Columbia University School of Public Health - Yearbook (New York, NY)

Page 14 text:

' ORGANISATION MONDIALE W O R L D H E A L T H K QQ ORGANIZATION QI V DE LA SANTE S Avenue Appia NZ? Avenue Appl: IZII GENEVA-SWITZERLAND 1111 GENEVE-SUISSE I'cIegr,: LNISANTE-Gcncxn Tel- 346061 Telex' 21335 Teligrx UNISANTE-Geneve I ply please refer no I' rc de ra Icr Ia rel' W 4 April 1967 Dear Dr. Birne, I have just seen your letter of 17 March, upon my return from a trip. Perhaps you can use the following. One of the major challenges and opportunities facing those individuals who have received their basic training in veterinary medicine is in the field of comparative medicine. I define this, somewhat arbitrarily, as the smdy by comparison of spontaneously occurring diseases in vertebrate animals other than man. The information derived from such studies provides useful leads in understanding analogous processes affecting human beings. Such leads can be exploited by designing experimental situations in which variables are limited as much as possible so that the results of experimental set-ups might gradually ' mbination of factors that determine a specific reveal the prime cause or co disease process. The main areas now being explored in studies of comparative medicine concern the problems of cancer and cardiovascular disease. lt is not difficult to see the extension of such an approach to rheumatoid diseases and other connective tissue disorders, and perhaps even to behavioural aberrations. Work in comparative medicine involves the application of advanced principles of epidemiology as well as of basic biological sciences, and cannot be performed effectively unless there is a thorough understanding of both clinical and highly technical components bearing on the specific diseases being studied. This is not an easy task, but it is an imperative necessity if veterinary ' ' bl' health of which it is capable. medicine i s to make the contribution to pu ic Sincerely yours, Martin M. Kaplan, V.M.D. Chief, Veterinary Public Health Division of Communicable Diseases Dr. H. Birne Chairman, Yearbook Committee Columbia University School of Public Health and Administrative Medicine 600 West 168th Street New York, N.Y. 10032

Page 16 text:

Statistical Summary of CUSPHAM Students, 1966-67x KN : 1033 PROGRAM Master of Public Health ........,.. .... 3 2 Administrative Medicine ...,.. .... 1 5 Hospital Administration ...... .... 1 5 Community Psychiatry ..... .... 1 O Nutrition ....................... ..,. 1 7 Biostatistics ........ .. ,... .... 6 Parasitology .......... .... 2 Special Students ..,.......... .... 6 SEX i Male ....... ................ .... 6 6 Female ..... ........... . . 37 AGE Mean : 33.3 20-24 ..... ,.... ...... ......... .... 1 6 25-29 ..... .... . 25 30-34 ..... 21 35-39 .... 16 40-44 1-2 45-49 .... I 9 so-54 ..... 3 55-59 1 ...............................,............. . crrizemsi-ue ev REGION. aaai U.S.A. flmainlandj ......... ............ Q ...,.... . gf. 71 Puerto Rico ....:.. ,.....V . :....k ..... .-...V 2 Canada, .......... Q ...................... .' ...... ' ,. 2 Central-America, Caribbean ..... .... ...... . ' , 2 South America. ........,.. - ..,.. ..- c... ...., . 4 . 6 Europe ............. .... North Africa .... .. - Africa, other .141 Vt: Near East ......... .... 4 Southeast Asia .... 9 Asia, oth'er'Qf.IQ.. Q... '3 CITIZENSHIP OTHER THAN U.'S-A- . Argentina .L ................................................ 2 Canada' 2 china Q,...Q .... ...' . 'T 1 Colombia .... .... 2 Denmark 1.-- . 1 Germany' ...... . 1 Guatemala ..... .... 1 Hungary ...... .... 1 India ......... ..,. 4 Iran ..Q ...... .... 1 Ireland ..... ....' 2 israel I ...... .... 3 Japan ., ...,.., 5 ..... . 1 Netherlands . 1 Pakistan ...,.. . 1 Philippines .. . 1 Thailand ...... .... 4 Trinidad .... . ............ . ......................... Q ....... . 1 S Preliminary figures, as of Oct. 1966. First registration only: does not include students continuing in same program from previous yearisy. A GREAT COHORT- RETROSPECTIVELY SPEAKING Statistics never tell the story. They build buildings and arrange programs, but they can not tell a story. For instance, when it comes to saying good-by, try saying it with numbers. Try putting it into a normal curve, even where the curve slopes. That won 't tell the story. It needs a few words to measure the time. Only when the words become too many, they are too rich and they cloud the memory and you don't want to see. l hold to the statistics now for it is easier. lt is not ten years later, or twenty. The office tells me we have an average age of 33.3 and 66 of us are males and 37 females. That will look good on a punch card. But how many of those nutritionists are dimpled? Can we put those on a punch card and sacrifice them to a computor's steel fingers? How about Marcia Kerwit's method acting of Mrs. Stanislaus, or when Jim Bush defended the budget in Public Health Practice? What can a computor do to Harold Applewhite's smile and warmth, to pretty Emily lVloore's folk-dancing, to Henry Birne's production of the memorable Christmas play, to Richard Marx's beard shaped to all his well-pointed questions? To what part of the normal curve shall we place the Warkomski limp, the Lacot lectures to the professors, John Varadi's cosmopolitan accent, Ruth Hutchison's amiability, John Kevany -the disciplined leprechaun? There are many many more. But it may be better to keep the steel. A punch card, a cabinet, a place to go for the substance of the memory. Only time can leave it exactly as it has been. - Herb Williams