Experiment in Prevention

John T. Batura, New York City fireman, his wife Anna and their two youngsters, Barbara, 5, and Richard, 4, marched into The Bronx's Montefiore Hospital for thorough examinations last week. Nurses and doctors made detailed case histories of all the ailments the Baturas have ever had, gave them top-to-toe physical tests. Later, a psychiatric social worker gave them a going-over. None of the Baturas was ill, but they were making U.S. medical history.

The Baturas are the first of 20 families chosen for an experiment in preventive medicine! Instead of waiting until illness strikes, the project will try to keep the families healthy through the combined forces of clinical medicine, social work, psychology, psychiatry and education. A public-health nurse will visit the Baturas and the other 19 families to discuss and prescribe diet, recreation and rest habits. The psychiatric social worker will try to spot tensions within the families which might upset either mental or physical health.

The 20 families were chosen from the 4,000 enrolled at Montefiore under the voluntary, prepaid Health Insurance Plan of Greater New York. They will pay nothing extra for the experimental service. (The Community Service Society is footing the bill.) Another group of 20 families will be chosen to serve as a control: over a five-year period, the health records of the two groups will be compared to see whether the preventive approach pays off. The sponsoring institutions will try to figure out how much the preventive program would cost subscribers on a regular basis. Says Dr. Martin Cherkasky, director of Montefiore: "We think we're offering people what they want--a place where they can get guidance and treatment for everything from a kidney stone to an unhealthy rivalry between sister and brother."

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