PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE— PARRAN 467 



Facilities for diagnosis and treatment of diseases f req uently are 

 lacking particularly in the rural areas. We need a great extension of 

 laboratory service, the provision of hospitals particularly in rural areas, 

 better organized dispensary services, and a better integration of private 

 and public effort in the prevention and treatment of disease. As a 

 nation, we should seek not only to make medical care more available 

 to those in need of such care, but constantly to seek the improvement 

 in the quality of medical service. 



The Public Health Service itself will play a relatively small part 

 in the health advancement of the future. It should be in a position, 

 however, to promote, assist, and advise in the working out of State and 

 local health programs. I am less interested in the size of the organiza- 

 tion I represent than in the brains it represents. For many years, we 

 have given an opportunity for a career service. We need to attract the 

 best of the medical graduates, to give them every opportunity for 

 professional advancement, to train specialists in all phases of our work. 

 I dream of a day when the Public Health Service \vill have a corps of 

 men and women whose abUity is not surpassed or equalled by any other 

 medical or health organization in the world. 



I have referred briefly to some of the research work of the Public 

 Health Service. Plans are being drawn for a new National Institute 

 of Health to be located in the environs of Washington, the headquar- 

 ters for all of the research work of the Public Health Service. This 

 should be more than a research institution. It should be also the head- 

 quarters for the training of our personnel. It should be the West 

 Point of the Public Health Army. 



The major unsolved problems of health and disease should be a 

 concern of this institute. Scientific workers from other institutions 

 will be free to bring their problems here and pursue their studies within 

 its walls. Other scientists should go out from this institute to other 

 institutions of the country. Such a constant interchange should pro- 

 mote progress. Many research problems of today are so complex 

 that it is impossible for an individual worker and frequently it is 

 impossible for any one organization to deal adequately with them. 



The Federal Government is in a position to lend its influence in 

 bringing together various scientists concerned with a common prob- 

 lem and promoting joint and coordinated attack. Already we can 

 point to progress in this field of cooperative research. For 8 years, 

 five of the leading syphilologists of the country have worked with the 

 Public Health Service in pooling their knowledge, their material, and 

 their resources for study of syphilis. Valuable additions to our knowl- 

 edge have come as a result of these cooperative cluiical studies. 



The problem of drug addiction has been the subject of joint interest 

 by the Public Health Service and the National Research Council. 



