Document YG1XXDxZRagw1pmL4MNMZ1Jrn
August 28, 1946
Dr. Eutherford Johnstone, Golden State Hospital, Los Angeles, California.
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Dear lied s
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I have just come across a notation that reminds me that X promised to send you some information concerning our general plans for a program of post-graduate Instruction in industrial medicine. I have an idea that I may have sent you a reprint of a rather general talk vhleh I made on this subject some time ago* Hovever, I am not sure that I did so and I am sending you a copy of this reprint at this time. I expect to amplify this paper in an article vhich I shall prepare for the Journal of Occupational Medicine, but for the present this should serve to t give you my general ideas on the subject.
Actually some progress is being made toward achieving these e n d s . I am not attempting to move rapidly, but rather am trying to build a sound foundation for a faculty of a School of Industrial Medicine. We are working experimentally in collaboration with the Department of Dermatology and^to a lesser degree, with-the Department of M edlbine . I have two associates with sound training in internal medici/ie and with close professional relationships to various departments in the hospital. We are finding problems that interest us/in the* medical wards and in the pathology depart ment of the hospital, and we a^e giving assistance from both the clinical and laboratory point of view in the diagnosis and in the following up of cases of industrial origin. Moreover, the Laboratory is more and more employed in connection with the hos pital as a source of technical information as well as diagnostic assistance. In this way I anticipate that this laboratory will be the means by which all of the clinical departments enter into the consideration and investigation of problems of industrial medicine and Indus trial health. We have a series of volunteer men in the medical and surgical specialties. A number of these men have no funds or facilities of any kind for investigation, and little or no time for following up certain types of c a s e s . We expect to provide the means whereby these opportunities and facilities are provided. In return for these services we can expect to receive the collaboration of our colleagues in clinical work and in teaching. Our goal is obviously the establishment of an adequate background in the form of a going out-patient and in-patient industrial service. I have no doubt that additional hospital facilities will be required here for this purpose, and it appears that it is feasible to obtain such facilities. Along with such facilities we anticipate having a certain number of beds for metabolic and clinical studies of a purely experimental
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Dr. Autherford Johnstone - (2) - August 28, 1946
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character. So much for the clinical end of the work.
From the point of viev of research and teaching in industrial
hygiene and industrial toxicology, our facilities are good. How
ever, they need to be expanded and in some respects Intensified,
to the end that we shall be able to give the graduate physician
comprehensive training in the problems, of industrial environment.
It is here that I anticipate the extension of our work into
various physiological aspects of the field, with special reference
to the contributions that can be made by the dermatologist, the
neurologist, the ophthalmologist, the otologist and the physiolo
gist. I am thinking here of the problems of heating and cooling,
lighting, sound control, control of radiant energy as well as the
control of toxic hazards. As you veil know, medical men as a
group know very little about these problems, whereas the medical
men in industry need to know something about them.
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I think you will see from the above comments how I expect to go about the clinical and laboratory ends of the training in Indus trial Medicine. Having accomplished these phases of training, I should then expect the candidate for a certificate or a degree in this field to spend a year in industrial plants on arotating " service which will acquaint him with the practical problems and the manner in which these are being made in current practice.
Much could be added to the program that I have in mind, for like the training in medicine, there is almost no aspects of modern life that is not of importance to the industrial physician. How ever, what I am interested in primarily is in having him know thoroughly the tools of his own trade. I do not expect to make a paragon of wisdom in all fields of human thought, out of the industrial physician. I do believe that he can be made a sound ' practitioner of the science and art of industrial health.
I trust that this belated letter may be of some use to you, and in any case I take pleasure in giving you my ideas.
Sincerely yours,
iAH ef Enc.
hobert A.' Kehoe, M. D..