MC CLAUGHRY 



Council asked me to direct a survey of the medical research pro- 

 gram of the Veterans Administration. In short order, I became 

 acquainted with a strong opinion held by the then Administrator of 

 Veterans Affairs, Mr. Sumner G. Whittier. He indicated that on the 

 one hand there were the many Veterans Administration medical 

 records, and on the other hand, there was the booming technology 

 of electronic data processing. Now, to continue the paraphrase, if 

 only a marriage of the two could be effected, surely answers to 

 most important medical problems would be found. 



The committee of medical scientists involved in the NRG study 

 reached more circumspect conclusions from evaluating all the 

 evidence available to them. Indeed, the final statement in the section 

 on the use of computers in their report bears quotation in this con- 

 text. "It is also to be noted that only very limited use can be ex- 

 pected of the medical records now in existence for retrospective 

 studies, and that the collection of data by designing experiments for 

 the use of computers should be the rule," 



Despite this forewarning, which should certainly have been ade- 

 quate, I fell into the trap of attempting a retrospective record study. 

 In my defense, I can only say that the possibility of association of 

 exposure to cold during the Korean campaign withdifferences in the 

 incidence or course of infections seemed straightforward enough to 

 merit a try by this method. I was also somewhat influenced by the 

 consideration that such environmental influences on human infection 

 have received relatively little attention, despite their importance. 



The burden of my message is really very simple. It was com- 

 pletely impossible to establish from the records any group who 

 were known to have been exposed to cold, or conversely to find a 

 group similar except for such exposure. This information was 

 simply not recorded. Furthermore, inference of the probability of 

 of exposure to cold by identifying the military organization to which 

 an individual belonged proved fruitless. 



Since I am nearly as sensitive as was the fabled jackass which 

 was struck a hard blow on the head with a singletree to get its 

 attention, I wistfully gave up the record study at this point. Optimist 

 that I am, though, I must add that the prospect appears better for 



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