β Scribed by Dr. John A. Dixon
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
Does the United States and world really need another medical surgical scientific organization? This is a rather crowded field, as you know. Is there especially a need for an organization characterized by a base on one instrument such as the laser? One of my nonlaser colleagues who visited the unit one day said, "If your laser goes out, your entire department will dissolve," and this may be true. Is there a need for an organization characterized by a heterogenous membership-surgeons, gastroenterologists, ophthalmologists, orthopedists, nurses, physicists, optical engineers, chemists, manufacturers, and so on? How will an organization serve a membership ranging from the most wild eyed, uncritical, true laser zealot or believer to the most skeptical, controlled-trial-conscious statistician?
The first part of the question deals with permanence-is the laser going to be around for a while, or is our laser light going to go out? Some of the skeptics that I live with say, "The laser is the hoola hoop of the 80's. It's another fad. Remember gastric freezing." "It's just another blow torch," it has been said. Some of my friends, not physicians, who are medical "futurologists" feel that there is going to be a permanent niche for the laser. Dr. Louis Goodman, the pharmacologist, always said that when a new drug comes out there are tremendous vistas proposed and great uses contemplated. The drug goes through a negative phase where complications appear and contraindications are reported. If it survives this period, the drug will gradually come back to the point where its ultimate usefulness will be determined. Some people say the laser is going to die out now because it isn't doing all things for all surgeons. I'd like to turn this around and say that laser use will probably remain because it has been around for 15 years and it hasn't died out completely already. Like everything in medicine and surgery, the laser probably will not be universally applicable. One just won't be able to do everything with it. However, the laser appears to do some things very well.
What are the other indices of stability? Eighty-five million dollars is roughly the volume of sales in medical lasers last year with some 35% increase per year in those sales. The meeting in Dallas in 1977 had about 75 people in attendance. There are 585 here today in 17 specialties. In such meetings we are seeking those unique Delivered at 4th Annual Meeting American Society for Laser in Medicine and Surgery,
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