Duke University
Medical Center
Intercom
VOL. 25, NO. 8
FEB. 24, 1978
DURHAM, N.C.
Intercom begins 25th year of publication
^Happy Anniversary’
from
cu\
When the first Intercom rolled off the press in 1954, t was a resident in surgery
here.
Back then it was a product of the Duke Hospital Auxiliary, and all of us are
indebted to the auxiliary for conceiving what has become one of our primary
communications links within the medical center over this quarter-century.
Intercom has changed some over the years — as we all have. It began as a letter-size
publication that came out every other month. But as the pace quickened around
here, there was more news to print and it went to a monthly publication schedule.
Still later it came out twice a month until Sept. 17, 1971, when Intercom became a
weekly.
By 1973 medical center activities had increased to the point that Intercom was again
outgrowing itself. Early in that year, 'oe Sigler, our director of public relations, came
to me with the layout for a new Intercom format — a tabloid, which would double the
news space each week. Knowing our budgetary concerns, he said publishing on
newsprint, as a tabloid, would give us twice the newspaper at about the same cost,
and I said, “Go." The first tabloid Intercom came out on Feb. 16, 1973.
Soon after that it became apparent that Intercom was a valuable tool for informing
our friends outside the medical center of developments here, and today it is mailed
in a special monthly package to 3,200 people, including Durham civic leaders,
university trustees, our Board of Visitors, university faculty members, Davison
Club members and hundreds of former Duke employees and other friends of the
medical center in 40 states and five other countries.
If you read into this that we're proud of Intercom, you are correct.
So — Best wishes to Intercom, beginning its Silver Anniversary Year. Keep those
presses rolling!
Dr. William G. Anlyan, Vice President for Health Affairs
By John Becton
and Parker Herring
Before there was an Intercom, there was
a Hospital Auxiliary newsletter. It was
mimeographed and came out about twice
a year beginning in 1950, when the
auxiliary was founded.
In November, 1953, that newsletter
announced that there would be a birth in
the medical center family.
The new addition would be a
newspaper to serve the vast four-building
medical center.
The paper initially would be published
by the auxiliary, but even before the first
issue appeared, it was expected to
"emerge a full-fledged and articulate
voice, able to stand on its own feet, with
no further need for its nurse (the
auxiliary)," Mrs. H. Shelton Smith, then
auxiliary president, wrote in the
November 1953 newsletter.
For intercommunication
The "infant" was expected in January,
1954, but came a month late, which may
be even more common for new
publications tlj^n new people.
It was named Intercom, at the suggestion
of Helen Kaiser, then director of physical'
therapy,
"The name seemed sensible to me,"
Kaiser said recently. "I said the newsletter
should be for intercommunication . . .
therefore its name should be Intercom."
She was the winner of a contest to
name the paper.
"I won $10 for that suggestion — the
only thing I've ever won in my life," she
said.
Kaiser continues to read Intercom, as she
has "since the day it got started," she said.
"It interests me a great deal. It's fun to
read about what's going on. I worked here
for about 30 years. So it's nice to be able to
keep up."
They did whatever
they could to help
"Intercom was started at the request of
the administration," the first editor,
Cathy Porter, said. "The auxiliary
handled the paper from the beginning,
because we did whatever we could to help
out the hospital.
"The purpose of the Intercom was to
serve as a house organ...strictly for
(Continued on page 2)
Hamblen Symposium slated
The 14th annual E. C. Hamblen
Symposium on Reproductive Biology and
Family Planning is being held here today
and Saturday.
Some 120 specialists in obstetrics and
* II 11 n }« :i
"I ! > II i a
—
THE HOSPITAL AT NIGHT was captured in this striking photograph,
which filled the newsletter size front page of Intercom's April 1960 issue.
More photographs from past issues appear throughout this special
anniversary edition.
gynecology from Duke and throughout
the nation are expected to attend the
event which will focus this year on
perinatal medicine — the specialty that
deals with health and illness around the
time of childbearing.
Dr. Carlyle Crenshaw Jr., co-director
of the Division of Perinatal Medicine, said
his division and the Department of
Obstetrics and Gynecology are
sponsoring the symposium as a
continuing education opportunity for
physicians and other health profession
als.
Guest speakers include Dr. Robert C.
Cefalo, head of the Maternal-Fetal
Medicine Branch, National Naval Medical
Center; Dr. Edgar L. Makowski,
chairman of obstetrics and gynecology.
University of Colorado Medical Center;
and Dr. Elizabeth M. Ramsey,
embryology research associate, Carnegie
Institution of Washington.
Duke faculty members on the program
are Dr. Ewald W. Busse, dean of medical
and allied, health education; Dr. Roy T.
Parker, professor and chairman of the
Department of Obstetrics and
Gynecology; Dr. Marcos J. Pupkin,
(Continued on page 4)
Detour tomorrow
The main entrance to the hospital will
be closed Saturday while a crane hoists a
piece of air conditioning equipment into
the Department of Radiology area.
Employees and visitors will be directed
to use alternate entrances and exits
during that time.