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Show i 'I ) 1 i 1 : i ,.: ; I i V J J i ! : :i - . r , j , V- ) : ; w -. , .. 1 -1 i MEDICAL STUDENTS Robert C. Richards and Alan M. Banks, both from P.G. are sophomore medical students. U of U Medical Clinic Has Benefits for P.G. Pleasant Grove, Lindon and Manila residents receive numerous num-erous benefits from Utah's largest lar-gest medical facility the University Un-iversity of Utah Medical Center. Cen-ter. The center's three "arms" research, education and patient care reach out into the state's rural areas to provide a wide variety of services ranging rang-ing from highly specialized patient pa-tient treatment to the education educa-tion and placement of doctors in rural settings. While a statistical breakdown break-down is not available, more than 440 Utah County residents were patients in university hospital hos-pital in the year ending March 1974. But patient care is only one of the center's "arms" that extend ex-tend into the Pleasant Grove area. The medical center is a base for varied medical research re-search projects, with emphasis on cancer, heart and blood diseases. dis-eases. It also serves as an educational educa-tional center for future physicians, phys-icians, nurses, pharmacists, medical social workers, medical medi-cal technologists and other allied al-lied health practitioners. Each of these "arms" interlock inter-lock and sustain one another ceptorships in the Pleasant Grove area include Paul Robinson Rob-inson Jr., who worked last January Jan-uary with Dr. Dale Murdock. The physicial placement project pro-ject that acts to place physicians physic-ians or provide alternative solutions sol-utions to doctor shortages at the request of rural communities. commun-ities. And the Utah MEDEX Demonstration Dem-onstration Project that is currently cur-rently training its fifth class of physicians' assistants. The MEDEX work under a physician's physic-ian's direct supervision performing perfor-ming parts of physician examinations, exam-inations, taking past histories, suturing minor lacerations, performing per-forming lab tests and completing complet-ing numerous other medical tasks to help overworked doctors doc-tors in the intermountain re-: re-: gion. Added to these specific projects pro-jects and educational programs are medical center services such as statewide genetic counseling, coun-seling, a newborn intensive care center, a regional poison control center, a burn and trauma trau-ma treatment unit that soon will expand from three to 12 beds and a regional eye bank that provides corneas for transplant trans-plant operations. as the tax-supported medical center serves the state and region. re-gion. For example, university hospital hos-pital serves as a referral center cen-ter where physicians can send patients for highly specialized treatment not available locally. The hospital is also the clinical facility for the college of medicine medi-cine and future physicians, in terns and residents learn their trade as a result of working with their patients under the direction of senior faculty members. As far as the college of medicine med-icine is concerned, Utah residents resi-dents hold 80 percent of the seats available, and beginning in 1972, the freshman class was expanded from 75 to 100 students stu-dents to help alleviate doctor shortage problems in rural portions por-tions of tlie state and region. Currently three Pleasant Grove area students are enrolled enroll-ed in the college. They are sophomore Alan M. Banks, son of Mr. and Mrs. Willis Banks; sophomore Robert C. Richards, son of Mrs. Lucille R. Jackson, and sophomore John Bezzant, son of Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Bezzant. However, according to Dr. John A. Dixon, vice president for health sciences, bigger classes clas-ses alone do not solve the physician stortage problem. The college's department of family and community medicine medi-cine (DFCM), under the chairmanship chair-manship of Dr. Hilmon Castle, has attempted to deal with the problem by designing programs to stimulate student interest in family practice, particularly in rural areas. Some of DFCM's programs are: The residency and student perceptorship projects in which graduates and students, joined by their spouses when possible, live in a rural community with a physician to participate in professional, community and social activities from one to two months. Some recent pre- |