BY WIRELESS

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 26, 1 February 1932, Page 6

BY WIRELESS

STRANGE MEDICAL

SERVICE

DOCTORING THE ESKIMO

(From "The Post's" Representative.)

VANCOUVER,.6th January

Dr. F. S. Parley, of Ottawa, has ono of the widest-flung and strangest medical practices in the world. He never sees his patients. A medical manual and a typewritten list' of drugs form his only kit. His patients never receive bills. All his diagnosing and treatment are done by wireless.

Seated behind a desk in an ordinary business office, Dr. Parley cares for his patients, scattered through the Far North. His field, extending thousands of miles, from Aklavik on the west to Cape Chidley on the east, is. limited on!y by the power of wireless.

Dotted throughout the North at Government meteorological and radio stations, Royal Canadian Mounted Police depots, fur trading posts, and mining camps, small groups of men and women are isolated from civilisation: When any of them fall ill, their symptoms are radioed to Dr. Parley at Ottawa. A diagnosis is made, and within a few minutes a schedule of treatments has been flashed back. Reports continue while the patient is sick, and, if necessary, the treatment is changed. A medical manual, a first aid kit, and a cabinet of staple drugs are standard equipment at every Government post in the North. Dr. Parley, an'official of the Department of Health, has on his desk a manual identical with those kept in the North. When ho lias diagnosed a case, he instructs those caring for the patient to find a certain page and follow its directions.

The medical manual, couched in simple, everyday language, was written for the layman, and it tells how to examine a patient, what symptoms should be flashed to Ottawa, how to follow a schedule of treatment, and how to use simple medical instruments and appliances. Thermometers, bandages, splints, rubber gloves, and antiseptics are in the medical cabinet. Seventytwo drugs are carried, each with a separate number.

Dr. Parley's practice runs' from frostbites and impacted wisdom teeth to consumption and the obstetrical care of Eskimo women. Minor operations have been performed under his distant control. He has been present, figuratively, at the birth of children. Deepseated growths and severe ailments have vanished through his radioed treatments.

Imagination and versatility form the basis of the system. Dr. Parley must use imagination to diagnose and treat a patient many hundreds of miles away. At the same time both the doctor and the men in the North must exhibit versatility. Acetic acid was needed for a chemical test necessary in a diagnosis, but none was available at the Northern post. "Use white wine vinegar," said Ottawa.

It was necessary for diagnostic purposes to localise a chest disturbance. The post was told to divide figuratively the patient's chest with a St. George's cross. The disturbance was in the northern half of tho south-west quadrant.

Tho radio branch of the Marino Department has held a circuit open all day to permit an Eskimo woman to receive medical attention from Ottawa. Dozens of messages were exchanged, and the woman finally recovered from a severe illness.

In the Government records the case is listed simply,"Maggie, wife of Tommy, Resolution Island."