Faculty Bibliography

Dr. Roper's predecessor, Dr. James O. Mason, who has been promoted to the post of Assistant Secretary for Health, said he expected Dr. Roper and the centers to benefit from the new director's Washington contacts. ''It's a two-way street,'' Dr. Mason said of his successor's appointment. ''Not only can Bill Roper represent C.D.C. well because of his Washington experience, but it provides him an ability to look at C.D.C.'s mission with different eyes.'' He outlined several target areas for improving the nation's health, but he declined to be specific on details until he was briefed by senior staff at the centers. One target is AIDS education. ''Until we have a cure and vaccine for AIDS,'' he said, ''we need to focus on prevention, and that means looking for new and better ways of educating the public.'' At the Health Care Financing Adminstration, Dr. Roper developed new ways to determine what works in medical practice; for example, learning when heart bypass surgery is superior to techniques such as balloon angioplasty. He said he wants to further develop such techniques to ''sharpen our understanding of what really works in prevention.'' Dr. Roper is taking over the helm at C.D.C. at a time when he and many others believe the field of public health itself is ailing. He cited a recent study by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences that said the ''nation has lost sight of its public health goals and has allowed the system of public health activities to fall into disarray.''

The AMA, one of most powerful lobbies in the US, has been splintered recently due to the competing interests of various medical specialities

In a surprise move, the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation has decided not to make its medical and scientific awards in 1990. Financial reasons were given for the action

The changing roles of doctors and the challenges they face from hospitals and hostile patients are examined. Applications to medical schools dropped 25% in the second half of the 1980s and many doctors surveyed said they would choose a different profession if they could do it again. (Pt 1 of 3)

Lyme disease can produce symptoms like a rash with a bull's-eye pattern, fever, arthritis, nerve paralysis and heart damage. Most cases can be diagnosed easily from the telltale rash and the standard laboratory test. But a puzzling feature is that the test sometimes is negative when the rash is present or symptoms suggestive of Lyme disease persist. ''This could be a very important finding,'' said Dr. Jorge L. Benach, a Lyme disease expert with the New York State Health Department. The new test detected the Lyme antibody in all 10 cases with the classic rash and negative standard test results. The new test was positive in 21 of 22 Lyme cases with positive standard tests. The new test was also positive in 4 of 12 probable cases of Lyme disease with no rash and negative standard tests

About one in 200 blood donors is infected with the hepatitis C virus, and the risk of contracting it increases with each transfusion. Someone who has four transfusions from different donors has a 2 percent chance of developing hepatitis C. ''That's a lot,'' said Dr. John W. Adamson, president of the New York Blood Center. His center supports a proposal that doctors and patients consider postponing the kinds of elective surgery that might require transfusions until the hepatitis C test is licensed. Dr. Jay E. Menitove of the Blood Center of Southeastern Wisconsin in Milwaukee made the proposal in a newsletter to physicians in his area. ''If my mother needed elective surgery, say a hip operation, I might recommend that she wait until the test was available,'' Dr. Adamson said. James L. MacPherson, executive director of the Council of Community Blood Centers in Washington, said in a memorandum to his trustees that representatives of several blood centers have expressed concern that the F.D.A.'s approval process ''is taking too long.'' Mr. MacPherson declined to identify the centers

Dr. James S. Todd, who was named acting executive vice president of the A.M.A., said yesterday that Dr. [James H. Sammons] had not broken any rules and that the transactions were carried out according to standard practice for corporations. There were no indiscretions or irregularities, Dr. Todd said, calling the Sun-Times article ''yellow journalism.'' Michael D. Bromberg, executive director of the Federation of American Systems in Washington, said the health care field would miss Dr. Sammons. ''He was a very charismatic, tough guy,'' Mr. Bromberg said. ''He called it like it was.'' Asked whether Dr. Sammons's departure would weaken the A.M.A.'s lobbying efforts, Mr. Bromberg said: ''Their strength is from the grass roots and it's never been a one-man show. So it won't make that much of a difference in Washington, but we'll miss someone with his tremendous leadership quality.''

In the Australian study, 72 women were randomly assigned to outpatient care and 69 to hospitalization from the 26th to the 30th week of pregnancy. Six women in the second group refused to be hospitalized

According to a study in Australia, the common practice of hospitalizing women bearing twins to prevent premature labor and other complications late in pregnancy is ineffective

James Tillison, executive director of the U.S. Cheese Makers Association in Madison, Wis., disputed the health officials' contention that cheese might be an important source of salmonella infections and that testing methods are inadequate. But he said the industry would thoroughly review its testing procedures and make any necessary changes. The Minnesota officials said extremely small amounts of bacterial contamination can cause large outbreaks, and they urged scientists to develop more precise tests and sampling methods to detect salmonella and other dangerous microbes