fluency in understanding and appreciation of the currents of medical research. Think for a moment of the P848 Class of 1930, most of whom are in the same stage of their medical careers that you will be in the year 2000. Did they have to keep up with their basic medical science? What was chemotherapy like in 1930 - salvarsan, tryparsamide, and quinine. VVhat was blood transfusion like - A, B, O and AB. What was gamma globulin? How many hormones were there? How many hemoglobinsl How many vitamins! What did nucleic acid mean to the Class of 1930 or for that matter to its professors? VVhat was a suitable plasma volume expander - an autoimmune disease? ln short, would we be happy to be treated today by the top man in the Class of 1930 if he had not kept up? No one can foresee the advances to come during the last third of this century. The principles of the scientific method, the ability to analyze and evaluate data - the understanding of how scientific concepts evolve - these tools, if their cutting edges are kept keen, help us to keep up. It is this that one endeavors to teach in basic sciences. The student, however, does not always see it that way - he is anxious to get on to treating the patient. This was no less true for the Class of 1930 than for the Class of 1965. The teachers in the medical sciences stand to the student in the same relationship as the boy scouts who were doing their good deed by helping an old woman across the street - it was harder because she didn't want to go. Elvin A. Kabat