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available for these training programs. However, we have been acutely conscious of the need for well-qualified teachers in the programs and for supervisors to give direction in the work situation. Such a need must also exist in the allied health professions and it will increase as more and more auxiliary workers are trained to assist these professional practitioners.

We believe the grant proposals whose objectives are to increase the number of admissions to programs, improve the quality of education in training centers, aid students through a traineeship program and provide for experimentation with new curriculums for training health technologists are well conceived and will contribute in raising standards of services.

We hope very much that your committee will approve this legislation and thank you for the opportunity to share our views with you.

Sincerely,

Mrs. JUDITH G. WHITAKER, R.N.,

Executive Director.

Hon. HARLEY O. STAGGERS,

AMERICAN DENTAL HYGIENISTS' ASSOCIATION,
Chicago, Ill., March 25, 1966.

Chairman, Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee,
House of Representatives, Washington, D.C.

DEAR MR. STAGGERS: The American Dental Hygienists' Association, the national organization representing the profession of dental hygiene, endorses the inclusion of dental hygiene in H.R. 13196, introduced March 2, 1966.

The association agrees with the intent of this bill to support dental hygiene educational programs at the baccalaureate and graduate degree levels and urges passage of bill H.R. 13196.

We respectfully request that this supportive statement be included in the written record of the March 29 and 30 hearings on this bill.

Very truly yours,

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Hon. HARLEY O. STAGGERS,

House of Representatives, Washington, D.C.

TEMPLE UNIVERSITY, Philadelphia, Pa., April 22, 1966.

MY DEAR MR. STAGGERS: We wish to take this opportunity to offer the wholehearted support of Temple University to passage of H.R. 13196 introduced by you and upon which hearings have been held recently.

Health services are no longer performed by the physician or dentist working alone. Your recognization of the national need for more personnel in the allied health professions is readily apparent from the wording of this proposal. You are to be congratulated for having the foresight to recognize that steps must be taken at this time to prevent the situation from becoming a national crisis.

We at Temple University have been considering for some time the problem of how to satisfy the increasing demands from the health science professions and from society itself that we educate more men and women for the health care teams. We already had taken steps to increase the first-year classes of our schools of medicine and dentistry by 25 percent. This will not be enough. There is an urgent need to provide for the education of a group of allied health professionals who will assist these practitioners in today's practice of medicine and dentistry.

Our recent investigations were climaxed last month with approval by the board of trustees to establish a College of Allied Health Professions at our Health Sciences Center. This new school will offer baccalaureate programs in medical technology, nursing, physical thereapy, occupational therapy, and medical records library science. These persons will become full members of the health care team. A copy of the proposal which was accepted by our board is enclosed for your information.

The faculty of our Schools of Medicine, Dentistry, Pharmacy, and Nursing and the staff members of Temple University, have also recognized that they must depend more than ever upon judicious utilization of personnel in the allied health sciences in order to meet the health care needs of our society. To the long familiar

clamor that schools throughout the country educate more physicians, dentists, pharmacists, and nurses, has now been added the appeal that we increase our educational opportunities in the allied health professions.

Your proposal to provide financial assistance to schools teaching the allied health sciences, in addition to being timely in its support of existing and developing programs, should also serve as an incentive to other colleges and universities to join institutions such as ours in providing an enlarged program in this area.

May we again offer our complete support to your endeavor and pledge our full cooperation should it be requested during the course of action on this measure. Sincerely yours,

MILLARD E. GLADFELTER, President.

LOS ANGELES, CALIF., March 25, 1966.

Representative STAGGERS of West Virginia,
Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee,
House of Representatives,
Washington, D.C.

DEAR REPRESENTATIVE STAGGERS: It is my understanding that House bill, H.R. 13196 which is in support of education for the allied health professions will come before your committee soon. I would like to urge you and your committee to give the bill favorable consideration. I have reached this conclusion from over 20 years of experience in the field of physical therapy, including 8 years as a faculty member of the school of physical therapy at the University of Oklahoma Medical Center. With the national shifting of the medical care pattern toward long-term care and with the advent of medicare, there can only be a greatly increased need for physical therapists which will be superimposed upon the current shortage.

I have not had an opportunity to examine the bill, but I understand that many of the allied health professions are not specifically named in the bill. I would like to suggest that physical therapy and the other nationally recognized and established allied health professions be named in the bill.

My other suggestion is that appropriations for education of allied health personnel be made only to institutions that meet the accrediting and certifying qualifications set down by the national professional organizations of the concerned professions; in the case of physical therapy, this would be the standards set by the American Medical Association in conjunction with the American Physical Therapy Association. This would provide a safeguard against the very real danger of irregular and charlatan schools and practitioners benefiting from Federal expenditures.

Thank you very much for your consideration of these points.
Sincerely yours,

Miss EDNA SCHMIDT,
Registered Physical Therapist, Oklahoma.

(Whereupon, at 12:20 p.m., the committee recessed, subject to call.)

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