A second serious handicap to research has been high overhead. Almost one third of all money spent on projects pays for indirect costs and eats into precious funds necessary for experiments. Regrettably, the majority of grants stipulate only a ten to twenty-five percent cut for meeting such costs. The difference must be made up by the school. Experts feel this overhead difficulty will only be cured when the faculty accepts grants which pay for "total cost"--both indirect and direct.
Actual research covers myriad fields. It ranges from work on air filtration sponsored by the Atomic Energy Commission, to highway safety studies and improved methods of transportation, and back to research in the calcium requirements of Americans. Causes of overweight are being investigated side-by-side with dangers from alcohol.
President Conant has pointed out that the job of preventive medicine is to prevent medicine. The health schools of the nation struggle to wipe out disease and illness so that the doctor will become a relic of by-gone days. One Boston physician was so perturbed by this possibility that he devoted much of his life to campaigning against public health schools, fearing all the while he would be out of work if they were successful. Only through such a varied and complex list of projects does the school expect to lick the causes of disease and end it before it starts.
Ten Pillars
The ten pillars of Public Health at Harvard are its ten departments, each with its own staff of teachers and researchers. Once watertight compartments, under the reorganization program they have loosened up and are now working more effectively together. Lectures are no longer duplicated and courses are more closely coordinated. For example, the Nutrition Department is working hand in hand with the Department of Maternal and Child Health, swapping the latest information on diets.
Mainstay of the new cooperation are the Dean's Faculty Research Conference and Curriculum Committees which coordinate some of the school's scattered research programs. Each department still runs itself and must hustle to get its own money, but more and more, individual problems have become school problems. Though inde dependently-minded and involved with his own experiments, the department man takes a world view of public health. He catches the spirit of the Dean who says that Harvard is a "mecca for world health."
This world view carries over to the student body. With more than 1300 alumni scattered in 78 countries and territories, the school is acutely aware of international health problems. An average class of 115 students has 40 foreigners. Many come for a year with the express purpose of picking up additional training to enable them to take charge of public health projects in their home counties. Dr. John Gordon reported visiting with top health men in Iraq, Iran, and Lebanon all graduates of the Harvard school. The Iranian Minister of Health and Child Welfare is an alumnus. With some pride the school quietly reminds itself that it has sent graduates to head five of the ten American schools of Public Health.
Foreign Interest
Despite over-growing foreign interest in the health field, the school feels that few American are aware of the tremendous job public health officials have done in this country. With an ever-increasing demand for health personnel, the supply of eligible American leaders remains the same, and has even dropped slightly. This bothers men at Harvard. Some consider it one of the most serious problems the school must face. Unfortunately, low salaries and little public recognition offer little inducement and not much is being done to attract new men into the field.
Meanwhile, Harvard does well by its students. Many come to the School having already earned a degree in some field of medicine and with experience in one of the medical sciences. They are a mature group, anxious to work long, hard hours.
Their time is divided between laboratory, lecture hall, and field trip. The school stresses these frequent outside expeditions to neighboring hospitals since it is situated in the heart of Boston's Medical District. The Peter Bent Brigham Hospital is across the street, while the Children's Medical Center, "Boston Lying-In" and Beth Israel Hospital are near-by.
Public Health officials are warmly invited to lecture on current health problems and to demonstrate their work. These local experts are often invited into classroom discussion.
Service
Service is the last important phase of Public Health at Harvard. Through directorships, appointments, and work with health committees the school's faculty keeps in close touch with the profession, in addition to offering its advice. The Department of Maternal and Child Care is typical of nearly every department in the School. Here every teaching member serves on some board or commission of a federal, state or local health agency. Six of the school's faculty are special advisors to committees of the World Health Organization.
Aside from direct community, the school annually sponsors conferences on health problems. Last year the Industrial Tropical Health Conference attracted medical directors and management officials from twenty-three major industries. The Institute on Child Health and Development drew thirty-four Public Health social workers from twenty states, Alaska and Hawaii, while the school's conference on Health and Safety in Aviation brought together top air officials.
Internationally, the stream of professors comes and goes from 55 Shattuck Street to all corners Professor Stare of the Department of Nutrition has just left for Indonesia, while Dr. Gordon is now in India with the World Health Organization. The most immediate recognition of such international work came from the Belgian government. It presented the school with $20,000 toward the school's newest professorship estab-