Duke University School of Medicine - Aesculapian Yearbook (Durham, NC)

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OFFICE OF THE PRESIDE Three problems connected with medical education have long interested me-the control, the quality, and the cost, both to the school and to the individual. ll' given ample support with a broad base, each school, re- sponsible to the public which supports it, will be assured of control of its educational program and will be able to solve its problems in the way best suited to local con- ditions. The opportunity thus provided the schools to compete for excellence is the best guarantee of pro- gressive improvement in quality. Support for medical education now comes from tuition, endowment income, gifts from many sources, government grants and, in case of state and municipal schools, tayes. The percentage differential in cost between a good and an excellent medical school may not be great. Theree fore members of the medical profession have an unique opportunity, hy financial support well within their re- sources, to improve their own school, and thus obtain refiected prestige and professional standing. Further- more, hy repaying after graduation no more than costs of their own medical education over and above tuition, they can contribute to its excellence, assure its freedom, reduce the costs to students and increase their own enthusiasm and responsibility for their profession. Their contributions can be made at a time when their earnings are highest and costs after taxes are least. Thus, the medical profession can undertake the best possible pro- gram of public relations by manifesting its interest in better medical care and by assuring a continuing and ample supply of well trained physicians. This program of educational giving, to me, seems the best possible defense against government control of medical educa- tion and government controlled socialized medicine, both of which could lead readily to mediocrity in medi- cal training, scientific discovery, and patient care. Students who now attend Duke University can be- come soon a part of such a program already in opera- tion, having been initiated by the clinical stafif in iovgi with the organization of the Private Diagnostic Clinics. Already the staff, through the clinics, has contributed much to the development of a superior medical school. Originated during the depression with the objective of coordinating studies on patients who presented difiieul- ties in diagnosis and permitting all necessary studies within the patient's ability to pay, these clinics have been expanded to include all private patients coming to the Hospital. Operated voluntarily on a cooperative basis , W' ' M 4-,V 1, 711 - n, ci f' Amy. bfi . lt 5 i :yy , O . 2 I mf. , .ff Mw4 i DR. HART by all members of the clinical departments, with pooling of resources, they have been used to build a better Medical Center. They have supported a variety of activities including expansion of the clinical teaching staff, research, development of new fields of activity. acquisition of needed equipment, and construction of buildings for teaching, research, and patient care. Additional funds supplied by you after graduation. for fellowships, scholarships, student loans, professorf ships, or preferably for unspecified purposes. will be used to aid medical students and graduate students of the future and to build for superiority at Duke on the solid foundation of an already existing school ol' excel, lence. Generous financial effort on your part will be of great value to you as well as to the L'niversity. Your continued close relationship and partnership with your Alma Mater will produce a sense of pride in being an integral part of future developments and will result in greater enthusiasm for your profession. .Xt the same time you will benefit from improved public relations and from greater prestige reflected by the high standing ol' the school of which you are a product, and to whose excellence you will have contributed. IDERYL H.xR'r, BLD. I're51'fz'e12t of the U111'zfe1'51'Iy Professor of Surgery thirteen

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Wliere experimentation is so in vogue the following section should be no novelty, for it is simply an effort to provide a more personal glimpse of medical educators than yearhoolts usually allow. There are no traditional group pic- tures: the art and skill of teaching are, after all, not achieved en nzasxe. Hope- fully, what has been learned here is in large measure associated for each student with several men, whom he has found to emhody those qualities which set aside a teacher. The succeeding pages carry the photographs and essays of a few such men, only a few and not all. In trihute, then, to the role of teachers and teaching is this section meant, and even more: as an expression of concern that respect for the transmission of knowledge and those who teach not he lost in a frantic race for an ephemeral Reputation. twelve

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OFFICE OF THE DEA Within a brief period of time, this graduating class of the Medical School will receive their degrees of Doctor of Medicine from the President of Duke Univer- sity. The event, of course, represents one of the classical milestones in the educational process where not only does the student enter the company of scholars but, be he a medical student, he receives the further accolade that allows him to take care of the physical and mental ills of his fellowmen. This does not represent a dichot- omy of purpose but a dual recognition of the science and the art of the practice of medicine. Not only knowledge then but judgment is also concerned in a continuing committment to a Hnal purpose. The President-elect of Duke University, Dr. Douglas Maitland Knight, made this statement at the recent Founders Day occasion: A second quality of the great professional schools of a university is their transcendence over the daily practice of any of the callings they serve. 'We sometimes forget, I think, that there would be no real value in a medical or law school which did nothing but teach the good practice of the momentg there is no quicker way to stifle a profession than to perpetuate its routines without criticism or imaginative reappraisal. One major element of the vital service that a profes- sional school performs is criticismg it exists in a constant state of tension, questioning and being questioned by the vocation to which it belongsf' These words are equally applicable to medicine, and to the continuing student and practitioner of this ancient profession. ln half a lifetime, the physician of today has lived through two major revolutions, the ages of the antibiotic and the atom, and now faces at least a third revolution, one marked hy increasing social responsibilities. Dr. Knight has made somewhat the same point and his remarks may be quoted, without removing these parts too much out of context. He says: From the twelfth to the twentieth century, the professional schools have tif you will allow me the paradoxj become less central to the University but more important. They are, for instance, to be parts of the whole and must seek new common points of interest in a mutual relationship. From this exploration of intellectual pursuits must come answers to two of the major demands upon the bright dreams of university life. The first of these, the proper dehnition and interpretation of the place of science in our lives, and the second, the search for the small, bright needle of insight in the vast, Protean mass of .. ,Al .' , if ' ws -Aft at :ggi-,5. iv., . Y 1 xril, . J 5 b y sm r ,Am 2 . 1' -f 1 A ' 4 525, .. jg v 5 f 1 ff 5,1255 , iii? ' . .,,. A ?...... I if ,131 Q rw F' W Dia. XVOODHALL scientific and technological achievement. The continuing and professional student of medicine must not leave these endeavors to the rather esoteric and sometimes unrealistic battlefield of the University. He should, of course, re- turn to the University, in a broad sense, for his intel- lectual growth. Armed with these tools, the student must commit himself to judgment and action in a world that is deeply hopeful of good health, that seeks political goals to this end, that is poorly informed concerning our basic lack of understanding of many disease processes, that is bewildered by the few facts and countless fancies of Hcategoryu medicine, that is, cancer, old age-name what you wish, and finally it really hopes that it may not be mortal. To this social responsibility, complex as it is, the new Doctor of Medicine must be dedicated in a very knowl- edgeable and liberal way. History has been kind to American medicine in many ways. We have most of the facts at hand and the earlier experience of sister nations, England, Canada, and the north countries of the continent. We need only to par- ticipate in our future decisions, most of which must be made outside of the University, and these decisions must be faced with intelligence, clarity and independence. Be- fore his tragic death at an early age in an automobile accident outside of Paris, Albert Camus presented medi- cine with a simple motto: Where lucidity reigns, he wrote, a scale of values becomes unnecessary. BARNES WOODHALL, M.D. Dean of the School of Medicine Assistant Provost of the University Professor of Neurosurgery fourteen