742 



Unlike overseas health research grants from all agencies, which have 

 declined precipitously during the past five years, and unlike the five 

 overseas laboratories of the National Institutes of Health, which have 

 held their own in size and level of support, the DOD Medical Research 

 Units Overseas have doubled their operating budgets. The Navy 

 installation at Cairo is nearly twice the size it was five years ago and 

 the number of foreign nationals working in the Navy units at Taipei 

 and Cairo has increased significantly. The combined total of foreign 

 nationals on the staff and in the overall work force of these two labora- 

 tories is now 562. In view of the declines in almost every other aspect 

 of international collaborative research in the health field, including 

 military grants and contracts, this development must be regarded as 

 an encouraging one to those interested and concerned with global pre- 

 ventive medicine. 



In a recent pai>er, Dr. John C. Cutler, Professor of International 

 Health and Director of the Population Division, T'niversity of Pitts- 

 burgh, ])oints to the imiiwrtance of military medical experience abroad 

 as it benefits health work among U.S. nationals both abroad and at 

 home. He sums up this picture of experienced medical manpower in 

 connection with industry, bilateral and multilatei'al organizations, 

 and pri\ate foundations as follows : 



With the passing of the colonial era it has been interesting 

 to note that the military has taken on responsibility for filling 

 the need for technical medical and health work abroad and 

 bringing back to this countiy and to other countries the bene- 

 fits of this experience for the protection of our own manpower 

 here as well as abroad. American industry has drawn very 

 heavily upon military experience in this respect and I think 

 it is interesting to note the magnitude. In Wright's study of a 

 few years ago 83 natiA^e American corporations were studied. 

 24 replied describing 49 programs in 27 countries. They had 

 58 hospitals totaling 5,000 beds with approximately 313 

 American physicians working in these installations, 33 den- 

 tists, and almost 1,000 nurses, at a total budget of $27,000,000. 

 And the involvement of industry is increasing rapidly. The 

 per capita expenditure on health services by American indus- 

 try in every country in which work is carried on is much 

 greater than that provided by the Governments of the coun- 

 tries themselves, although not usually available to the entire 

 population * * *. 



With the decline in teaching of tropical medicine in United 

 States medical schools about the only way a physician can 

 jjrepare to deal with exotic diseases such as malaria is through 

 the experience he had as a military medical person, or by 

 working abroad in industry, or from experience in one of the 

 international health programs either multilateral or bi- 

 lateral. Unfortunately it is to the discredit of American medi- 

 cal education that we have with few exceptions discontinued 

 completel^y the type of teaching required to prepare American 

 medical professionals to deal intelligently with the health 

 prol>lems of the increasing international movement of Ameri- 

 can tourists today. 



