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Show SEATTLE, WASH. men, wearing light blue jackets and carrying medical bags, may hold one of the keys to solving the nation's shortage of physicians. They are not doctors, but they're the next best thing trained personnel who know how to deal with emergencies, perform basic medical tasks, and meet needs of patients. They're called "Medex," and they represent the first new health professional in family medicine in 110 years, or since Florence Nightingale founded modern nursing. The 14 Medex, now completing their first year's work largely in rural areas of the State of Washington, are all former military "medics" medical corpsmen who have undergone special intensive training to adapt their military medical skills to civilian needs and situations. rourteen r i m ii'iy j 5 '!'l iLJ by Sid Ross & Herbert Kupferberg on-the-sp- ot More on the way Thousands of medical corpsmen are discharged from the services each year. Most have gone into completely unrelated fields in civilian life, thus wasting their years of medical training, obtained at a cost to the U.S. taxpayer of up to $20,000 per man. So successful have the first Medex been in bringing improved health care to patients in small towns and communities in Washington that plans are in operation to train 225 more for work in the Pacific Northwest by the end of this year. The man who started the whole thing. Dr. Richard A. Smith, associate professor of health services at the University of Washington, confidently predicts: "With a little more experience under our belts, we feel that it will spread to all 50 states." Other programs Other programs are also underway to obtain skilled assistants to meet the medical manpower shortage. At Duke University in Durham, N.C., for example, the "Physician's Associate Program" gives advanced training to extechnimilitary medics, nurses. cians and others over a two-yeperiod. Most of this program's graduates today are working for physicians in hospital and institutional settings. Others are employed by doctors in private practice. The Medex system gives its applicants three months' intensive training plus a year's apprenticeship with the doctor for whom he is going to work. What does a Medex do? Basically, he shares a doctor's workload by taking over many routine but X-r- ay ar Treatment in tandem: Dr. Vernon Kinzie 20 (I) checks out cast made by Medex Carl Patterson , new kind of medical professional. continued PARADE MAY 23, 1971 |