The Medical Follow Up Agency

The Medical Follow-up Agency is a national treasure for veterans and for long-term studies of health. Its data resources provide incomparable opportunities to follow very important populations and to ask creative questions about their well-being as well as the occurrence and significance of illness. The Twin Registry provides an opportunity to understand the impact of heredity on health and disease in a population of more than 16,000 pairs of twins (i.e., 32,000 veterans). The Medical Follow-up Agency is a living tribute to the vision, energy, and effectiveness of Michael E. DeBakey, M.D. Dr. DeBakey created the idea for the agency, obtained the appropriate approvals, staffed its initial creation, and 50 years later, spoke on the occasion of its golden anniversary. This sequence of events must be unique in the history of veterans' health and medical research.

He has been called the greatest surgeon of the 20th century. The son of Lebanese immigrants, Michael DeBakey rose from humble beginnings in a backwater Louisiana town to dominate the landscape of modern medicine. His contributions to our understanding and treatment of cardiovascular disease, in particular, were innumerable and epoch-making. DeBakey led a life of high drama, from the streets of Jazz Age New Orleans and the operating theaters of pre-war Europe, to the battlefields of World War II and the floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina. An advisor to Presidents, a health care statesman, and a physician to royalty and commoner alike, he helped build Houston's Texas Medical Center into a jewel of the medical world. Yet DeBakey's own family paid a tremendous cost for his commitment to his fellow man. Buoyed by unique access to primary resources, A Time for All Things: The Life of Michael E. DeBakey is the first to tell the remarkable story of a driven genius who led a scientific and therapeutic revolution in all its dramatic depth.

First multi-year cumulation covers six years: 1965-70.

Contains laws, legislative history, administrative regulations, lists of committees, proclamations, executive messages and orders