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Vital Signs
Then & Now
A reminder of the pace of change, and of timeless truths, from the 1944-45 DMS course bulletin:
The course in Immunology
and Epidemiology covered
"the topics of immunization,
vaccines, antisera, tuberculosis
and venereal disease diagnosis
and control, water
supply protection and purifi-
cation, sewage disposal, milk
supply, dairy inspection, pasteurization,
food handling,
restaurant and swimming
pool sanitation, occupational
diseases, general epidemiology,
and the relation of
the physician in general
practice to preventive medicine
and public health."
$450
Annual tuition in 1944-45, compared to $34,498 in 2005-06
23
First-year students in 1944, compared to 82 in 2005
A reminder of the pace of change, and of timeless truths, from a 1987 issue of this magazine:
Six years after AIDS was
identified, the first mention
of the disease appeared in
these pages: "An education
supplement in the New York
Times . . . hailed Dartmouth's
leadership in educating
students about AIDS.
'Some students think they
are invulnerable,' [a DMS
faculty member told the
Times]. . . .
Though criticized
in some quarters, . . . Dartmouth's
program is at the
forefront of higher education's
response to AIDS, according
to the executive director
of the American College
Health Association."
4,000+
Number of occurrences
today on Dartmouth websites
of the term "AIDS";
for more about AIDS,
see the feature "Anatomy of an Epidemic" in this issue.
A reminder of the pace of change, and of timeless truths, from a 1952 booklet marking the opening of the Faulkner House addition to the old Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital:
Faulkner House was heralded
as the "most significant
single development in the
history of the Hospital." In
1945, with occupancy at
95%, "all departments [had
been] operating under serious
handicaps of space."
But Faulkner made "the
facilities . . . entirely adequate
for offering the best
possible hospital service."
$3 million
Cost of Faulkner House,
compared to $220 million
for the 1999-2006 Project
for Progress (PfP) expansion
113,000
Square feet of new space in
Faulkner House, compared
to 467,000 in PfP; for more
on PfP, see Dartmouth Medicine Spring 2006 feature "A Healing Place".
A reminder of the pace of change, and of timeless truths, from the May 1963 issue of MHMH's staff newsletter, Hitchcock Highlights:
The "Staff Reports" column
noted that "the fast-growing
incidence of a relatively obscure,
serious, and occasionally
fatal respiratory illness,
emphysema, is strongly suspected
to be the result of an
increased number of habitual
cigarette smokers, Dr.
William Schillhammer has
reported. . . . 'We do not
know the exact cause of emphysema,'
Dr. Schillhammer
says, 'but . . . about 95% of
the emphysemic patients we
see are heavy smokers.'"
1
Number of DHMC
pulmonary specialists
in 1977-78
7
Number of DHMC
pulmonary specialists
in 2005-06
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