During the first half of the twentieth century we have passed through an era of medical progress unequalled during any similar period.
Recent dramatic advances in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases, combined with more accurate analysis and interpretation of these advances by the lay press, have served to stimulate the interest of the general public in all matters of health and medical care.
The people of our country have learned that the availability of health service is a necessity, not a luxury. The responsibility* of training the physicians rests with the medical schools which are faced with an ever-changing scientific order where that which was new yesterday is commonplace today and that which is commonplace today becomes antiquated tomorrow.
The primary function of the medical school is to bring good teachers and good students together in an environment which is conducive to the development of a thorough understanding of the life process in health and disease.
Changes which have been made in medical education and the greal increase in cost of maintaining anc developing our medical schools is only a reflection of the changing cultural, scientific, social and economic conditions which have followed an evolutionary, rather thai a revolutionary, pattern typical of the American way of life.
The current problems are to identify, strengthen and establish those trends in medical education and science which best serve the needs of our people.
The Louisiana State University
chool or medicine is a state-supported institution and owes its be-ng and continuation of life to unds raised by taxation of the citizens of the state. The needs of the people of Louisiana who support our medical school must >e recognized as paramount in erms of the aims of our educational program.
We need at the present time general practitioners, specialists, research workers, medical educa-;ors, public health workers and many other types of professionally :rained young men and women to take care of our growing needs.
The medical school Can no long-r discharge its responsibilities to the state of Louisiana by isolating itself in one local area. The training program must extend beyond the medical school to the physicians throughout the state.
This postgraduate training program places additional demands on both faculty and administration for more personnel and funds to meet the needs. The LSU medical school must assist physicians in the rural areas to keep abreast of new developments and make it possible for them to develop in the field of general practice.
We must also prepare young physicians to meet the needs of the rural areas and help rural communities to determine their needs and furnish facilities which will attract young physicians to these areas.
At the present time facilities for the practice of medicine are inadequate in most rural communities. The" young men and women tend to concentrate in the larger centers where they have access to more modern facilities and where they are able to meet their own social and economic needs.
Civic-minded citizens in the§e areas where there is a lack or shortage of adequate medical care must make a united effort to provide physicians with the necessary facilities to practice medicine. In this way young doctors who have spent long years in acquiring the best medical skills could give the community the kind of care it must and should have.
