“It is requested that, at the first available opportunity, the following officers confer with Dr. Maddox, “C” Building, Room 1–319, concerning urgent construction work going on at their stations:
Dr. W. H. Allen, of Boise, Idaho.
Dr. W. C. Billings, of Ellis Island, N.Y.
Dr. R. L. Allen, of Arrowhead Springs, Cal.
Dr. A. P. Chronquest, of West Roxbury, Mass.
Dr. E. R. Marshall, of Detroit, Mich.”
GEN. CUMMING: “This afternoon we are going to consider administrative policies. The first paper will be “Professional Service,” by Dr. Lavinder,”
ASST. SURGEON GENERAL C. H. LAVINDER:
“The subject that has been assigned to me is very broad in its scope, and the time is so limited, that if I may be permitted I wish to tender a written paper.” Dr. Lavinder read the article on “Professional Service”,
“In a discussion of professional service, however brief, no thoughtful medical man could forbear some comment on the present general status of clinical medicine and its developments within the last few years. The steady trend towards greater educational requirements, the development of refinements in diagnosis and therapy and the straining after what are believed to be higher scientific standards, creates in many minds some uneasiness as to whether the medical profession may not, by such things, be led astray and forget the very purpose for which clinical medicine exists, that is, the comfort, welfare and relief of the patient. Such a fear is by no means a groundless one. There is always a possibility that the medical man may become so enamored of his refinements and of his scientific methods as to forget that his business is the treatment of the sick. It is a truism so trite as sometimes to be overlooked, that all organization and all methods in clinical medicine have for their ultimate end the care of the patient and everything else must be subordinated to his interests.