Faculty Bibliography

NEW YORK - For the first time, the nation's leading pediatricians' group has concluded that there are medical advantages to circumcision, the most commonly performed operation on males in the United States. Removal of the foreskin from the penis in circumcisions protects against infections of the kidneys and urinary system, the American Academy of Pediatrics said Sunday, citing studies done by military doctors on babies born in Army hospitals from 1975 to 1984. The academy's statement seems sure to rekindle the heated debate that has gone on in recent decades about the medical justification of circumcision, the oldest known surgical procedure. Jews have carried out circumcision as a ritual since biblical times, and the practice has been followed for centuries by Moslems, certain tribes in Africa and others

In an effort to slow the spread of AIDS among intravenous drug users, the FDA has proposed making methadone more available for addicts seeking treatment

Indeed, doctors are taught to think of common treatable conditions first. The expression, ''When you hear hoofbeats, don't think of zebras,'' is often repeated on hospital rounds. Unfortunately, the shipment arrived a few hours after the man died on Feb. 16. In the final hours, Dr. [Robert A. Chase] said, the man was beyond saving. ''Nothing was going to help,'' Dr. Chase said. ''Even if he got ribavirin the moment I saw him, it wouldn't have altered the outcome.''

The structural and biochemical changes were found in nerve endings of cells involved in smell, one of the first senses lost in Alzheimer's disease. The preliminary findings, reported in the journal Nature, were based on autopsy studies of 23 patients, nine of whom had Alzheimer's, by researchers at the medical schools of Tufts University in Boston and the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Also, repeated samples from a patient's nose would help researchers learn how Alzheimer's disease progresses step by step in people. At present, doctors have only a crude understanding of the nature of such damage. Environment a Factor? Previous studies have shown that the sense of smell weakens as people grow older. Also, several medical groups have observed that disproportionate numbers of Alzheimer's patients lose their sense of smell. Last year, for example, Dr. David M.A. Mann of the University of Manchester and Dr. Margaret M. Esiri of the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford, speculated in The New England Journal of Medicine that the olfactory pathway ''may provide a possible point of entry to the brain for'' such an environmental factor

For the White House physician, availability often turned out to be the most important factor. But it means a reversal of the usual physician-patient schedule. While patients generally gear appointments to a doctor's time, the White House physician's schedule depends entirely on that of his primary patient. Still, the job has its advantages. ''The White House physician can walk into the Oval Office or the President's residence any time if he has good reason,'' Dr. [Daniel Ruge] said. Indeed, he recalled times when Secretary of State George Shultz and Vice President Bush were outside Mr. Reagan's office when he came by. ''Let the doctor go in first,'' Dr. Ruge said they told the President's secretary. Dr. Ruge said key aspects of the job include learning to stay out of the range of news cameras and otherwise ''being unobtrusive.'' Dr. Ruge, however, found he had a handicap: his thick head of silver hair. While the sign of seniority was generally useful in helping him command respect, it made him stand out when he tried to observe the President without being noticed. Dr. Ruge said he purposely tried to keep out of Mr. Reagan's view because he considered it ''unnatural and disconcerting'' for a healthy person to see his doctor every day. Dr. Ruge also recalls the exchanges with Mr. Reagan when he was recuperating from an assassination attempt. When Mr. Reagan woke up after surgeons removed a bullet from his lung, he had a tube in his throat connected to a mechanical respirator. It was a standard precautionary measure. ''Why can't I breathe?'' Mr. Reagan wrote in a note. Dr. Ruge's answer led Mr. Reagan to write, ''I'm alive, aren't I?''

White House physician Dr. Daniel Ruge says in an interview that eight years after Ronald Reagan was shot and seriously wounded, he believes Presidential power should have been temporarily transferred to Vice Pres. George Bush

The doctor, Daniel Ruge, who was the White House physician from 1981 until 1985, said [Ronald Reagan]'s need for general anesthesia for emergency surgery and intensive care afterward should have made those in charge invoke Section 3 of the 25th Amendment to the Constitution to transfer executive power to [George Bush] for a day or two

The doctor, Daniel Ruge, who was the White House physician from 1981 until 1985, said [Ronald Reagan]'s need for general anesthesia for emergency surgery and intensive care afterward should have made those in charge invoke Section 3 of the 25th Amendment to the Constitution to transfer executive power to [George Bush] for a day or two. After Reagan was shot in Washington on March 30, 1981, he was taken to George Washington University Hospital and given 3.7 quarts of blood to counter shock. Emergency chest surgery was performed to stop massive internal bleeding and remove a bullet that had lodged in his lung. Reagan remained in the hospital 12 days. 'The 25th Amendment should have been invoked, no doubt about it, because Mr. Reagan could not communicate with the people a president is supposed to communicate with,' Ruge said, adding that Reagan was in an operating room and an intensive care unit

Dr. Daniel Ruge, who was White House physician from 1981 until 1985, said [Ronald] Reagan's need for general anesthesia for emergency surgery and intensive care afterward should have made those in charge invoke Section 3 of the 25th Amendment to the Constitution to transfer executive power to [George] Bush for a day or two

Donating care has also become more costly and burdensome to physicians than in the past. For instance, many retired physicians say they would be willing to provide care for free but cannot afford to pay for malpractice insurance