Foundations Grant $175,000 To Aid Medical School Study

Robert H. Ebert, dean of the Medical School, announced last week that the Medical School has received grants totaling $175,000 from the Kaiser Family Fund and the Commonwealth Fund to support completion of a study on surgical services.

The grant of $175,000 will help finance the $1.7 million budget for the study.

Francis D. Moore '35, Mosely Professor of Surgery and chairman of the study's surgical manpower subcommittee, said yesterday that the purpose of the study is to "find out where surgeons work, how they work, and where there are too many and too few in this country."

Surgical Oversupply?

Moore said the researchers are investigating whether the country's 90,000 surgeons, surgical residents and medical practitioners who do occasional surgery oversupply the nation's demand for surgical care.

"Maybe some should be doing primary care," he said.

Osler L. Peterson, professor of Preventive Medicine and director of the study, said yesterday, "The people who back us, the American Surgical Association and the American College of Surgeons, can control the number of training positions in surgery available in this country."

Training Positions

Peterson said he expects that results of the study will be used to change the number of available training positions.

Ebert could not be reached last night for comment.

Johns Hopkins University, Washington University, several other universities, and "practitioners from small communities are collaborating in the study," Moore said.

"About two-thirds of our budget is from government agencies interested in delivery of medical care to individuals," Moore added. "The other one-third is from private foundations."

Moore and Peterson said they expect to complete the study and issue a final report this summer.