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VOLUME 18, NUMBER 41
OCTOBER 29, 1971
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA
Dr. Aniyan Outlines New Health System
(For the past year. Dr. Aniyan, vice
president for health affairs, has served as
chairman of the Association of American
Medical Colleges, the organization that
most closely guides the course of medical
education in this country. Tomorrow he
will deliver the chairman's address at the
AAMC annual meeting. Here is a portion
of an advance story on his address,
released by the Duke News Bureau for
publication in the national news media
tomorrow.)
The chairman of the Association of
American Medical Colleges, declaring an
end to what he called "the days of ivory
tower isolation" in academic medicine,
today prescribed a 12-point program "to
accomplish our task of bringing the
nation's health system to an optimal level
by 1985."
In his chairman's address to the AAMC
annual meeting here. Dr. Wiliam G.
Aniyan of Duke University proposed:
* Development of a time-availability
health-care system in which no one in the
nation would be beyond one hour's time
of a doctor's care.
* Building Into the system equal care
for all under a non-voluntary insurance
program, but with the options of
pre-payment or fee-for-service financing.
* Establishment of a peer review
system for recertification of physicians
every five years and making continuing
education mandatory.
* Instilling a greater awareness among
physicians that, in the health-cost spiral,
"the doctor's order in the hospital or
office is far costlier than any other trigger
mechanism."
* Increasing medical school admissions
to a level of 25,000 by 1985- double the
current number of medical freshmen.
* Creation of a separate, cabinet-level
rank of Secretary of Health, and
coordination of all health programs of the
present Department of Health, Education
and Welfare, the Veterans Administration
and the Department of Defense under a
Federal Health Council reporting directly
to the President.
Dr. Aniyan also called for sustaining a
"first-rate national effort in bio-medical
research," noting that "a thriving research
and development program is a vital
component of every industry, and the
health industry is no exception."
He said that in addition to increasing
the numbers of specialists in medicine,
schools should make a major effort to
train primary care physicians based in
general internal medicine or general
pediatrics, and that selected community
hospitals should serve as their educational
laboratories.
Among his other points. Dr. Aniyan
called for greater flexibility within
medical curriculums; educational
programs for upgrading the quality of
management in academic health centers;
restructuring their organizational charts
to fit administrative responsibilities; and
acceptance by academic medical centers
of "the total continuum of medical
education" and assumption of "new roles
tailored to the health-care needs
Dr. Aniyan is vice president for health
affairs at the Duke University Medical
Center. He steps down fro his one-year
chairmanship of the AAMC at this
meeting.
In seeking a title for his address. Dr.
Aniyan chose "1985."
"Not because it's one year past 1984,"
he said, "but because 1985 is already
upon us."
Because of the years of study required
for a medical education beyond high
school, "major changes initiated today
that affect the physician's education and
role as leader of a health care team will
not'have their full impact on society until
1985," he explained.
iM
O HAPPY DAY!—It was happy day in the Hospital cafeteria last week because,
according to the Dietetics Department, the employes deserved a day of cheer after all
the rainy weather. During happy day, anyone who entered the cafeteria received a free
cup of coffee. Dietetics reports more than 100 gallons of coffee were given away.
Posing with some of the happy day decorations are from left to right, Lelah Ervin,
Joyce V\fetson, Mary Pulley, and Dorothy Long, all of dietetics. The idea for happy day
came from Gerald Forton, director of dietetics, while Linda Kelley, dietitian, worked
to set it up. (staff photo)