74 tat say 3 aba Pipa BROOKHAVEN NATIONAL LABORATORY ASSOCIATED UNIVERSITIES, INC. Upton, New York 11973 Medical Department : : Ow ve 3577 AOLMY 17 August 1979 AllenW. Mathies, M.D. Dean, University of Southern California Medical School 2025 Zonal Avenue Los Angeles, CA 90033 : a. BEST COPY AVAILABLE | Dear Dr. Mathies, XY must apologize for not responding more promptly to our very productive meeting on 25 July. . Your understanding and enthusiasm for the problems of field medicine were greatly appreciated. Relatively few physicians have a realistic perspective on the practice of medicine in such areas. It's a real challenge, but very rewarding. Both Susan and I have really been turned: on to see these people moving from the 18th century to 20th century medicine. . One of the older Robert Wood Johnson programs (called the “Clinical Scholar" program) really intrigued me. Did Southern California work with that program? As you know the graduates had advanced training in sociology, economics, anthropology, systems analysis, health care planning, etc., in addition to their basic medical education. I think it really © takes that type of Renaissance physician to deal effectively with. medicine emerging in a third world nation. We find that we must constantly place ourselves in context with their indigenous medicine and work with it. Folk medicine still exists in the Marshalls, but it is very @ifficult to identify, particularly after 30 years of occupation and the credibility gap that has been generated by the accident in 1954. During the last year, by bringing more Marshallese into the program, in responsible positions, the culture has begun to open up to us. The whole social setting of medical care delivery is changing as we work together with traditional medicine. L appreciate your offer to join one of the surveys (schedule permitting) and would Like to give you the dates for the coming year: !