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San Francisco: Departments
Emergency Medicine
Epidemiology and Biostatistics
Emergency Medicine
Early in the Korean conflict, it became evident
that many young physicians called into service were not adequately
prepared to practice under austere military conditions, notably
in the handling of mass casualties. Their motivation and morale
suffered in consequence. The then existing medical ROTC program,
which emphasized military organization and administration, had proved
inadequate because of its approach and because few students evinced
any interest in it. A joint committee of the American Medical Association
and the Association of American Medical Colleges developed the concept
of the Medical Education for National Defense program (MEND) which
was to concentrate on education in disaster medicine and the handling
of mass casualties.
MEND was started as a pilot program in five medical
schools, including the University's School of Medicine at San Francisco,
in the fall of 1952. The program demonstrated its worth in the first
year, leading to discontinuance of the medical ROTC program. In
addition, the MEND program was gradually started at other medical
schools so that later it existed in all 87 schools of medicine in
the United States. The program was jointly financed by the Army,
the Navy, the Air Force, and the Public Health Service. The services
also conducted scientific symposia and courses for faculty members
of the participating schools.
The MEND program was administered at this school
by the Division of Emergency Medicine, which came into being for
that purpose in the fall of 1954. The curricular emphasis was in
three major areas. First was the handling of mass casualties, sorting
and transportation of the wounded, bandaging and splinting, and
the legal implications of a physician rendering service in a natural
disaster. The second emphasis was on the control of infectious diseases
in disasters, biological warfare, and the important tropical diseases
which were rarely or never seen in the continental United States.
The third feature of the curriculum was a thorough grounding in
radiobiology, including the application of radioisotopes to biology
and medicine, both in the laboratory, and clinically, on the hospital
ward. source
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Epidemiology and Biostatistics
There is no history currently available
for this department.
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