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VOLUME 24, NUMBER 21
JUNE 14, 1974
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA
Edwin C. Whitehead Establishes Endowment
New Research Institute Coming to Duke
Edwin C. Whitehead of Tarrytown,
N.Y., announced here yesterday that he
will establish a multi-nnillion-dollar
"pupose-oriented" biomedical research
institute on the- campus of and in
association with the medical center.
Whitehead is chairman of the board of
directors of Technicon Corporation of
Tarrytown and owns the bulk of the
stock of Technicon.
The research center will be known as
the Whitehead Institute for Medical
Research. It will be affiliated and
associated with Duke Hospital and the
School of Medicine, providing for a joint
effort between the institute, the hospital,
the medical school and members of the
staffs of each organization.
Whitehead made the announcement
during a 3 p.m. news conference in the
Medical Center Board Room.
Initially Whitehead will commit
sufficient funds to provide an operating
budget of approximately $1 million for
the institute's operations, and in the
future capital funds consisting of
Technicon stock will be made available
for endowment of the institute.
Whitehead, 55, was educated in New
York City schools and at the University
(«• hr:
WHITEHEAD
RESEARCH
INSTITUTE
of Virginia.
Technicon was started as a one-room
operation in 1939 by Whitehead and his
father. Today the corporation has five •
major divisions, eight distribution centers
4n the United States and Canada and has
offices in 20 other countries.
Technicon manufactures scientific
instruments used primarily for automated
chemical analysis of blood, blood serum,
air and water (for pollution content) and
various chemicals, pharmaceuticals, foods
and other products for quality control
and production monitoring.
Whitehead said, in pointing out a long
relationship with Duke, that some of the
early work on one of Technicon's original
machines was carried out by Dr. Ralph
Thiers, former head of the hospital's
Department of Clinical Chemistry.
"It is appropriate," Whitehead said,
"that Duke should be the location for
' this institute."
Whitehead emphasized that the
institute will be "purpose-oriented" in its
research efforts, explaining that "the
major goals will be long in range and each
will encompass the definitive solution of
a major problem area in medicine."
The selection of Duke as the site for
afisPiT,
WHITEHEAD
RESEARCH
INSTITUTE-^Y\e location
1^/
the new
Whitehead Institute for Medical Research is indicated in bold lettering in the uppier left
of this map. It will be constructed between Research Park (buildings numbered 14-18)
and Erwin Road. The present main complex of the medical center is indicated by
buildings numbered 1-8 at the lower right. The proposed new hospital is indicated by
the circle.
the institute came after an exhaustive
search of more than a year by Whitehead
and his associates for a university setting
where his institute's work would tie in
with existing biomedical research
programs.
Whitehead said that he and his
advisors, headed by Dr. James A.
Shannon, special assistant to the
president of Rockefeller University and
former director of the National Institutes
of Health, had visited and considered
more than 10 leading universities in the
country before selecting Duke.
The institute will be self-governing
through a Board of Directors which will
have a mutually interlocking relationship
with the University Board of Trustees.
Overall guidance will be in the hands
of a chief executive officer to be known
as the director of the institute. The
director is expected to be selected within
the next few months.
Research programs of the institute's
work will be determined on the advice of
a scientific advisory group made up of
some of the world's most distinguished
scientists.
The problem areas currently being
considered "emphasize a mix of the
growing edge of science and the great
problems of medicine," Whitehead said.
(Continued on page 2)
Dr. William G. Aniyan, vice
president for health affairs, will discuss
the new Whitehead Institute for
Medical Research and other medical
center expansion programs on a
Greensboro television program Sunday
night.
Aniyan will be the guest on
"Newsmaker," which is a 30-minute
public affairs and news program
telecast by WFMY-TV (Channel 2) at
10:30p.m. Sunday.
Fi
EDWIN C. WHITEHEAD
Department of Surgery Starts Clinic
To Deal with Chronic Pain Problems
Pain is one of those unpleasant
sensations which all forms of higher
animal life have in common.
Explained most simply, it occurs when
nerve endings receive a stimulus and
transmit news to the brain that something
is wrong. If it alerts an animal to danger
and thereby saves that animal from
further injury, it’s a good thing from a
biological point of view.
But when danger has passed, and
suffering lingers, there's very little one
can say about pain that's complimentary.
"Pain is one of the most common
symptoms that brings a patient to the
hospital," said Dr. Blaine S. Nashold Jr.,
professor in the Division of Neurosurgery,
while explaining the purpose of the
hospital's new Pain Clinic which operates
each Wednesday morn'ng from 9 a.m.
until noon in the Surgical Outpatient
Clinic.
"And we have come to realize that in
the busy practice of medicine, physicians
often don't have enough time to give to
patients with chronic pain," he said. "The
newly-established Duke Pain Clinic is not
primarily a diagnostic clinic but one to
which the primary physician may refer a
patient for advice and help with difficult
pain problems which have not responded
to the usual and traditional medical and
surgical therapies."
Nashold said that patients who will be'
seen at the clinic are those who are
already in the hospital and who are
directed there by their doctors. A team of
neurosurgeons, psychiatrists,
anesthesiologists, psychologists and
orthopaedic surgeons will cooperate in
examining the patients and deciding on
the best procedures for relieving their
pain.
At a later date, the clinic may be
opened to outpatients.
"Because pain involves almost every
aspect of a patient's existence, a
(Continued on page 2)