The Health bulletin [serial] - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

August, 1951 The Health Bulletin 11the most of its latent preventive facilities,the importance of preventive medicinemust be re-emphasized. Every onein the field of medicine and publichealth should make it his business toknow what needs to be done to preventdisease in this country and, regardless ofhis primary specialty, he should workunselfishly for the accomplishment ofthis objective. If all our 200,000 Americanphysicians will apply the principlesof preventive medicine to the familiesof their patients and give enthusiasticsupport to their community health programs;if all of the coimtry's hospitalswill accept the added responsibility ofserving as real health centers for theircommunities with a view to keeping thepeople well; and if sufficient healthagencies manned by adequate numbersof competent specialists are provided forthe entire country, the physical, mentaland moral fiber of the nation can beenormously strengthened.This is not a Utopian dream, but toaccomplish it quickly is a task whichwill require many revolutionary changes.One basic need is for a thorough revampingof the curriculums of the 79medical schools in order to give themedical graduate a better concept ofthe practical importance of preventivemedicine and public health. He shouldbe indoctrinated with the preventiveattitude. This will help to prepare himfor his wartime responsibilities eitherin civil defense or in the Armed Forces,It should also assist in recruiting thehealth specialists now urgently neededto man our oflBcial and nonofficialcivilian health agencies and for thepreventive medicine organizations ofthe Army, Navy, and Air Force. By thesame token, the military physician andsurgeon should recognize his responsibilityfor preventive medicine in theArmed Forces. The strengthening ofthe civilian health program for theemergency will require the provision ofadditional local health units to coverthe entire country and the taking ofaction to correct the present shortagein health specialists needed in the totalcivilian health program.More Health Specialists Required forthe Defense Program.—The developmentof the emergency health program forthe Armed Forces will requu'e carefulplanning geared to meet the peculiarcircumstances of the present threatagainst us. The Army, Navy, and AirForce must develop and implementsound mobilization plans for the rapidexpansion of their programs of preventivemedicine along lines which will enablethem to carry forward all the advancesnow at our disposal. Each of theArmed Forces Medical Services now hasa good peacetime division of preventivemedicine; therefore, they are in astrategic position to prepare for war,but to expand the present programssufficiently to meet the additional requirements(1) of our forces now fightingin Korea, (2) for the nationalmobilization and training activities nowtmder way, and (3) for the still greaterneeds of another possible global warwill call for large numbers of expertstrained in every aspect of public health.Certain parts of this training can beprovided within the respective services;but large numbers of the officers neededfor key positions will require postgraduatetraining of the type now availableonly in the country's 10 accreditedpostgraduate schools of public health. Itrequires time to carry out such training,and therefore each of the servicesshould rapidly develop adequate poolsof specialists to meet their entire needs.During the last war both military andcivil health were handicapped becaviseit was necessary for the Armed Forcesto draw such personnel largely fromthe inadequate group of trained specialistsrequired by the civil population.This weakened to a dangerous degreethe staffs of civilian health agencies andthe faculties of schools of medicine,dentistry, and public health. In the presentemergency, this mistake must notbe repeated, for to do so would be likedestroying the goose that laid thegolden egg. Large numbers of healthspecialists must therefore be recruitedand mobilized; and this supply must bemaintained in order to operate the nation'swartime military and civilianhealth programs. These specialists will