Washington Views

The Veterans Administration has announced that the ~orld War II GI Bill training program will be terminated on July 25, 1956. No unused GI training can be used after that date; no veteran will be permitted to continue his training after that date except those who enlisted between October 6, 1945, and October 5, 1946. At present there are 70,000 World War II GI trainees, and during the life of the World War II GI bill more than 7,800,000 veterans received training benefits. Dr. Leonard A. Scheele, Surgeon General of the U.S. Public Health Service, has announced that qualified pharmacists and other professional health personnel actively engaged in public health practice and preventive medicine are being encouraged to apply for commissions in the Service's expanding commissioned reserve. Expansion is for the purpose of increasing the nation's readiness to meet the unusual public health demands of national emergencies. President Eisenhower has proclaimed the month of April 1956 as Cancer Control Month. He has invited the governors of the states, territories and possessions to issue similar proclamations and has urged the medical profession, the press, the radio, television and motion picture industries and all interested agencies and individuals to unite during the appointed month in public dedication to programs for the control of cancer. Pharmacists should cooperate with their local chapters of the American Cancer Society. Federal Civil Defense Administrator Val Peterson announced on April 1, 1956, the awarding of a contract to the University of California for research leading toward a national radiological defense plan. Governor Peterson, in announcing the research project, said: "The threat of radioactive fallout from an enemy attack is relatively new and greatly increases the problems and responsibilities of civil defense in the United States. We are in urgent need of a logical and detailed nation-wide system of defense against fallout not only to increase the chances of survival under nuclear attack but also to strengthen our national defense armament as a deterrent to attack." Under the Korean GI Bill 51 per cent of the total of 1,300,000 veterans have received all types of training as compared with 26 per cent of the total of 7,800,000 veterans of World War II. The Veterans Administration announces that in June 1956 a second class of 3 pharmacists will complete the 2-year combined academic and professional residency in hospital pharmacy leading 204

Vol. XVII, No.4

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to the degree of Master of Science in Hospital Pharmacy at the University of Southern California . The Veterans Administration and cooperating universities are offering pharmacists an opportunity to take graduate work towards advanced degrees in pharmacy as VA pharmacy residents. Two years are required to complete the residency, which is a combination of graduate school study and practical experience in a VA hospital leading to the degree of Master of Science. Pharmacists accepted for the program will receive compensation while working at a VA center or hospital. Applications should be filed before May 1, 1956, with the Executive Secretary, Central Board of U.S. Civil Service Examiners, Veterans Administration, Washington 25, D.C. At the 5th annual Rutgers Pharmaceutical Conference to be held May 9 at the New Jersey State University in New Brunswick, new products, food and drug laws and the outlook for business as wellasinterprofessional,tradeandpublicrelations,willbediscussed. Dr. Lloyd McLean Parks, Professor of pharmaceutical chemistry at the University of Wisconsin, has been appointed Dean of the College of Pharmacy at Ohio State University. Dr. Parks will assume his new duties July I, 1956, succeeding Dean B. V. Christensen, retired . Recent reports by Drs. Max Miller and James W. Craig of Western Reserve University School of Medicine and by Dr. I. Arthur Mirsky and associates in the School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, indicate that orinase, a substituted sulfanylurea, is orally effective in some diabetics for reducing blood sugar. According to Dr. Ernest H. Volweiler, President of Abbott Laboratories and Vice President of Health Information Foundation, which recently completed a nation-wide survey on family health costs, 1,160,000 prescriptions are filled daily in the United States at a total cost of $1,000,000,000 dollars per year. He pointed out that the drug industry employs 35,000 persons in drug research and spends about $100,000,000 annually to improve existing drugs. He estimated that 70 per cent of today's prescription items were not available 10 years ago. Federal Food and Drug Administration has issued a public warning against the Hoxsey treatment for in~ernal cancer as it is imminently dangerous to rely upon it in neglect of competent and rational treatment, and its sale represents a gross deception to the consumer. April, 1956

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