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PLANNING THE HEALTH SCIENCES WITHIN A UNIVERSITY CONTEXT: THE HEALTH SCIENCES CENTER AT STONY BROOK
Author(s) -
Pellegrino Edmund D.
Publication year - 1969
Publication title -
annals of the new york academy of sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.712
H-Index - 248
eISSN - 1749-6632
pISSN - 0077-8923
DOI - 10.1111/j.1749-6632.1969.tb51026.x
Subject(s) - context (archaeology) , library science , annals , citation , health science , center (category theory) , state (computer science) , biomedical sciences , sociology , gerontology , medicine , medical education , classics , history , computer science , chemistry , archaeology , algorithm , pathology , crystallography
There is a serious discontinuity in values today between professional education and social purpose. A major academic challenge in all the health sciences is to diminish this discontinuity by the design of programs which are based in science and technology but are also responsive to human values and social needs. All of its deficiencies notwithstanding, the university is our major social instrument for the resolution of this dilemma, and it is only within this context that the health sciences can elaborate their particular solutions. A new institution like ours has the special responsibility of selecting from the large array of unanswered questions before the health professions those which seem most urgently in need' of new solutions. It is my purpose to describe, in general terms,-since our development state is still embryonic-the physiognomy of the choices we are making at Stony Brook. The specific subject of this symposium, Education in the Health Related Professions, will be addressed by describing the academic environment within which these professions will exist at our institution. The Health Sciences Center at Stony Brook is being developed 011 the new campus of the State University of New York at Stony Brook on Long Island, some 50 miles from New York City. The university campus is one of four university centers in the 64-campus system which comprises the State University of New York, itself a newcomer to the field of public higher education. The New Health Sciences Center will be fourth in the SUNY system, but the first that the State of New York has established de novo. The Health Sciences Centers at Buffalo, Upstate (Syracuse) and Downstate (Brooklyn) were functioning institutions under private auspices before the State assumed responsibility for their operation. The decision to develop a new Health Sciences Center in New York State derived from a report to Governor Rockefeller made in 1963 under the chairmanship of Malcolm Muir.1 This report assessed the health needs of the immediate future in New York State, and made a series of recommendations pertinent to planning to meet those needs. The Health Sciences Center at Stony Brook was conceived a5 an early and essential step in meeting the need for comprehensive health care. The Muir Report is not a detailed blueprint, but a statement of the relevant principles which should characterize a new center. It places considerable emphasis on the teaching and practice of a comprehensive approach to health care. This docu-