Democrat and Chronicle from Rochester, New York • Page 109

The Expanding University of Medicine end Dentistry Master Plan Drafted for Development; May Double Medical Center Facilities In ROCHESTER 11 11 SUNDAY. JUNE 16. 1363 This is the fourth in a series of special Sun-day Democrat and Chronicle reports on the University of Rochester and its expanding and developing colleges. The next report will ted you about the university's Eastman School of Music. The University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry is one of the nation's foremost medical schools.

It's among the three leading producers of medical teachers and scholars. And the physicians it trains take their places among the top practitioners in their communities. Its Medical Center ranks seventh among the nation's training centers for medical faculty. Four Nobel Prize winners have come from its ranks. Some 1.000 would-be M.D.'i vie annually for the 70 places in its freshman class.

Yet, despite these achievements, the Medical School today is on the threshold of two far-reaching developments: 1 A "massive revaluation" of programs, facilities, and finances that may transform its teaching, research, patient care and community service. 2 Development of a master plan for expansion that could possibly double the Medical Center's facilities within the next 15 to 20 years. i 1 Li rjyiv i 4 i Tsr- PLANS FOR EXPANSION of Medical Center are Checked by Dr. Frank W. McKee, associate dean and Dr.

Donald G.Anderson, dean of School of Medicine. ment of Microbiology and one of the top cancer researchers, heads school's curriculum committee. Dr. Orbison, chairman of Department of Pathology, is chairman of the special Committee of Six. THE FORTHCOMING 'NEW LOOK' in the Medical School's program has been shaped by committees headed by Dr.

Herbert R. Morgan and Dr. J. Lowell Orbison. Dr.

Morgan, chairman of Depart "home base" for the Medical School's approximately 1,400 full- and part-time students of all kinds: Medical and nursing students, master's and Ph.D. degree candidates, interns, residents, post-doctoral fellows and others. TO OFFER first-rate education, the Medical School's hospitals and clinics must be first-rate as well. Conversely, whatever enriches the quality of medical education offered by the school is bound to raise the quality of care offered through its hospitals. Thus the current reevaluation of the school's programs and services has important implications for the Rochester community.

Dean Donald O. Anderson, himself a former president of the American Association of Medical Colleges, strongly believes a medical school must continually and candidly reappraise its programs if it is to progress. And he is mindful of the old adage that in education nothing fails like success because of the complacency it induces. "In medical education particularly, nothing stands still," Dr. Anderson points out.

"Rochester's first medical faculty. men like Dean George Whipple, Dr. George Corner, Dr. Wallace Fenn, and Dr. William McCann were as outstanding a group as ever headed a medical school anywhere.

Under their leadership Rochester achieved distinction almost from its earliest days. But today the new generation of faculty must make their own contribution by responding imaginatively to the challenges that face medicine everywhere." The dimensions of these challenges are awesome, Dr. Anderson admits. On one hand, medical schools must keep pace with con- 1M I service; Dr. Leonard medical director of quarter of his time on elective courses geared to his special interests.

In contrast, today's med student has no electives and precious little so-called "free time." A broad interdepartmental "clerkship" in medicine to be taken before the student explores the medical specialities. A meaty assortment of new courses some so new that no single textbook covers the proposed material. THE MOST revolutionary part of the program and the toughest to implement undoubtedly will be the tutorial system. Other medical schools have tried it. And failed.

But Rochester has three big advantages on its side, Dean Anderson believes. First, there is the traditionally close relationship between faculty and students. Second, there's the longstanding success of the school's "year-out" fellowship program which, since the founding of the school, has provided opportunity for medical students to devote a whole year to independent work under the guidance of senior faculty members. And finally, a small-scale tutorial experiment launched for first-year students this year has won the approval of most students and staff. Against this background, they feel that if the necessary facilities and financial support are provided, these bold new programs-in-the-making should flourish to the benefit of future generations of students and facultyand the Rochester community as well.

academle ealiber of the school's students remains high. In last year's State Board examinations, for example, Rochester's nursing students scored first among all nursing schools in the state on all exams but one, in which they ranked second. The school's faculty has grown substantially: From 476 (including 176 full-time faculty) in 1952-53 to 748 (including 293 full-time) in 1962-63. And, with the aid of the school's recent Mellon grant for strengthening its pre-clini-cal departments, new impetus has been given to faculty expansion. The research budget has tripled, this year will hit $7.6 million.

(Incidentally, it takes 165 pages just to summarize school's current research projects.) By far the biggest chunk of the total research budgetsome $2.7 million goes to the Department of Radiation Biology, which directs the school's Atomic Energy Project The project was originally established to conduct the school's World War II work on medical aspects of the atomic bomb. Today it is among the world's leading centers for the training of radiation biologists. And its wide-ranging investigations include studies on the biological effects of radiation, cancer research, studies on the effects of microwaves, and work on basic problems of biology. Even more important than the dollar-value of research, however, is the professional recognition being accorded the school's new generation of scholars, says Dr. Anderson.

Three of its faculty, for instance, were among the first group of scientists chosen to receive the National Institutes of Health's Career Research Awards. These grants, which provide lifetime for outstanding scientists, went to Dr. John Vaughan of the Department of Medicine, Dr. George Engel of Psychiatry, and Dr. Gilbert Forbes of Pediatrics.

TO KEEP PACE with its expanding programs and personnel, the school has added over $7 million of facilities in the last five years. And, the success of the recent community-wide hospital fund drive has assured that the Medical Center soon will have several urgently needed new facilities for patient care. These Include new operating and delivery rooms; new kitchen, cafeteria, and sterile supply center; a series of 12-to-15 bed units lor post-operative and other intensive patient care; a 40-bed "limited care" unit for convalescents and for rehabilitation patients. But this is only a modest beginning. More, much more, must be done, Dr.

Anderson emphasizes. That's why so much of his time and that of Dr. Leonard Fenninger, medical director of Strong Memorial Hospital, is going into the shaping of a master plan for the school's facilities. "Our major concern is to plan tor sound lon-range development," Dr. Anderson states.

"And, with the school involved in some 15 major educational programs, 350 research projects, and a score of patient care and community health programs, we have our work cut out for us." To implement its planning the school has appointed a leading firm of medical architects the Ellerbe Company of St. Paul to analyze present facilities and plan for future needs. FORTUNATELY, Dr. Anderson says, the original design of the Medical Center was unusually sound. The University of Roche PATIENT CARE is an important A A I of nursing Fenninger, factor in Medical Center plans.

From the left, Peter Mebel, a 4th-year medical student; Mrs. Marion Nichols, acting director the hospital. Patient is Robert Wanzer, 10, son of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Wanzer, 40 Fairhlll Drive.

To many the Medical School is the most intriguing of the University of Rochester's seven colleges. Unquestionably it is the most complex. In addition to turning out M.D.'i, like other schools it conducts programs of education ranging from the undergraduate level (as in its Department of Nursing) through graduate study (such as its Ph.D. programs in the basic medical sciences). It is heavily involved in research Its multl-pil-lion-dollar research pro' grams have long been among the University's prime "glamour" projects.

BUT BY ITS very nature, the Medical School far more than the University's other academic units is intimately bound up with the Rochester community through its operation and staffing of Strong Memorial Hospital and Municipal Hospital, its close affiliation with the area's other hospitals and health agencies, and its involvement in regional health planning. Just to run the Strong Memorial Municipal Hospital complex is a major enterprise and one that differs markedly from the University's other activities. The area's largest general hospital, Strong serves one out of five patients admitted to Rochester hospitals. It receives one out of three emergency patients who visit a hospital here. It handles two out of three clinic visits made in the area.

It admits an average of four patients every hour of the day and nearly 5,000 people pass through its doors daily. It provides the area's only facility for open-heart surgery and for high-energy X-ray treatment. Its Poison Control Center is the official New York State unit for an 11-county area; its new Rehabilitation and Diagnostic Clinic is the state's primary rehabilitation center for this region. And it is, of course, 1 1 ys stantly accelerating advances in medical research and care and with the enormous costs that inevitably accompany such progress. And on the other hand, they must meet the rising expectations of a society which demands higher standards of medical service for all of its members.

TO ROCHESTER such challenges are perhaps especially critical. For the Medical School is proud of its reputation for excellence. In particular, it cherishes three traditions by no means universal in medical schools: Respect for the in-dividual patient, student and staff member alike; close interdepartmental cooperation, and scholarship of depth and rigor. Some of its members wonder if the school can retain these traditions in an era that seems to point to sizeable expansion of facilities and staff and to increased complexities of financing. Take the matter of facilities.

Fifteen to 25 years ago a heart patient could be studied in one small room with one small cardiograph machine. Today the arsenal of diagnostic "weapons" includes a complex array of instruments for catheterization, ballistocardiography, cinefluorography (the use of X-ray movies, which was developed at the Medical School), and so on. To house the man-and-machine power needed for such studies takes ten times the area needed formerly. Today's operations take longer, too. "Ten years ago few operations lasted over two hours," Dr.

Anderson explains. "Now, with heart-lung surgery and other advanced procedures, it's not uncommon for operations to take five, six, or seven hours. As a result, more operating rooms are required just to handle the same number of patients." Municipal Hospital at the the university is is the The story is the same in research. Fifteen years ago, the medical scientist's prime tool was a desk-top microscope: Cost: $1,500 to $2,000 for the best you could buy. Today the precise electron microscope is opening up whole new areas of investigation.

But it requires a large room and associated facilities. And it costs over $35,000. The Medical School now has six such units, hopes to add more. And, unceasingly, there is the nation's need for more medical personnel. For more doctors and nurses.

For more teachers to staff new and expanding medical schools. For more medical scientists' to achieve eagerly awaited breakthroughs against cancer, heart disease, and a score of other killers and to unravel the mysteries of human life that underlie these diseases. FAR FROM being overwhelmed by these challenges, the crisply competent Dr. Anderson points out that the Medical School has made some solid progress in recent years. Since World War II it has doubled its roster of graduate students, interns, residents, and post-doctoral fellows.

Although medical students still form the core of the school's educational program they now make up only about one-third of its full-time student body. Today the school ranks among the country's leading centers for graduate training in medicine. Its Department of Dentistry and Dental Research is recognized as the world's leading producer of dental college deans, faculties and researchers. Its Department of Psychiatry has become a model which many medical schools strive to duplicate. Despite Increasing competition from other professions for top students, the right.

The campus of backfrouad, toy right ter Medical Center was the first in the country to house medical school and hospital under the same roof; this feature, the faculty feels, has contributed much to the close relationship among the school's various departments. And they're determined to pre-serve this advantage as the school expands. How big will the Medical School grow? According to Dr. Anderson, preliminary studies indicate that, just to hold its own, the Medical Center must double its facilities in the next 15 to 20 years. "That doesn't mean we'll double our programs," he adds.

"Actually our most urgent need is for space to enable us to go into current programs more deeply. And the funds available for research and patient care usually do not provide for construction or for the support of permanent faculty." "Right now many programs are critically handicapped by Inadequate facilities," he says. "In a sense, we've traded on the loyalty of a dedicated faculty. They've been remarkably patient and, in some cases, amazingly ingenious in coping with ear space limitations. However, unless we can provide proper facilities we ean't expect to keep them or te attract the additional staff we need." THE CHALLENGES facing the Medical School today aren't simply a matter of "more" more people, more facilities, more money, Dr.

Anderson insists. These are involved, of course. But the big questions, he says, boil down to these "How can we best contribute new medical knowledge?" "How can we effectively strengthen our programs of patient care?" "How can we give each student an education that will develop his individual talents and build on the superior preparation he's getting in college today?" THESE ARE the sorts of questions the Medical School faculty must answer creatively and soon. For Rochester's new generation of medical faculty, here is challenge to spare. Indeed, not since the school's early days has there been so much professional soul-searching as among this "faculty in ferment." For one thing, they've been taking a long look at the school's program for medical students.

Spearheaded by a faculty committee of six under Dr. Lowell Orbison, head of the Department of Pathology, a two-year self -scrutiny of the school's program for medical students has brought proposals for major revamping of the curriculum. The specifics currently are being hammered out by a committee headed by Dr. Herbert Morgan, chairman of the Department of Microbiology. Under consideration are: A tutorial system in which each medical student will have a faculty "tutor" as his special teacher and counsellor throughout his student years.

A "custom tailored" curriculum enabling the student to spend about one- mmm 'til II I I II il II I I I A UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER as it looks today from air. Strong Memorial Hospital is la center,.