Dr. Gill has Seen a Lifetime of Medical Progress

              1 0 A FRIDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1978 SHREVEPORTBOSSIER CITY, LA., •SHREVEPORT JOURNAL
Dr. Gill Has Seen a Lifetime of Medical Progress
By EVANGELJNE TOLLESON
Journal Staff Writer
Not everybody wants to go back to the good old
days.
In 1943, a young Dr. Samuel L. Gill started
practicing as an internist in Shreveport, without
the aid of many diagnostic tools and antibiotics
used today.
Now an internist at Willis-Knighton Clinic, the
doctor recently received the 1978 Distinguished
Service Award by the Shreveport Medical Society
for outstanding contribution to the advancement
of medicine in Shreveport.
Progress has been great for medicine during
Gill's lifetime, the doctor said. "I can't ever say
I'd like to go back to the good old days. Medical
aids have advanced so rapidly, it's hard to im-agine
practicing without them."
When he first started his profession as a doctor,
electrocardiograms were used as research tools.
Today, they are used routinely "To diagnose a
patient, we had to rely on historical and physical
impressions," Gill said. "The electrocardiogram
gives you knowledge you didn't have before."
The two biggest advances in his profession have
been the diagnosis and treatment of
cardiovascular patients and the use of antibiotics,
he said.
The present health care delivery system in the
United States is "the best there is," the doctor
stated. The proposed national health insurance
plan may have some merits if properly adminis-tered
for catastrophic illnesses, but should not be
used generally, he said.
"Private enterprise has been the basis of
progress," Gill stated. "To give it up for plans that
have proven to be poor seems unreasonable."
Gill supports the quality of medicine locally.
"We've seen wonderful progress within the city of
Shreveport," he stated. "We have kept pace or
out-paced the progress of medicine."
LSU Medical Center is the city's biggest single
asset for medicine and time is what the center
needs most, he said.
Doctors have more than a responsibilty to
medicine, Gill reflected. "You've got a duty to
your community as a citizen, to your church and
to your family, as well as your profession. I think
you have to be a part of all of these." He noted this
duty is not just for doctors, but "for anyone who is
conscientious in his own profession."
A deacon at First Presbyterian Church, Gill is a
member of the Board of Trustees at Willis-
Knighton Memorial Hospital and the Heath
Education Authority of Louisiana. He is past
president of the Shreveport Medical Society, the
Shreveport Memorial Blood Bank, the Caddo
Parish Heart Council and the Willis-Knighton
Memorial Hospital Professional Staff.
The doctor is also a member of the American
Medical Association and is a former member of
the City Board of Health. He serves on the
professional staffs of LSU Medical Center and
Schumpert Medical Center, in addition to Willis-
Knighton Memorial Hospital.
Dr. Samuel L. GUI