iHay 1 Have Your
Thumbprint, Please?
Grants amounting to millions
of dollars are poui-ing into tlie
halls of colleges and universities
to pave the way for a computer
ized society. At Duke Univer
sity, for instance, the computer
is well on its way to becoming
as important to education as the
chalk and blackboard.
The resources of one of the
world’s most up-to-date compu
tation centers at the Research
Triangle is pushing Duke, the
University of North Carolina,
and North Carolina State Uni
versity further into computer-
associated research. Over $2
million has been invested in this
Research Triangle facility to
serve as education’s “great
brain.”
The School of Medicine is
finding the application of the
computer almost inexhaustible.
So is the College of Engineering.
Otlier departments are quickly
getting into the act.
The use of the computer for
advances in medical technology
is growing by leaps and bounds.
Dr. William Anlyan, dean of
the School of Medicine, an
nounced several months ago
plans to program the entire
school’s library.
Tlie amphitheatre is open for business! The seats are in,the carpeting down, the stage set, and the colors schemed.
Those wlio recall the steep steps, the uncomfortable seats, the difficulty audiences had in hearing speakers, and the poor
light associated with the old amphitheatre should find the features of the new one very appealing. Special features
of the new amphitheatre include upholstered seats, a carpeted and gently sloping floor, an accoustically tiled ceiling
that sports television monitors (not installed when pictures above were taken), special lighting, a stage designed with
numerous conveniences for speakers, and a visual aids booth.
But more intriguing is the
plan to liave incoming patients
register with the computer. In
stead of their signature, the
computer would be given their
thumbprint to seek out their
records and deliver them to the
doctor within a few seconds.
Dr. Trevor "Williams, associ
ate professor of both mathe
matics and community health
sciences, is using a $115,000
grant from the National Insti
tute of Health to refine a mathe
matical formula which may
solve some unanswered questions
about infectious diseases.
Tlie formula, he believes, may
be used to calculate the concen
tration of germs it takes to make
the carrier become contagious;
tlie number that will cause him
to show clinical symptoms of the
disease, and the number which
will cause death.
A project being undertaken by
medical and engineering authori
ties proposes to make the com
puter help the doctor diagnose
heart diseases in cliildren.
Many young children are not
strong enough to undergo ex
ploratory operations where dis
eases are suspected. The doctors
and engineers hope to use wires
taped to the surface of the body
to record electrical impulses
which would be interpreted
by the all-knowledgeable pro
grammed computer.
Known as the “TUCG,” the
Triangle Universities Computa
tion Center is a non-profit, high
speed computer facility jointly
operated by the three large uni
versities in the Research Tri
angle area. The center is de
signed to provide computer in
struction and research service to
the nearly 30,000 students and
several thousand faculty mem
bers and administrators at Duke,
the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill, and North Caro
lina State University in Raleigh.
The center was established last
winter. Its development is al
ready almost two years ahead of
original schedules.
Professional News, Continued
and chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and
Gynecologj^ will enable Duke physicians to make
early diagnosis of the tumor. Although tropho
blastic neoplasms are moderately rare tumors
(about 500 new cases are found each year in the
U.S.), they run a rapid course ending in death if
not treated in time; and finding them requires the
screening of almost 20 times as many patients.
The laboratory will provide community physi
cians throughout the southeastern part of the
Roy T. Parker United States with rapid, accurate tests of gonado-
tropliin excretion (a hormone produced by the tumor and found
in tlie urine) in ])atients suspected or found to have the tumor.
Also named in the Duke project are Dr. C. Donald Christian, asso
ciate professor, and Dr. Charles B. Hammond, an instructor. •
DR. JOHN RECKTjESS, assistant professor of psychiatry, has
returned from an extended European trip, during which he at
tended several medical conventions. Included in his itinerary were
the Sixth International Congress of Psychiatry, Edinburgh, Scot-
hind; the International Congress of Psychotherapy, Germany; the
World Congress of Psychiatry, Madrid, Spain; and the Twentieth
International Congress of Ophthalmologj'. • The Department of
Psycliiatry announced the appointment of two new instructors in
psycliiatric social work in the Division of Child Psychiatry, LEAH
ROSE WILLIAMS and MRS. ERIC PFEIFFEr' :\Iiss Williams
was previously a ])sychiatric social worker at South Eastern
Louisiana State Hospital in Mandiville, and ilrs. Pfeiffer was em-
l)loyed as acting chief of social work in the Division of Child Psychi
atry at the Univ(>rsity of Kentucky Medical Center in Lexington.
INTERCOM - 3
• The combined efforts of medicine and engineering in providing
better diagnosis of heart ailments in children was described in
a paper presented by two Duke scientists, DR. MADISON S.
SPACH, an associate professor of pediatrics, and Roger Barr, a
graduate student in electrical engineering, at a
conference in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia. The
technique sj)ecifically mentioned in the paper con
cerns a method of measuring the surface electrical
voltage in a patient’s body. With these measure
ments recorded on a magnetic tape, they can be
fed into a computer and analyzed rapidly. Having
digested something like 250 electro-cardiograms,
the comj)uter can, within about 20 minutes, pro
duce a sort of contour map which shows the
Madison S. Spach electrical function of the heart. One particular
benefit of the technique described is in giving doctors a means of
evaluating the abnormal workload on a defective heart. • The
following api)ointments were announced by the School of Nursing,
effective September 1; PATHICMA KENNEDY, instructor in
medical/surgical nursing; DIAaVA FOGLEMAN, instructor in
fundamentals of nursing; ANN BOHNET and BEVERLY FLINT,
instructional assistants in pediatric nursing. Also announced were
the resignations, etfective August 31, of ]\IKS. PHOEBE AIIL-
GREN, assistant professor, and RUTH S. HARRIS, assistant pro
fessor and director of the Division of Medical/Surgical Nursing.
RUBY WILSON, assistant ])rofessor, is on a year’s sabbatical
leave, and JANET CAMPBELL, assistant professor, is on a leave
of absence working on her doctorate in public health niirsing at
the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
VOL. 13 NO. 7/1966