Reynolds, W. E., manager, Biomedical Engineering Center, IIT Research Page 511 Rudmose, Wayne, senior vice president, Tracor, Inc. 532 Sandroni, Robert E., M.D., `Physician-Preventive Medicine Industrial Clinic, General Electric Co.. 506 Schmidt, C. G., president, Scientific Products.. 526 Schwartz, Bernard, director of marketing, Gulton Medical Instruments__ 508 533 Sprackĺen, S. B., Beckman Instruments, Inc. 501 Stegeman, Robert H., president, Med-Science Electronics 517 508 529 530 492, 505 Taus, H. G., manager, product planning, medical, General Electric Co.___ Weiskopf, Edwin C., chairman, Technicon Instruments Corp.-- D. Miscellaneous Adams, Herbert D., M.D., director, Lahey Clinic Foundation__ 579 562 559 581 Cadmus, Robert R., president, New Jersey College of Medicine and Dentistry 611 581 Coleman, Tom, executive director, National Association of Hearing & 608 541 Carryer, Haddon, M.D., Mayo Clinic.. Diehl, Harold S., M.D., senior vice president for research and medical af- Gershon-Cohen, J., M.D., Albert Einstein Medical Center of Philadelphia.. Marxer, W. L., M.D., internal medicine, Diagnostic Survey Program, 557 Newman, Harold F., M.D., director, Group Health Cooperative of Puget 559 Patterson, Patricia A., national assistant director of patient services, 609 Pearson, Theodore, president, Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies, 558 Roberts, N. J., M.D., Periodic Health Examination Cooperative Research 612 Rosenow, Edward C., Jr., M.D., F.A.C.P., executive director, the American Shoemaker, Richard E., assistant director, Department of Social Security, 542 545 547 545 554 Whitehall, Albert V., executive director, American Society of Internal 556 Wilson, John B., D.D.S., chairman, Council on Legislation, American 543 DETECTION AND PREVENTION OF CHRONIC DISEASE UTILIZING MULTIPHASIC HEALTH SCREENING TECHNIQUES TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1966 U.S. SENATE, SUBCOMMITTEE ON HEALTH OF THE ELDERLY OF THE SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON AGING, Washington, D.C. The Subcommittee on Health of the Elderly of the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging met at 10 a.m., pursuant to call, in room G-308, New Senate Office Building, Senator Maurine B. Neuberger (chairman) presiding. Present: Senators Neuberger, Williams, Moss, and Yarborough. Committee staff members present: Thomas S. Biggs, Jr., staff counsel; William E. Oriol, professional staff member; Patricia G. Slinkard, chief clerk; and Diane La Bakas, minority research assistant. Senator NEUBERGER. It is against my principles to be late, but we have had a lot of excitement for our attractive mobile unit outside, so I would like to get started as rapidly as we can. This is a meeting of the Subcommittee on Health of the Elderly, and we are also pleased to have with us Senator Williams of New Jersey, chairman of the Subcommittee on Consumer Interests of the Elderly, and Senator Yarborough, a member of that subcommittee and of this one, also. Senator Williams has just been the first subject for screening in the mobile unit that a lot of us are going to experience today. What are your comments, Senator Williams? Senator WILLIAMS. I only went through part of the tests, Senator Neuberger, the glaucoma test, and I will say right now I am a little bleary from the drops that are necessary for the proper testing. I think probably Senator Yarborough will come through as a better health speciman than I. I know he has important responsibilities in another committee at this point; the poverty program is being considered in another committee, so I will defer to Senator Yarborough. Senator YARBOROUGH. Thank you, Senator Williams. With your long work with the elderly, and as chairman of the Migratory Labor Subcommittee, I know that you have been very much interested in public health for another great group of Americans, the migratory laborers and their children. We all know of your great work on this Subcommittee on Health of the Elderly and in public health. As a member of this subcommittee and of the Public Health Subcommittee also, we have studied this problem and we have benefited by the chairmanship of the distinguished Senator from Oregon. We will miss her greatly when she is gone. She has long been interested in the field of public health. She has manifested that not only 1 on this committee, but on other committees and in many public appearances in the field of health and the causes of illnesses. We are thankful for her leadership. We will say we will regret very much when the Senator from Oregon is gone. Her work has been notable here in the prevention and detection of cancer and in other fields, but I think this brings a new dimension to this study when we put on the road this type of a diagnostic complex; put it into one mobile unit so that a person going through that unit gets many of the most advanced techniques used in the large hospitals. To me this is a great advance in American medicine and particularly in protection. We know from experience that the elderly often fear ill health when they don't have it. In the declining years and declining physical vigor, they imagine all kinds of ailments they don't have, and they don't have the money to go to hospitals and doctors. With this testing unit-many, of course, with advancing years can find out just what those ailments are, or if their ailment merely is a decline due to old age and they have no disease that is subject to medical treatment. I think this is a great advance not only in treatment, but in ascertaining whether it is necessary, resulting in mental reassurance for the people who find they have nothing that is subject to medical treatment in the hospitals. I thank the Senator for her fine leadership, particularly in this field of public health. Senator NEUBERGER. Thank you, Senator Yarborough. Senator YARBOROUGH. I regret that I am going to have to leave because we are in a conference, executive session on the poverty bill in the Committee on Labor and Public Welfare, and I have been asked to chair that executive session trying to bring out to the floor of the Senate the Senate's bill on the War on Poverty. I am supposed to begin chairing that committee at 10:15. Senator NEUBERGER. There is a lot of related interests in health and poverty, so we will excuse you. All right. Senator Williams? Senator WILLIAMS. Well, Madam Chairman, I appreciate this opportunity to give a short statement. I hope that I can summarize and include my full statement in the record. Senator NEUBERGER. It is so ordered. (Statement follows:) STATEMENT BY SENATOR HARRISON A. WILLIAMS, JR., ON THE DETECTION AND PREVENTION OF CHRONIC DISEASE UTILIZING MULTIPHASIC HEALTH SCREENING TECHNIQUES Madam Chairman, I appreciate this opportunity to speak briefly at a hearing which-because of its subject, timeliness, and scope-merits the attention of the entire Nation. Our subject literally deals with life and death. We seek to detect and prevent chronic disease before it weakens or overwhelms its victims and eventually destroys them. We can and must believe that a great nation, in an age of technological marvels, can enter an age of health maintenance, rather than relying almost solely on health repair. Our subject is timely-very timely-because the long battle over Medicare has forced each one of us to think about the health of our population, particularly our elderly population. Now that we have Medicare, and now that the emotional arguments against it have dwindled, even if they are not dead, we can see it for what it is: A vital, overdue, but limited program to assure payment for certain costs faced by people who are ill at age 65 or over. Medicare doesn't do a blessed thing to prevent disease. It merely helps us cope with the damage caused by disease, and it can't do even that unless the victim is well past the age when most chronic diseases begin. I think more and more people will eventually ask why we should wait for chronic illness to strike before we really begin to cope with it. In terms of dollars lost, this approach makes no sense. In terms of lives lost or blighted, it makes even less. We should now at last be more able to look at our national health problems more objectively and more comprehensively than we were in the long and sometimes exhausting battle over Medicare. And it is about time. For the reasons I've discussed, I am glad that this Subcommittee is conducting a study of far-reaching scope and depth. As I understand it, the final record will include testimony, statements, and exhibits from many of our foremost authorities in medicine, biochemistry, sociology, and automated equipment. We have need of such impressive brainpower, and we'll have need of public understanding as Congress faces up within the near future to many unresolved national health problems. I would like to add that I have already introduced one proposal intended to provoke national discussion on the need for early detection and prevention of chronic disease. I am pleased that many of the witnesses at this hearing are familiar with the bill-the Adult Health Protection Act, or “Preventicare,” as it has been nicknamed. My proposal calls for free, voluntary, comprehensive health tests for anyone past age 50. We would establish centers and local units using the latest in modern equipment. Before and since February, when I introduced this bill, I have been engaged in lively correspondence with many experts who have given me additional insight into the problems and potential of such a program. I'm happy to say that there appears to be much more potential than problems. Undoubtedly, however, there will be much opportunity for refinement of the original problem. With this in mind, I'll look forward to the statements we are about to hear. I would also like to introduce into the record statements discussing projects that will, I am sure, be of interest to the Subcommittee. One comes from the General Hospital at Perth Amboy, New Jersey, where the Pathology Department is already using computer techniques and where plans are being developed for the full-scale screening of all persons admitted to the Hospital. I am also enclosing a statement from the Division of Health of the Township of Woodbridge, where a community screening program is being developed in consultation with the Public Health Service. I think these programs show the widespread interest in preventive medicine in my own State of New Jersey, and I am happy to bring them to the attention of the Subcommittee. My final comment is a word of appreciation to Senator Neuberger who, in the final months of her Senate term, has taken on such a demanding assignment. But, to anyone who knows of her long and effective interest in health and the public good, her decision is also completely understandable and typical of her standards of service to others. Senator WILLIAMS. I certainly join Senator Yarborough in congratulating you for calling and conducting this hearing; because of its subject, timeliness, and scope, it merits the attention of the entire Nation. We are here because it has become obvious, I think, that we have thought for much too long in terms of health treatment. The time has come for us to think in terms of life-long health maintenance and maintenance is possible only if we do far more than we are now doing to detect and prevent chronic disease. Now that Medicare is finally at work, we should be able to think more comprehensively. For my part I have already introduced a bill in tended to help us prevent chronic disease. We call it Preventicare, and it would offer a free health screening test to anyone past age 50 who wants it. I am sure that Preventicare is not the final answer to all our problems. Our deliberations in the next 3 days should throw considerable light upon it and possible changes in the original proposal. At this point I would like to enter into the record the statements referred to in my prepared remarks. Mr. WOODRUFF PRICE, DIVISION OF HEALTH, TOWNSHIP OF WOODBRIDGE, Administrative Assistant to Senator Harrison Williams, DEAR MR. PRICE: In regard to our recent telephone conversation of September 19, 1966, please find enclosed a brief description of the comprehensive Medical Screening Program, which the Division of Health in Woodbridge Township has established. Woodbridge Township has a population of approximately one hundred thousand (100,000) people, and it is estimated that there are approximately seventeen thousand (17,000) people over the age of fifty (50). The comprehensive screening program is designed to set up health screening facilities for the residents of Woodbridge over the age of fifty. The screening program will consist of a complete medical history and the following screening procedure: The program will be staffed by one internist, a general practitioner, one Public Health nurse, and a coordinator. We have been in touch with the Gerontology Branch of the Public Health Service, which has shown much interest in this type of medical program functioning out of a public health department. It is for this reason that we are in the process of signing a contract with the Gerontology Branch, which will enable us to receive thirty thousand dollars ($30,000) to organize and maintain this program for the first year. It is hopeful that after the first year, we might be able to sustain the program thru a grant from the Community Health Service Program. It must be kept in mind that after an individual answers the medical history and has the various tests performed, all positive findings will be made known to him and to his private physician. Subsequently the patient will be encouraged to be seen by his private physician. No treatment will be carried on by the Health Department. We are most interested in keeping in close contact with the physician afterwards to determine the patient's progress and more accurately evaluate the efficacy of this type of program. I hope that this information is what you are looking for, and if there are any further questions, please feel free to contact our office at any time. Sincerely, ANTOINE T. ATTALLA, M.D., PERTH AMBOY GENERAL HOSPITAL, Senator HARRISON WILLIAMS, Washington, D.C. DEAR SENATOR WILLIAMS: At the request of your aide, Mr. W. Price, I am setting forth below in some detail what we here at Perth Amboy General Hospital are doing and plan to do in the laboratory in relation to automation, the use of com |