HOSPITAL
DUKE
VOL. 8, NO. 2 APRIL, ISXil DURHAM, N. C.
DKAN WOODIIAIjL
(J)iike Photo by Spiirks)
The Next Thirty
Years
By Barnes Woodhall, M.l).
Some thirty years ago Dr. Davison
started the Duke University Medical
Scliool. The School flourished and
gained prestige and stature under the
impelling force of the “credo of ex
cellence” so firmly stated so many
times by the Dean. The Medical
School now faces a period of transi
tion. Such transitional ]>eriods are
an historical fact in the existence of
all inmiortal institutions, inchiding
universities and their several com
ponents. The changing months or
years ahead for this Medical School
imph' a regrouping of human re
sources and the recn;itment of fresh
minds, a rather extensive structure
development, and—of primary impor
tance—a meticulous examination of
its responsibilities in the world in
which it now finds itself, and in which
it will ])ursiie its tasks in the next
tliirty years.
The basic, ethical responsibility of
medicine is the care of patients. In
a University setting, this responsi
bility may become obscured by a host
of variants that do not a])pear in the
simple, classical relationshii) of physi
cian and patient at the bedside. This
tradition remains, however, a valid
take-off point for all University medi
cal activities, from the truth of a
basic laboratory to the menial ad
ministrative formality of signing let
ters.
As a school for doctors, we seek
(jualified and motivated students from
all economic and social backgrounds.
To gain this end, adequate loan and
scholarship funds must be secured.
This School has no interest in im
printing an external pattern of
growth upon such students. It does
liave a strongly vc^sted interest in
ex[)anding the i)otential of such stu
dents into all possible aveiuies of
growth. In addition to the goal of
an inquiring, disciplined mind, we
must instill in tliese students the blmit
fact that medicine is now very much
a ))art of the social anti connnunity
structure; the ]>hysician can no longer
hold fast to the doctrine of the ethi
cal neutrality of science.
teach students, to study new
phenonuMui and to take care of pa
tients, a medical scliool lu'eds a facul
ty—the best i)ossible faculty that can
be obtained by fair or I'oul means!
The ])rinciples of medicine and sur
gery find their origin in the truly
tumultous world of tlie basic sciences.
The adjective “tumulfotis” is used
because it describes well the geometric
progression of added fact that is
steadily accruing in these areas, fact
(Continued on ])age 7)