As I address this House of Delegates for the last time as President of the Association, let me express my great pride in the medical profession and the American Medical Association. I am grateful to hundreds of members of the Association and to its staff who during the past year have so ably and effectively pushed toward its goals and have helped me so much. I am indeed grateful.
It is not my purpose to review the accomplishments and the disappointments since June 1968. Instead, I would like to discuss some thoughtful and practical considerations of the road ahead, particularly as medicine relates to society and to government.
Medicine is really in its infancy! Medicine in human service has almost unlimited possibilities. As it becomes increasingly scientifically based—as it surely will in the years ahead—we and our successors will see fantastic developments, many of them unpredictable.
One can predict that