Monday, June 8, 1998
Surgeon General addresses grads
SPEECH: New doctors reminded of greater global-health issues
By Katie Sierra
Daily Bruin Contributor
Dr. David Satcher, the newly appointed U.S. Surgeon General,
made his first public appearance in California on Friday at the
UCLA Hippocratic Oath Ceremony in Perloff quad.
Addressing a graduating class of 158 students, Satcher used the
forum to address his concerns about the future of public health
care.
"The quality of health care you receive depends on where you
happen to live, and in fact we don’t have good measures of
quality," Satcher said.
Satcher expanded on crucial issues in public health, such as
gaining control of emerging infectious diseases and encouraging
people to take better care of their health, especially college
students. According to Satcher, college students are at an age
where habits such as smoking, binge drinking and sexual behaviors
develop.
"College students are in a position to develop healthy
lifestyles," Satcher claimed.
Human behavior accounts for more than one-half of deaths each
year, he said. To remedy this, he suggested a system that
encourages people to actively protect their own health. Lowered
health care rates for non-smokers is just one an example of this
positive reward system.
"We should reward people who behave in healthful ways," Satcher
said.
Satcher also wants to change the public’s attitude toward the
mentally ill. Most Americans have negative attitudes toward the
mentally ill which cause them to blame individuals suffering from
mental illness and their families.
Satcher has worked as director of the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention and administrator of the Agency for the
Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.
Also a former faculty member of the UCLA School of Medicine and
the King/Drew Medical Center in Los Angeles, Satcher was chosen as
Surgeon General in February.
According to Satcher, the ceremony brought back memories of his
own graduation from medical school and the new beginnings it
represented to his family.
His parents, who never finished elementary school, left the
South for the first time to see him graduate from Case Western
Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio.
Satcher spoke from experience when he said that this day
represented a new beginning for graduating medical students.
"Every class represents a new hope. We can do more today in
medicine than we’ve been able to do at any time in the history of
man," Satcher said.
Victor Gomez, a UCLA Medical School graduate, said Satcher’s
words helped to put his graduation experience into perspective.
"As we go into our residencies, we are very focused on the here
and now," Gomez said. Gomez also found that Satcher’s reminder of
global health issues also hit home with him.
"Satcher helped to remind us that there’s a bigger picture. Even
though we don’t see things like malaria on a regular basis, we have
to remember that it’s a worldwide problem."Photos by AELIA KHAN
U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher (right) is introduced by
Medical School Provost and Dean Gerald Levey, M.D. before
addressing the graduating class of medical students.
UCLA Medical School graduates wait to take the Hippocratic
Oath.