Several thousand doctors from 16 states assembled in New Orleans today for the 52nd annual meeting of the Southern Medical Association.
Practitioners in various specialties began holding separate group meetings at 9 a.*m, in convention headquarters in Municipal Auditorium. The convention will continue through Thursday.
A television broadcast last night of a heart operation in Charity hospital preceded formal opening of the meeting today. The operation to correct an impaired heart development was televised from 10:15 to 11:15 p. m. on'WDSU-TV.
Blasingame to Speak
Among today's special events was to be an address by Dr. F. J. L. Blasingame, executive vice-president of the i American Medical Association, at the president's luncheon in the Grand Ballroom of the Roosevelt hotel.
Dr. W. Kelly West, Oklahoma City, SMA president, was one of the arrivals yesterday. Another was Dr» Thomas W. Moore, 92-year-old Huntington, W. Va., practitioner, who will receive the association's award for distinguished service Thursday.
