2
Aniyan Warns U.S* Hospitals
Don't Get Stuck with 'Halfway Technologies'
By Joe Sigler
American hospitals: Don't get
rigid and locked into "half-way
technologies.” Your survival may
depend on your flexibility.
That was part of the message
prepared for an American Hospital
Association symposium in
Warrenton, Va., yesterday and today
by Dr. William G. Aniyan, vice
president for health affairs.
Aniyan said that changes in
attitudes and habits by the American
people, coupled with better health
education, also could have a
significant impact on tomorrow's
hospitals.
Half-Way Technologies
Aniyan calls the whole collection
of expensive patient maintenance
and repair programs, such as kidney
dialysis and cardiac by-pass surgery,
"half-way technologies" because
they are high-cost, aftermath
treatments of disease that neither
prevent nor control the disease itself.
For illustration, Aniyan noted that
before research produced a vaccine
for polio and antibiotic control of
tuberculosis, polio and TB were both
half-way technology diseases. If
hospitals in the 1940s had been so
inflexible as to have planned only for
iron lungs and sun rooms, he said,
much time, money and personnel
would have been wasted.
Hospital programs, he cautioned,
"should be reviewed annually with a
five-year roll forward for constant
updating." With rapidly developing
changes such as ultrasound and
computerized tomography, Aniyan
said, "no plans should be set in
concrete."
Health Education Needs
In health education, Aniyan said
the United States needs programs on
a national basis, "tailored to the
needs of every age group." The
country, he noted, "is spending a
mere $l-$3 million in federal
expenditures this year in public
education in health."
Touching on some of the areas
where education is needed, Aniyan
said that "alcoholism, drug abuse,
obesity and accidents prevail at the
same time as we spend millions of
dollars on cirrhosis of the liver, crime
resultant from drug addiction,
managing arteriosclerosis-
hypertensioh-diabetes resultant
from obesity and accepting
premature death or major disability
as a result of accidents."
Changes in health habits, attitudes
and behavior through education
could alter the hospital patient
makeup of the future, he said.
Who Does What
One of the key issues facing
hospitals is what Aniyan calls "the at
least 225 different catiegories of
health care personnel who interface
with the patient." It raises the
question, he said, of "who does what
to whom, where and when?"
Cost also is a factor because as
each "new, ill-defined health
profession" is organized, Aniyan
said, "a new guild is born to protect
Trading Post
You may send ads to "Trading Post," Box
3354, Hospital, no later than one week prior
to publication. Ads are printed free, but we
do not advertise real estate, personal
* services or commercial enterprises. Please
give your home telephone number. Duke
extensions will not be listed.
FOR SALE-1971 Grand Prix Model J.
Navy blue with white vinyl top. Blue
interior. Automatic transmission. Air
condition, full p>ower — steering, brakes,
windows, seats. AM-FM stereo radio and
built-in eight-track player. New shocks
and tires. Recently married, must sell.
Will take first reasonable offer. Call
383-4363 weekdays after 5 p.m. and
anytime on weekends.
FOR SALE-1974 Jensen-Healey, 1,500
miles, must sell, leaving country. Call
683-6810 Monday-Friday. Ask for Micki
Helms. Call 929-1468 in Chapel Hill after
6 p.m.
FOR SALE-1971 AMC Gremlin,
41,000 miles, four-speed, air cond., great
vondition; must sell immediately, $990.
Intercom
is published weekly for Duke Uni
versity Medical Center employees,
faculty, staff, students and friends by
the medical center's Office of Public
Relations, Joe Sigler, director; David
Williamson,' medical writer; William
Erwin, Comprehensive Cancer Center
medical writer; Miss Annie Kittrell,
secretary.
Editor
Mrs. Ina Fried
Public Relations Assistant
John Becton
it. New associations, academies,
societies, certifying boards and
accrediting groups emerge and the
cost is ploughed somewhere into the
health care system."
Certifying the competence of these
groups as well as physicians will
increasingly affect hospital costs in
the future, he predicted.
Continuing Evaluation
"With the rapid turnover in
pertinence and validity of medical
information," Aniyan said, "it
becomes imperative that continuing
evaluation of competence become a
way of doing business, similar to the
recertification of airline pilots."
Hospitals will have to provide
facilities for expanding continuing
education programs to meet those
needs, Aniyan said, and health
professionals may have to spend as
much as a month a year in advanced
clinical study.
In his symposium paper, Aniyan
lamented the absence of a separate
cabinet-level Secretary of Health and
the absence of a long-term national
health policy which has resulted in
"180-degree swings of the pendulum
in directional guidance."
A strong supporter of research, the
doctor advised that "the best
prescription for good health and cost
containment of health care will be a
continued modest investment of
public and private monies in
biomedical research."
co^
by the Camera
Call 682-8109 before 5 p.m. (ask for Tim)
or 383-2680 after 5 p.m.
FOR SALE —Play pen, umbrella
stroller, training chair, car seat, all in
excellent condition. Call 383-2934 after 4
p.m.
FOR SALE —AKC wire-haired fox
terriers. Must have fenced yard or keep
inside. Call John Mauney, 688-6597 after
5p.m.
WANTED —Room to rent or house to
share near Duke for Florida State
University senior doing internship in
hospital recreation. Dates needed Jan.
2-March 25 (12 weeks). Call 471-1710 after
7 p.m. or contact recreation staff in
psychiatry, third floor, red zone.
FOR SALE —Peke-a-poos. Males,
white and black and white. Phone
688-0883 after 6 p.m. or anytime
weekends.
FOUND—Silver hoop earring found in
area of blood drive at Eye Center, Nov.
17. CaH Jane Mahoney, 6M-3511.
FOR SALE—1974 Olds Vista Cruiser,
31,000 miles, AM-FM, AC, nine
passenger, $3,500. Call 688-6813
Monday-Friday, and after 6 p.m. call
929-146>8 in Chapel Hill. Ask for Ms.
Helms.
WANTED-Used set of World Book
Encyclopedia or Encyclopedia Britannica.
Call collect, Hillsborough, 732-4586 after
5:30 p.m.
FOR SALE —1969 Buick Skylark,
2-door, hard top, new tires; $995. Call
682-1005, days; ^9-2021, nights.
FOR SALE—Firewood, $30 per load.
Call Hillsborough, 732-7194, anytime.
SKIING IN VERMONT - Group of
Duke fjersonnel are going to Burke Mnt.,
Vt., leaving Jan. 1, 1977, returning Jan. 9;
second year offered; 6 days skiing, lesson
and equipment available. We share
cooking and expenses. Cost about $200.
Call 286-7180 or 929-5930 (Chapel Hill).
LIQUID LUNCH—Pharmacist Daryl Blackburn checks the prescription for a Total
Parenteral Nutrition (TPN) intravenous (IV) solution. "A pharmiacist and surgeon can
decide what formula to be used on each individual patient to provide complete
nutrition," he explained. Blackburn rotates with other personnel in the Central
Pharmacy in checking regular and TPN IV's, filling and checking unit dose carts with
patient medications and staffing a drug information service. A graduate of the
pharmacy school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Blackburn has
worked here for two years. He and his wife enjoy traveling, camping, fishing and
playing tennis. (Photo by Ina Fried)