Veritas, Vol. 14, No. 24, April 1, 1974

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^ Volume 14, Number 24_April 1, 197<
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New Surgical Center Opens
An Ambulatory Surgical Center is now in operation on the second floor at UM Hospitals and Clinics/National Children’s Cardiac Hospital, providing innovative health care delivery.
It consists of two operating rooms, five admission-discharge beds, five recovery beds and ancillary facilities. Dr. Mark I. Rowe, professor of pediatric surgery, is medical director.
“Ambulatory surgery is not minor surgery,” explained Dr. Rowe. “Patients are selected primarily on the basis of their requiring a brief period of observation after surgery.”
Of the some 10 patients per day who are treated at the Center, 40 percent are children. Adult patients are admitted by the departments of gynecology, urology, dental surgery, plastic surgery, and perhaps others.
Dr. Rowe cited five advantages offered by the school’s ambulatory surgery program;
1.	Reduction in Cross Infection. Unavoidably, hospital patients, particularly infants and children, are exposed to various infectious agents.
2.	Avoidance of Psychologic Trauma. Being separated from home and family can be emotionally upsetting, not only to infants and children, but to adults. Ambulatory surgical patients spend only a portion of one day in the unfamiliar surroundings, and part of that time can be with a family member or friend.
communication
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Hicks Conference Draws Top Names
Av Weston, ABC News vice president and director of television documentaries, will be the keynote speaker at the 18th annual Wilson Hicks International Conference on Visual Communication, to be held here April 17-19. His talk is titled “Reality is a Box Marked TV.”
Other speeches at the conference will cover many areas of visual communication-news and magazine photography, marketing and current trends. They will be presented by many of the top professionals in the country, including Otto Fuerbinger, editor, Magazine Development Group, Time & Life, Inc.; Lawrence Schiller, president, Alskog, Inc.; David B. Eisendrath, Jr., technical consultant; and the editors of Popular Photography, Camera 35, Modern Photography and Photo World.
Court Adopts Recommendations
The American Judicature Society’s study of the Dade County Court System, directed by UM Law Professor Fred Doemer, was given a full page writeup in Chief Circuit Judge Thomas Lee’s 1973 annual report to the Florida Supreme Court.
Judge Lee reported that the Eleventh Judicial Circuit has implemented 134, or 83 percent, of the study’s 161 recommendations for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the judicial processes and the dispensing of justice in Dade County. He also noted that when the Dade County Master Computerized Information Program is adopted, 14 more of the 27 remaining recommendations will be implemented. Some of the remaining recommendations cannot be implemented, according to Judge Lee, because they are outside of the court’s power.
The Society’s report, issued in April 1973, represents a study of every conceivable aspect of the County court system, a survey of the operation of the courts and court-related agencies and an identification of judicial and judicial-related problems needing attention.
Medical School Alumni Pledges Total $66,540
3.	Reduction in Hospital Costs. The cost of hospitalization has been rising significantly.
4.	Increased Efficiency of Hospital Bed Use. Surgical beds are in short supply and waiting lists exist for elective surgery—as in Jackson Memorial Hospital. The ambulatory approach cuts down on this demand, not only leaving more beds free for emergency use, but also increasing the number of patients who need more complicated forms of surgery.
5.	Providing Guideline Standards for Ambulatory Surgery. Recognition of the advantages of ambulatory surgery has fostered a movement to inaugurate this approach in smaller outpatient clinics in this area and other parts of the state.
The Fourth University of Miami Award for Distinguished Contribution to Communication Arts will be presented at the awards dinner April 19 to the National Film Board of Canada. Other awards to be given out during the conference will be the Morris Gordon Award for outstanding achievement in visual communication and investigative reporting to Av Weston, and the Wilson Hicks Conference Award for excellence in reporting with a still camera to Jack Com, photographer for the Nashville Tennessean.
Chairman of the conference is John Durniak, picture editor of Time.
For information on special registration rates for UM faculty, call 284-2575.
School of Medicine alumni pledged $66,540 in a recent telephone campaign for scholarships and loan funds.
The pledges from 506 alumni in the seven-day campaign topped last year’s figure of $55,010 from 462 alumni and represented a 9.5 percent increase, reported Dr. Eugene C. Bloom, telephone campaign chairman. Forty-four medical alumni volunteers manned the telephones.
This year the pledges included 350 gifts of $100 or more, a 29 percent increase over last year’s 272 Century Club donors. The UM School of Medicine, which opened its doors in September, 1952, has the highest percentage (74) of contributing medical alumni in this country.
UM Honors F ounders
The UM Board of Trustees honored 36 new members of the Society of University Founders with a formal banquet March 29 at the Fontainebleau Hotel.
President Henry King Stanford conducted investiture ceremonies for the new Founders, presenting each with a berib-boned medallion and a plaque, and gave an address.
Co-chairmen of the gala dinner honoring the Founders were Mrs. Robert Z. Greene, whose husband is a trustee emeritus, and trustee Baron de Hirsch Meyer.
Inaugurated by the Trustees in 1966 to honor major donors, the Society has grown from a charter membership of 140 to a total of 339, whose combined commitments to the support of the University now total $58.5 million. All Founders, either personally or through their corporations or foundations, have given or pledged a minimum of $50,000 to the University since its founding as an independent institution in 1925.
More than 850 Founders and other friends of the University attended the eighth annual dinner.
Computer Program Committee Formed
A University Computer Committee for Academic and Research Programs has been formed to develop the academic- and research-related programs vis-a-vis the Computer Center.
The Committee’s functions will be to:
•	Evaluate the structure of the B.S. in Computer science program for effectiveness, flexibility and academic integrity and make suggestions for improvement.
•	Review and recommend more effective ways to provide computer application in academic programs.
•	Select an academic coordinator for the B.S. in computer science program.
•	Provide technical evaluation of any facility management proposal for the Computer Center from the standpoint of academic and research usages.
Asked by the Vice President for Academic Affairs to serve on the Committee are Scott Daubin, ocean engineering; John Duncan, management science; David Hertzig, mathematics; William Page, epidemiology and public health; Harold Skramstad, Computer Center; Keith Wellman, chemistry; and Kamal Yacoub, electrical engineering.