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Show CHAMPIONS INDIVIDUAL ' Early in June, Dr. David B. Allman was inaugurated as the new president of the American Medical Association. Associa-tion. His inaugural address bore an unusual title "The Personality of Medicine." Its emphasis is on the fact that it is the responsibility of physicians today ... to minister minis-ter not only to the human body and its ills but also to human hearts minds and emotions. Sympathy and understanding on the part of the doctor, doc-tor, in Dr. Allman's view, are just as important as scientific scienti-fic knowledge. He must blend science with art and he must be both scientist and humanitarian "He knows that all the scientific training in the world cannot dry up the milk of human kindness." This is not easy, as Dr. Allman makes abundantly clear. The physician is literally fighting against the very secrets of life. He can postpone death but he cannot eliminate it. So he "... is constantly striving for a balance bal-ance between personal, human values; scientific realities and the Inevitability of God's will." Dr. Allman believes that the doctor has the main responsibility re-sponsibility in seeking to establish a warm and friendly relationship between the patient and himself. There must be all possible understanding and cooperation on both sides. Yet the doctor is always confronted with a hard fact that sometimes he will be helpless, that there is nothing in medical science to prevent death or disability. Most doctors are dedicated men and when this happens the strain is heavy. But, Dr. Allman writes, he cannot brood "... and beat his he?d against the wall of whatlmight-have-been." The demands of his profession continue the obligations to all his other patients are still there and must be kept uppermost in mind. This indicates why Dr. Allman has found that the most difficult decisions a doctor makes are not on the scientific side of medicine. His training and experience tell hm what to do in an emergency, what medicines to prescribe, whether to operate or not. So, "His most agonizing agon-izing decisions lie in the field of human relations." Dt. Allman quotes from a journal left to the son of a doctor who himself died very young: "You will be blessed or cursed with an insight which few persons receive the knowledge of length of life, or when and why . . . and worse, how ... a person will die: painless or painful, fearless fear-less or fearful, weak or strong. Knowing these facts, you will have to decide how to tell a person or his family what is coming. Have you got the guts to do it? If not, get out now." And, Dr. Allman adds, "There are no textbooks, no rules of thumb, no easy yardsticks governing such matters mat-ters of human heartbreak." ? ' In closing his impressive talk. Dr. Allman warns against rigid idealogies or systems which bury Individuals In the mass and against "quack remedies" both in medicine medi-cine and in public affairs. The need of today, as he sees It, is ". . . for a new revolution a revolution against opportunism, expediency and materialism a return to the orginal American ideals of freedom, personal responsibility, respon-sibility, individual initiative and, above all, faith in God." |