Tuesday, September 27, 1994
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Family practitioners on rise
Family practit Fewer grads focus on specialization
The Associated Press
The percentage of graduates planning careers as family physicians, pediatricians or in general internal medicine had plunged from 34 percent in 1983 to 15 percent in 1992.
WASHINGTON — Building on a recent trend, almost a quarter of this year's medical school graduates are interested in becoming general practitioners, not specialists, a survey by the Association of American Medical Colleges reported yesterday.
But last year it rose to 19 percent, and this year it reached 23 percent.
"We are seeing the beginning of a turnaround," said Jordan J. Cohen, president of the association.
Among the nation's 600,000-plus physicians, specialists outnumber general practitioners more than 2-to-1.
Federal health officials have decried that imbalance and argued that Americans would get better health care at less cost if there were more family practitioners and other GPs.
Specialists tend to order more tests and procedures and charge more, without necessarily getting better results, their critics say.
The association itself has embraced a goal that half of all medical school graduates should enter general medicine.
President Clinton's health care reform bill, which was blocked in Congress, would have required that 55 percent of new doctors be trained as generalists or obstetrician-gynecologists.
Thirteen percent of this year's graduates were interested in family practice; 6 percent in general internal medicine and 4 percent in pediatrics.
New method may help wounds heal
Twenty percent of those interested in general medicine said they wanted to practice in rural areas; only 6 percent of all graduates were interested in a rural practice.
WASHINGTON—Large wounds may heal faster when enclosed within a plastic shell and bathed constantly with a solution of skin cells and a growth-promoting substance, researchers report.
In experiments on pigs, scientists at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston have found that new skin formed about 25 percent faster when wounds were covered with a plastic chamber that was filled with fluid containing immature skin cells and a growth hormone.
The shell, or wound chamber,
said Dr. Elof Eriksson, "creates an incubator-like environment for the wound." The chamber resembles a clear plastic cup that is stuck by an adhesive on healthy
skin surrounding the wound.
In an experiment reported yesterday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Eriksson and his colleagues said the leak-proof chamber enabled them to keep wounds on pigs bathed with a solution that included cultures of keratinocytes, cells that grow to form skin.
Keratinocytes are now used to grow skin tissue sheets that can be used for grafts to cover large wounds. But Eriksson said the experiment with pigs suggests that a fluid concentration of keratinocytes also works well.
"We inject these cells into the wound chamber, and they settle on the wound and then grow into new skin," said Eriksson. "It greatly simplifies the procedure."
Appealing to youth is a goal of both candidates in state race
Both the Republican and Democratic candidates for secretary of state said yesterday that increasing young people's participation in politics was one of their biggest goals.
The Associated Press
Assistant Secretary of State Ron Thornburgh, the Republican nominee, toured his past participation in the Kids Voting program, which is designed to educate children and get them involved in politics. Thornburgh helped found the program two years ago.
The Democratic nominee, Fran Lee,
praised the program and outlined her proposal to form a "public achievement corps" to get young people involved in politics at the local level.
The two candidates spoke to about 50 high school students during a Kids Voting assembly at the Statehouse. The assembly is part of a series of events in which children in 17 communities eventually will cast ballots in a mock election.
Lee described the secretary of state as the "chief maintenance engineer for democracy in Kansas." She said creating a public achievement corps will build on the work of Kids Voting and teach young people about voter registration drives and campaigns.
Sierra Club changes focus to avoid going bankrupt
The Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO — The Sierra Club is cutting staff and tightening its focus to save itself from extinction.
A drop in donations and membership forced the century-old environmental group's first major restructuring in 22 years.
The reorganization that will begin in 1995 includes reducing the club's efforts on energy conservation and international issues in favor of major campaigns to prevent pollution and preserve open spaces.
The changes will help the 500,000-member group meet its 1995 budget, which at $40 million is $3.7 million less than 1994, executive director Carl Pope said Sunday.
The Sierra Club's financial difficulties mirror the trend facing many environmental groups. Donations also are down for Greenpeace, the Wilderness Society, the National Audubon Society and others.
The Sierra Club expects to lay off some of its 350 employees, but Pope said he was not sure exactly how many. The group also plans a 1995 campaign to sign up 75,000 new members.
The group's net worth has declined from $7.7 million in 1993 to an estimated $6.7 million by the end of this year, and changes are necessary to save the group from going extinct.
"We felt that if we didn't take steps, it might," Pope said. "These are not easy changes for a 100-year-old organization to make. We feel what we need to do is focus."
The club, founded by naturalist John Muir, has kept itself out of bankruptcy by borrowing its $10 million endowment, treasurer Terry Shaffer said. Under club bylaws, that money cannot be used for operating expenses.
Sierra Club executives blamed the problem on the economy and a declining interest in social issues such as environmentalism. Since 1991, more than 100,000 people have dropped their membership and those who remain are giving less.
Beer can collectors congregate at show '70s pastime still has following
The Associated Press
TOPEKA — Beer can collecting, that craze of the 1970s before it declined in popularity, is bouncing back, enthusiasts say.
About 35 collectors gathered Sunday at Topeka's Lake Shawnee for a "breweriana" show that involved not just cans but other beer collectibles, including trays, lights and glasses.
"I have 22,000 cans," proclaimed Tom Hull of Tulsa, Okla., a board member of the national chapter of Beer Can Collectors of America.
BCCA president Jerry Trowbridge, standing nearby, laughed and said: "He's a bachelor. You stand in the front room and look up to the ceiling at the cans."
Trowbridge said can collecting was on the upswing.
"In the '70s, it was highly popular," he said. "In the '80s, it wasn't as big a deal, and our membership declined steadily. In the 1990s, we have added to the organization."
Can collecting isn't as simple as it might sound. It takes some ingenuity to add some hard-to-get cans to a collection.
"It's fun and it's time-consuming," said Marc Milner, who helped organize the show.
Milner specializes in Swedish beer cans and does a lot of trading overseas. That means building up a trading network, he said.
"I send a package to a collector in Argentina, and two to three months later I'll get a package back," he said.
In some cases, beer companies test-market beers in select areas, and those cans are difficult to find without contacts, Milner said.
"Coors put out one in the Virgin Islands that's very hard to get," he said.
Most of the collectors travel to shows to find cans, Trowbridge said.
His favorite in his collection is a Krueger beer can. Krueger Cream Ale was the first beer to be put in a can in 1935, Trowbridge said.
Police struggle to solve murder
The Associated Press
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — After the legless bodies of two prostitutes and a teenager were pulled from the Missouri River starting in 1986, more than 30 detectives from 10 agencies, including the FBI, tried to crack the case.
And this month the body of prostitute Viola McCoy, 36, was pulled from the river, her legs surgically severed as were those of the first three.
Now Kansas City has formed a special squad to investigate all four slayings. Six detectives and a sergeant have been working 12- to 15-hour days since Sept. 14.
Past investigations into the deaths of Melody Milliner, 24, Kimberly Rash, 19, and Beverille Tracy, 13, yielded hundreds of leads, few suspects and a lot of frustration.
Improved forensic techniques are letting detects check back 15 years into the victims' lives to look for fresh clues and any similarities.
Detectives are keeping most details of the investigation to themselves. And they won't say for certain that the same person has committed all four murders. But retired Kansas City Maj. Gary VanBuskirk said, "You've got to assume that it is."
VanBuskirk supervised the last successful serial-killer investigation by the department — the 1900 capture of the Gilham Park strangler, Ray Shawn Jackson.
Authorities have no solid suspects, and they say the slayer — if there is just one — does not fit the typical profile for a serial killer. They know they lack vital clues.
"If we had a wish, our wish would be to give us a crime scene, a weapon, something that we can work on and get grounded in," said Capt. Gregory Mills, commander of the Kansas City homicide unit.
Half-Price for KU and Haskell students.
Tickets on sale at the Lied Center Box Office (864-ARTS); Murphy Hall Box Office (864-3982); and any Ticketmaster outlet (816) 931-3330 or (913) 234-4545; all seats reserved; public $30 and $25, KU, Haskell and K-12 students $15 and $12.50, senior citizens and other students $29 and $24; KU student tickets available through the SUA office, Kansas Union; phone orders can be made using VISA or MasterCard.
Special thanks to this year's Very Important Partners: Kief's Audio and Video, Laird Noller Dealerships, Payless ShoeSource and W.T. Kemper Foundation, Commerce Bank Trustee.
The University of Kansas Classified Senate and Unclassified Professional Staff Association is presenting a
CANDIDATES' FORUM presenting candidates for the Douglas County area and State of Kansas
Invited candidates include:
Barbara Ballard, Troy Findley, Bill Graves, Eric Schmidt,
Kathleen Sebelius, Richard Schodorf, Jim Slattery, Tom Sloan,
Carla J. Stovall, Forrest Swall, Ron Todd
Thursday, September 29,1994 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Frontier Room, Burge Union
NEW LAND AQUARIUM
IT'S ALL HAPPENING AT,THE LIED CENTER!
Feel free to bring your lunch and please bring questions for the candidates.
STUDENT SENATE