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VOLUME 18, NUMBER 2
JANUARY 15, 1971
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA
IRU* Opens
Rehabilitation Unit Expanded
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ADMINISTRATIVE
CONFERENCE—Oscar Aylor, right,
assistant director of the Hospital,
discusses details of the new Inpatient
Rehabilitation Unit with Al Taylor,
director of the Durham Rehabilitation
Center where the new Duke ward is
located, (photo by Thad Sparks)
Rehabilitation, according to the
dictionary, means to "restore to a
condition of health."
Duke's expanding rehabilitation
program is going beyond that traditional
definition and entering the area of
"prospective rehabilitiation," or what we
commonly call preventive medicine.
In most rehabilitation centers,
including the one at Duke, patients who
have suffered crippling illnesses are
"restored to health" through medical
treatment and therapy.
But, extending the rehabilitation
philosophy, "prospective rehabilitation"
includes attempting to reduce high-risk
factors in patients before they fall victim
to a serious illness.
"An arthritic is no less a rehabilitation
patient just because we step into the
course of his disease early instead of
allowing it to completely incapacitate
him before we begin rehabilitation,"
explained Dr. E. Harvey Estes, chairman
of the Department of Community Health
Sciences and director of rehabilitation.
Seven Faculty Changes Announced
Two associate professors and five
assistant professors have been named to
the Medical Center faculty, according to
an announcement from University
Provost Dr. John 0. Blackburn.
Promoted from assistant professor of
surgery and assistant professor of
immunology to associate professorships
in both fields was Dr. Hilliard F. Seigler.
Dr. Seigler, at Duke since 1965, is a
graduate of the University of North
Carolina and its medical school. He did
his internship and residency at Memorial
Hospital in Chapel Hill and came to Duke
as a research fellow in immunogenetics
before joining the staff.
Dr. Raymond Massengill, Jr., formerly
assistant professor of medical speech
pathology, was promoted to associate
professor. He retains his title as director
of medical speech pathology.
Dr. Massengill is a graduate of the
University of Tennessee and earned his
Ed. D. degree from the University of
Virginia in 1965. He previously taught at
the University of North Carolina in
Chapel Hill.
Two persons. Dr. Frances K. Widmann
and Dr. James W. Wilson, were named
assistant professors of pathology.
Dr. Widmann, a graduate of
Swarthmore College and the Western
Reserve University School of Medicine,
comes to Duke from a post as medical
director of the Blood Bank at North
(continued on page three)
Duke leased a third of the new
Durham Rehabilitation Center recently to
serve as an inpatient rehabilitation unit
(IRU) supporting the outpatient program
at the Marshall I. Pickens Rehabilitation
Center a mile away on Erwin Road.
With the addition of the IRU, which
can accommodate up to 40 patients,
Duke now has a special hosptial area
solely devoted to people who are starting
the rehabilitative road back to more
nearly normal lives but who haven't
progressed far enough to be out from
under close nursing and medical
supervision.
The Medical Center began developing
supportive services for rehabilitation of
outpatients three years ago with the
"Rehab I" addition to the back of Baker
House.
Among other things, this unit houses
hearing clinics, surgical and medical
speech pathology clinics, and the division
of orthodontics.
The second phase of the Duke
program, "Rehab II," came into being in
late 1969 with the dedication of the
Marshall I. Pickens Rehabilitation Center,
named for the vice chairman of the Duke
Endowment and longtime director of the
endowment's Hospital and Child Care
section.
The Pickens building serves as
departmental headquarters for
Community Health Sciences, including
the faculty and student health clinics, and
as the coordination center for all Duke's
rehabilitation functions.
"Rehabilitation is not an isolated
entity," Dr. Estes said, "and it has to be
established in the framework of the
community instead of exclusively in an
academic setting."
That is one of the reasons why, he
explained, rehabilitation was brought
under Community Health Sciences,
(continued on page three)