Page:The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology-ItsFirstCentury.djvu/329

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ARMED FORCES INSTITUTE OF PATHOLOGY


the Institute. General Cooney was chairman of the ad hoc committee, which accordingly was known informally as the Cooney Committee.

The Committee's conclusions and recommendations were asked for as to the services of the Institute to the Armed Forces, other Government agencies, the civil professions, and foreign governments, and also as to its educational program. Special attention was directed to possible changes in the missions of the Institute, in the next few years, with consequent expansion or curtailment of activities.

In a report submitted on 9 March 1953, the Cooney Committee recommended that the services of the Institute to the three Armed Forces be continued under the terms of the charter embodied in Army Regulations No. 40-410, Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery Circular Letter No. 50-8, and Air Force Regulation No. 160-38, issued jointly by the three services on 15 February 1950, and enlarged upon in detail in a descriptive circular "Central Facilities Provided for Department of Defense by Armed Forces Institute of Pathology," issued on 8 June 1950, as Special Regulations No. 40-410, Bureau of Medicine and Surgery Circular Letter No. 50-50, and Air Force Regulation No. 160-55.

In addition to the services of the Institute to the Armed Forces, the Committee approved the arrangement with the Veterans' Administration as "an essential part of a vast plan of collective research whereby former military personnel may be followed through the various medical vicissitudes of their lives to old age and death," to the end that medical services for the military might be improved. The Committee likewise approved the cooperative arrangements between the Institute and the U.S. Public Health Service, the Atomic Energy Commission, and the medical, dental, and veterinary professions.

The Committee further approved the Institute's instruction in advanced pathology as part of a general program of residencies, postresidency on-the-job training, special pathology seminars, and review studies in pathology for medical officers preparing for examinations by the specialty boards in pathology or other medical or surgical specialties. The practice of the Institute in sending out loan sets to those unable to come to the Institute for study, was approved by the Committee. These sets consisted of microslides with related data, clinico- pathological materials, duplicate gross specimens from the museum collections, lantern slides, photographs, filmstrips, and motion pictures when available.

In general, the Committee gave its approval to the organization and operations of the Institute, including plans for a broader scope of work in the eagerly awaited new building. It was the opinion of the Committee, however, that