[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 141 (Monday, October 20, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10863-S10864]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           A POSITIVE EFFORT

 Mr. MOYNIHAN. Mr. President, on Sunday, October 5, I had the 
good fortune to speak at the Dedication of the new Jerome and Dawn 
Greene Medical Arts Pavilion at Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx. I 
speak of good fortune not because I was able to offer some remarks at 
the dedication of the splendid new pavilion, but because I was able to 
hear, Dr. Domenick P. Purpura, dean of the Albert Einstein College of 
Medicine, remind us all of the lasting significance of the American 
academic medical center.
  With eloquence, humor and a New Yorker's flair, Dr. Purpura 
reaffirmed my belief that our core values demand our dedication to, and 
will provide for the future of, academic medical centers. He stated 
from the outset:

       We are here . . . to dispel the septic rumor oozing from 
     some health policy think tanks to the effect that academic 
     medical centers such as ours are dinosaurs doomed to 
     extinction by the impact of the asteroid of managed care. 
     Look skyward! On this day of noble purpose the sun shines 
     brightly. No ashen clouds obscure the values that have made 
     American medicine a crowning achievement of Western 
     Civilization. And what are these core values? Simply stated: 
     Faith in evidence-based medicine and trust that our superbly 
     trained physicians will translate the basic science of 
     medicine into the art and science of patient care. These 
     values constitute the concrete foundation upon which the 
     three pillars of our academic medical center rests so 
     securely.

  As the good Doctor said, these hospitals are not doomed to extinction 
by managed care, but rather destined for continued success due to our 
faith, and their proven achievement, thus far.
  Thirty-two years ago, in the first article of the first issue of the 
Public Interest, I published some observations on the 
``Professionalization of Reform.'' The essay began with a passage from 
Wesley C. Mitchell, who had been for near quarter a century (1920-45) 
director of research at the National Bureau of Economic Research, then 
based at Columbia University.

       Our best hope for the future lies in the extension to 
     social organization of the methods that we already employ in 
     our most progressive fields of effort. In science and in 
     industry . . . we cannot wait for catastrophe to force new 
     ways upon us . . . We rely, and with success, upon 
     quantitative analysis to point the way; and we advance 
     because we are constantly improving and applying such 
     analysis.

  In the proven field of medicine, the burden of improving and applying 
analytical methods falls on the academic medical center. Indeed, we 
cannot forget their influence on the state of medicine today--what Dr. 
Purpura called, the crowning achievement of western civilization.
  Dr. Purpora reformulated Albert Einstein's e=mc\2\ to be ``e, 
excellence [of the medical center] to be equal to m, motivation times 
c, commitment . . . and the square be the multiple rather than the 
addition of our joint commitment to excellence in patient care.'' 
Catastrophe will occur not because of ``the asteroid of managed care,'' 
but rather due to a decline in either the motivation of Doctors like 
Dominick Purpura or society's commitment to institutions like the 
Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
  I ask that the full text of Dr. Dominick P. Purpura's dedicatory 
remarks be printed in the Record.
  The remarks follow:

              Jerome and Dawn Greene Medical Arts Pavilion

                     (By Dominick P. Purpura, M.D.)

       We are gathered here for several reasons. Most importantly 
     to bear witness to the felicitous marriage of high-spirited 
     philanthropy and good works, now consummated in this the 
     Jerome and Dawn Greene Medical

[[Page S10864]]

     Arts Pavilion. We are here for another purpose as well. To 
     dispel the septic rumor oozing from some health policy think 
     tanks to the effect that academic medical centers such as 
     ours are dinosaurs doomed to extinction by the impact of the 
     asteroid of managed care. Look skyward! On this day of noble 
     purpose the sun shines brightly. No ashen clouds obscure the 
     values that have made American medicine a crowning 
     achievement of Western Civilization. And what are these core 
     values? Simply stated: Faith in evidence-based medicine and 
     trust that our superbly trained physicians will translate the 
     basic science of medicine into the art and science of patient 
     care. These values constitute the concrete foundation upon 
     which the three pillars of our academic medical center rests 
     so securely. One pillar is this great medical center 
     committed to superb patient care; the second is the Albert 
     Einstein College of medicine, dedicated to excellence in 
     education and biomedical research. The third pillar is this 
     community whose loyalty and support ensure our continuing 
     vitality. I submit that neither the temblors of the 
     healthquake nor the asteroid of managed care can shake or 
     threaten the foundation of our AMC. Dinosaurs are we? Let us 
     not forget that dinosaurs, as every child knows, dominated 
     this planet for nearly 300 million years.
       Besides who would have thought that the most vulnerable to 
     extinction by the impact of managed care might be the giant 
     insurance companies themselves? Asteroid impact sites are 
     difficult to predict. For us, in this holy week of 
     contemplation let us be comforted in the knowledge that good 
     deeds and good works still have currency as effective 
     challenges to potential economic catastrophes. Our species, 
     Homo sapiens, is not only man of wisdom who makes tools; he 
     is also man who plans and builds for the future. How we 
     rejoice when on occasion a man arises from our species who 
     redeems the time with a vision of what will be and has the 
     courage and motivation to pursue it to its realization. Mr. 
     Greene, I salute your uncommon wisdom in selecting parents 
     who gave you good genes and taught the boy to be the mensch 
     he is today. Yours and Mrs. Greene's benefaction strengthens 
     the ties that bind the College of medicine and the Montefiore 
     Medical Center by helping to provide a state-of-the-art 
     medical arts pavilion for the faculty we share in common 
     cause.
       On behalf of the President of Yeshiva University and the 
     Board of Overseers of the Albert Einstein College of 
     Medicine, I congratulate the President and Trustees of the 
     Montefiore Medical Center and especially Jerry and Dawn 
     Greene for proving that our Academic Medical Center is not 
     only alive and well but that the Sun will continue to shine 
     upon us until it exhausts its thermonuclear energy. But not 
     to worry since that is not likely to happen for another 3 
     billion years.
       I conclude on a personal note of reinterpretation of Albert 
     Einstein's most famous special relativity equation E=mc\2\, 
     the equivalence of mass and energy. Let us consider the E to 
     be Excellence equal to m, motivation times c, commitment. 
     Excellence=motivation commitment. And let the square be the 
     multiple rather than the addition of our joint commitment to 
     excellence in patient care. Albert Einstein was troubled for 
     the remainder of his life by the use to which his relativity 
     equation was, of necessity, put in producing nuclear weapons 
     of mass destruction in what became the Manhattan project. How 
     pleased he might be to learn today that our interpretation of 
     e=mc\2\ defines the excellence of our academic medical center 
     as the product of our collective motivation and commitment to 
     the health of the community we serve, not a Manhattan 
     project, but a Bronx project.

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