Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences - Stethoscope Yearbook (Kansas City, MO)

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Research Program WO hundred thousand dollars approximates the total grant monies channeled to the various depart- ments of our college for research purposes. For those students particularly interested in medical research the college offers a fellowship in a five year program to the doctorate degree which includes a full year of research programming. This year the departments of physical medicine and rehabilitation. mental diseases, heart, cancer, obstetrics, pharmacology and clinical medicine are participating in pilot research or specific research pro- grams. For example: the obstetrics department has a program studying The effects of tobacco tnicotinel on the pregnant mother: or unborn child and the new born child. What is being done specifically in the research department? The studies currently underway in the research department are designed to provide a strong basic control system for future work. The problem under consideration is a definitive exploration of the phe- nomenon of myoneural transmission. Enzymatic, bio- electrical, biochemical, and biomechanical activities at the motor end plate will be focal' points for study. However, before actual work on the problem can be undertaken, some steps must be taken to assure the investigator that the phenomena observed on his instruments or by his senses are actually due to the variables introduced by him and not due to some stimulus outside of the experimental format such as ambient temperature or barometric pressure. Therefore, the following broad control systems have been obtained and are now being introduced as standard procedures: l. Polygraph recorder providing simultaneous EKG, EEG, respiration, muscle response, and chemical concentration gradients. 2. Oscilloscope stimulator unit for nerve action potentials. 3. Complete autopsies of experimental animals with photomicrographs. 4. Multichannel temperature recorder. 5. Ultraviolet fluorescence microscopy with closed circuit television. 6. Warburg studies of muscle cell respiration. 7. Electron microscopy of control and test tissues with photomicrographs. In conjunction with the latter, a further study under consideration is electronautoradiography utilizing the electron microscope and radioactive gold isotopes. The problem outlined above is basic research as opposed to clinical research, the difference between the two being that the former does not have a specific application as a focal point. However, basic research forms the broad steps that medical research depends on for its tools and applications. For example, the work outlined above may provide some key facts for applica- tion to such diseases as myesthenia gravis.

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Psychiatry mf -as Students and Psychiatric Staff at State Hospital No. 3, Nevada. Missouri l 1 t I . . f'lS'lf ffl r ' ' N ! . . l L 'vw---1 mi' The Clinic Patient Also ls Offered Psychiatric Therapy CHIZOPHRENIC reactions: catatonic, simple, para- noid types: obsessive compulsion: chronic brain syndromes: anti-social reactions-sterile phrases, objectively digested in an aseptic classroom environ- ment for three years suddenly become living realities to the senior student during his tenure of psychiatric service. During a brief four or five weeks, he loses himself in the problems of others and blends with a small dedicated staff, preoccupied with alleviating the anguish of some 2000 mentally ill. He becomes oblivi- ous to the outside world as he soon realizes that these hospitals and their grounds located at either Nevada or St. Ioseph are actually communities within them- selves, containing their own bakeries, laundries, thea- tres, clothing stores, and chapels. Becoming a member of this community, he is soon aware of the utter im- partiality of mental illness as it forcefully reveals itself causing distress to the very young and old, the very poor and wealthy. An average day of the student's psychiatric duty is full, varied, and extremely challenging. He is given the privilege of making rounds with a staff physician every morning, these rounds including geriatrics, male and female wards, and the admitting clinics. Here he gains a knowledge of correct communication between physician and patient, learning what to ask, and how to listen, each word having the potentiality of being a clue to the correct diagnosis of a particular patient. The student doctor is shown every possible considera- tion by the staff and made to feel free to question the physicians about various patients. He is also allowed the courtesy to interview any patient he so desires, and may have access to their mental, physical and social histories to complete his studies. Each day there are seminars presented by various members of the staff covering a multitude of subjects dealing with psychiatric problems and their therapies. Here again, he realizes the magnitude of just this one field of medicine. The most demanding and also the greatest challenge involves the individual patients assigned directly to the senior student for complete evaluation. The student performs a thorough psysical, as well as an exhausting mental examination. All of his findings are correlated, dictated, and presented to the staff at their bi-weekly meetings. With these find- ings, the student also offers his complete impression of each patient coupled with a tentative diagnosis. The patient is interviewed by the staff. and the student's diagnosis is either accepted or rejected, thereby proving to be another excellent training mechanism designed to help each senior student realize his short-comings, as well as his attributes in diagnosing the mentally ill. The training received at these hospitals should aid each forthcoming physician, whether he becomes a G.P. or specialist, to recognize symptoms-, to establish diagnosis, and to outline proper therapy. 'By living in these hospitals, he is certainly made aware of the tremendous improvements that have been made, but equally conscious of the vastness of the obstacles yet to be overcome. It has given the Osteopathic student doctor one more aid, one more insight, one more hand perhaps, to assist others, which should be and is his main goal in life.

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Activities t. y ..HE Kansas City College of Osteopathy and Surgery 1 :not only offers the medical student an academic program but also a wide variety of extra curricular activities which helps to prepare him for future leader- ship within his community. A student may choose from any one of four social fraternities to join, Phi Sigma Gamma, Iota Tau Sigma. Lambda Omiaron Gamma or the Atlas Club which are all well supported by their respective alumni practic- ing in the greater Kansas City area. Following comple- tion of the Sophomore year, a student may be asked to join Rho Sigma Chi, Phi Sigma Alpha, or Sigma Sigma Phi which are national honorary societies. For the women of the college there is the Delta Omega sorority. The student body is govemed by the college's student council, which is composed of four members from each class and whose function is to deal with student problems and activities. Religion being an integral part of everyone's life has to offer the New- man club, Luke club, and the Seventh Day Adventist club. Alpha Phi Omega is the college's service fratern- ity which has provided the student with a television and recreation lounge during his leisure time. The society oi Neuropsychiatry, American College of General Practitioners, and the American Osteo- pathic Student Association are other organizations which the student may participate in. The Osteopathic Student Wives club is active throughout the school year. The greater Kansas City area also has much to offer each student. There are tour public golf courses, numerous lakes and swimming areas, an amusement park and zoo for the children. For summer enjoyment Kansas City has one of the largest summer playhouses in the United States in the Starlight Theater. In all, a student has a wide variety of activities to choose from to supplement his academic years here as a student.