Hugh S. Pratt M.D.
Ocotber 7, 19.
Page five

series of medical history questions should be designed, from scratch, utilizing
the above consultants to obtain reliable

data on nutrition, living habits,

attitudes, compliance, sequence of symptoms, etc., al? in Marshallese, and
fitted to the Marshallese culture.

I beleive this can be done.

The principal

investigator should speak to the people in their own language, to demonstrate his
concern for and respect for their problems.

He should sit among them, and

demonstrate his willingness to engage in an open discussion.

The credibility

of the program has been challenged repeatedly; primarily I feel, because of poor

communications, including public relations with the press, public officials of
the Trust Territory, ERDA, etc.

Last fall, for the first time, most of the laboratories involved in the long
term study of the accident met to discuss the coordination of their individual
efforts.

There has emerged from that meeting the realization that there is a

tremendous amount of data, that could and should be placed in a central data bank

for the use of all partners to reduce duplication, flag inconsistencies

and/or

new areas of investigation as the integrated study advances, and to keep all
principal investigators up to date on the total effort.

The administrative lines of command are poorly understood in the field.
example, I frequently heard this question.

ERDA?"

For

"Who's running this show - BNL or

The ramifications of this confusion resulted in hard feelings and misunder-

standing, and could,

understandably,

lead to misinterpretation if it reached the

press.

A solution for this type of confusion in the field would be to include field
representatives in the planning sessions at BNL and ERDA.

I feel there should be

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