The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1934-05-23
DOCTORS
DRAW FIRE OF
JUDICIAL Chief
English Panel System Is
Also AsSaiIed by Dr..
Dean Lewis.

Social service workers VINO al
ways are experimenting" and eX-
pert medical witnesses who badly
contradict each other II highly
publiciZed trials, were denounced
here last night as enemies OF or
ganiZed medicine by Dr. Dean Lewis,
Baltimore. president Of the Amer
lean Medical association and chief
surgeon John Hopkins hospital
Dr.. Lewis told a group Of fifty
four Indiana physicians and sur
geons, whom he addressed at din
ner in the James Whitcomb Riley
Hospital for Children as part Of the
Indiana university medical schools
current postgraduate course, that
he was worried about the condi-
ton of medicine in this country
today"
I came out here on train with
a gentleman whose name is con-
nected with wealth and he made a
point of telling me that doctors
weren't doing anything" DR.. Lewis
said.
The medical profession neceSSar-
lily is conservative by nature" he
continued. If we tried all the new
remedies that are trotted out every
year. the American public would
have 10000 quack medicines foiSted
on it.
Social workers are experimenting
all the time. We know what would
happen if we experimental with a
broken leg"
DR. Lewis then turned his fire di-
rectly on socialized medicine.
He said that, in England, it had
doubled the length of hospitaIiza-
ton necessary per patient and that,
in the same country, it had resulted
in paying S2,50O,000 to "a bureau
cracy" to administer its panel sys-
tenn
4 am sure the American people
wouldn't stand for the hospital
schools I've seen abroad DR.. Lewis
declared. He said that, in France,
a bureaucracy was running hos
pitfalls without sufficient instru-
mentS.
Dr. Lewis also lashed out at lay
men who, he said, were trying. to
exploit the medical profession by
organizing group practice at unreal
Sonably low fees for depreSsion-h
physicians, the layman-o organizer
taking a percentage of the doctors
earnings.
THE medical profession has done
more during the depression than
any other profession and yet it faces
things like this" DR.. Lewis COM
menteG.
He urged that latest developments
in medicine be taken into the coun-
try for physicians unable to attend
city clinics.
Il am not so much interested in
the cost of medicine as I am in the
quality" he summed up.
Testifying of expert medical wit
nesses seems to be a little crooked
in some cases." DR.. Lewis said, urg-
ing cooperation with bar aSsocia-
tons to end this He said he be-
ieved it would be better if expert
testimony could be given before a
board of referees and not in open
court.
DR.. Lewis cited as harmful to
medicine the example of a Balti-
more psychiatrist who testified for
the plaintiff in a will case and then,
on retriaI six weeks after the orig
inal hearing, testified for the de-
Tense.
He concluded his talk with slap
at LAY people who can tell you
everything about medicine" and at
the versatility of those social
workers."
DR.. A. NJ Mitchell, Terre Haute,
presided at the dinner, which was
attended by thirty county secre-
taries of the Indiana State Medical
Association. DR.. Mitchell is chair
man of the secretaries conference.
After the dinner, DR. Lewis went |
to the medical school building and
delivered a highly technical, illus