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

Page 12 text:

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

Page 11 text:

'GY

Page 13 text:

Nm 9