Medical Humanities Blog

On Medicine & Classicism from a Comparative Perspective

David Arnold and Peter Pormann (University of Warwick) have recorded a wonderful podcast to accompany their upcoming conference (program available here as a PDF) at the Warburg Institute.  Here is the description of the podcast:

Medical systems often resorted to constructing a classical past in order to shape and legitimise current medical theory and practice. This wish to forge a classical tradition appears to be a truly global and diachronic phenomenon.  Greek doctors in particular served as a model of reference for many variegated cultures and societies. In second-century Rome, tenth-century Baghdad, sixteenth-century Florence, and eighteenth-century London, physicians used Hippocrates as a medical authority and deferred to him as the ‘father of medicine’.  Other ‘classical’ authors emerged in various contexts: Avicenna (Ibn Sīnā) became the ‘prince of physicians’ during the medieval period in the Latin West and Arabic- and Persian-speaking East. The Indian and Chinese medical systems selected and constructed their own classics.  Moreover, even today, the appeal to a classic such as Avicenna can sanction medical practice in so-called ‘traditional’ health system found in the Middle East, Africa, or India.  But what does it mean to be a medical ‘classic’? How do different cultures forge their own medical tradition through references to classical authors? And how does medical classicism impact on current health practices?

(h/t MEDMED-L)

2008-09 Bullit History of Medicine Club Lectures

Daniel Smith at the Carolina Curator Blog brings word that all of the lectures given during the Bullit History of Medicine Club (Univ. of North Carolina Chapel Hill) 2008-09 lecture series are available online as MP3s.  Scholars giving talks in the series include Sue Estroff, Todd Savitt, Vanessa Gamble, and Elizabeth Fenn.  A treasure trove! 

On Updates to the National Library of Medicine's Images from the History of Medicine Database

I had a lovely time at the AAHM conference this past weekend, and while there, learned more about the fabulous work the NLM History of Medicine Division is doing.  Their latest effort is the launch of an entirely new platform for their premier database in the History of medicine.  Here are the details:

Using award winning software developed by Luna Imaging, Inc., NLM offers greatly enhanced searching and viewing capabilities to image researchers. Patrons can view search results in a multi-image display, download high resolution copies of their favorite images, zoom in on image details, move images into a patron-defined workspace for further manipulation, and create media groups for presenting images and sharing them via e-mail or posting on blogs.

With these new capabilities, NLM greatly enhances usability of its image collection, where inspection and comparison of images is often as important as access to bibliographic data. IHM is available online, free of charge, at http://ihm.nlm.nih.gov.

Comprising almost 70,000 images from the Prints and Photographs and other collections held in the History of Medicine Division, IHM is one of the largest image databases in the world dedicated to images of medicine, dentistry, public health, the health professions, and health institutions.

The collection includes portraits, photographs, caricatures, genre scenes, posters, and graphic art illustrating the social and historical aspects of medicine. Most types of printmaking are represented: woodcuts, engravings, etchings, mezzotints, aquatints, and lithographs. Also included in the collection are illustrations from the historical book collection. Newly acquired posters and other materials are continually being added to IHM.

The collection is administered by the NLM History of Medicine Division.

(text copied from H-SCI-MED-TECH listserv)

I simply cannot say enough good things about the NLM-History of Medicine division.  There are some fantastic scholars and historians there, the collections are nothing short of awe-inspiring -- and, even better, are open to the public -- and their use of technology to facilitate research, scholarship, and access is incredible.  Medical humanists of all stripes -- make use of these wonderful resources!

On Eugenics & North Carolina

Daniel Smith, the Special Collections Librarian at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill's Health Sciences Library, has a fascinating post on the history of eugenics in North Carolina.  Here is an excerpt:

In North Carolina over 7,600 people were sterilized between 1929 and 1974 under the state’s Eugenics Sterilization Program. Indiana was the first state to implement such a program, and eventually over 30 states followed suit, including North Carolina in 1929. The Eugenics Board of North Carolina reviewed petitions for sterilizations and authorized sterilizations in over 90% of cases. Of those sterilized, approximately 38% were black and 84% were female; moreover, 71% were classified as “feebleminded.” While most states’ sterilization programs diminished in scope after World War II, almost 80% of North Carolina’s cases occurred after 1945. By the late 1960’s over 60% of those sterilized in North Carolina were black and 99% were female.

Smith notes current legislative efforts intended to investigate and memorialize this history, and notes primary sources available in the Special Collections.

(h/t H-EUGENICS listserv)

Online History of Medicine Resources

In the past few weeks, I have learned of several digital resources that may be of interest to readers of Medical Humanities Blog.

First, sponsored by the Wellcome Trust, the website of the Science Museum, London, is featuring a section entitled Brought to Life: Exploring the History of Medicine.  This is really a wonderful resource, with really too much to even begin to get into here.  For example, the main page features links for teachers, for a section entitled "what it means to be well," and for a digital exploration of John Snow's iron lung.  Highly recommended!

(h/t Medieval Medicine listserv)

Second, the website of the Public Health Museum, Tewksbury, MA, has expanded and revamped its website.  Check out the photo gallery.

(h/t H-SCI-MED-TECH listserv)

Third, Steven Palmer, of the department of history at the University of Windsor, has unveiled a really amazing web site entitled Cultures of Health: A Historical Anthology.  Here is the description of the website, which presents opportunities for students as well as more established researchers:

A new on-line research magazine in history of medicine

Cultures of Health: A Historical Anthology is a website featuring archival material, research notes, interviews, bibliographic summaries, and practical, intriguing links in an accessible and usable format. Cultures of Health seeks to cross boundaries of method and presentation in the field, and is expanding to present multi-media explorations including audio and video.

Published by scholars with experience in the history of medicine and related fields, Cultures of Health approaches medicine and health from a social, cultural and political perspective using a wide lens and broad brush.  The editors welcome submissions of short pieces or annotated sources by interested scholars, and offer streamlined, rapid publication.  Copyright is retained by the contributor.

(h/t H-SCI-MED-TECH)

Highly recommended! It is amazing to see how much is opening up on the internet for those interested in the medical humanities and the history of medicine.  Between this and the incredible albeit controversial Google Books project, it is an exciting time to be working on projects related to MH/history of medicine.

Thoughts?

A Learning Module on the Social Determinants of Health

Via the Equidad listserv I learned of this cool learning module for the SDOH.  Here is the relevant information:

Global Learning Device on Social Determinants of Health and Public Policy Formulation 

Mark Akerman
Pan American Health Organization PAHO/WHO - February 2009

English and Spanish at:  http://dds-dispositivoglobal.ops.org.ar/curso/

The purpose of the Introductory Module is to raise awareness of and provide insight into the Social Determinants of Health (SDH) in order to reduce health inequities, encourage changes in the political agenda and contribute to a better administration of social justice and enforcement of human rights. Based on this attitude, we wish to inspire a critical vision of SDH by facilitating both the dissemination of the approach and the understanding of the intervention criteria, drawing on validated scientific papers on SDH, public policies based on the SDH approach, and documents produced by the Commission on the Social Determinants of Health, established by WHO.

This Introductory Module intends to stress the need for and importance of encouraging global learning processes as collective contexts for reflecting upon public policy-making and implementation, so that the Social Determinants of Health SDH approach is not only a well-structured set of scientific evidence and country-based “case studies,” but also a political and educational instrument to encourage reflection on and changes in usual public policy practices.

General objectives of the online Introductory Module

 Understand Health Equity as a value that reflects social justice theory and constitutes a basic factor for the right to health.
 Recognize the potential of identifying health inequities as a strategic element in designing more equitable public policies.
 Recognize intersectoral policies and concerted action strategies from the SDH perspective.
 Analyze the recommendations drawn from the reports drafted by the Commission on Social Determinants of Health and its nine Knowledge Networks,
   as well as foster their discussion and adoption, taking into account both the conditions and priorities in each country.

The Introductory Module is basically targeted at WHO/PAHO staff members as well as Health Ministries’ officials in all countries who are engaged in designing action programs, policies and plans for SDH.

Furthermore, in joining other country initiatives and academic center networks that have organized educational processes with their own public agents and university lecturers, we aim at reaching a broad audience (not only academic and scholars) to lay down the foundations of our process in an attempt to generate, disseminate and increase knowledge as well as facilitate the development of professional qualifications for applying SDH approach to public policies and other strategies via personal and institutional capacity-building processes.

I have not looked through the entire module, but a preliminary look indicates to me it is a valuable set of tools for introducing some of the evidence and implicatons of work on the SDOH.

Recommended!

New Blog and Web Site for Special Collections at UNC Health Sciences Library

As I am always on the lookout for digital collections and images related to the medical humanities, I was pleased to see some extra touches being added to the Special Collections at the Health Sciences Library of the Univ. of North Carolina of Chapel Hill:

Special Collections at the Health Sciences Library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is pleased to announce a new blog, The Carolina Curator: http://carolinacurator.blogspot.com.

The blog is an open-ended forum for the history of the health sciences, and will also alert readers to news and events, useful resources, as well as highlight the activities of Special Collections at the UNC Health Sciences Library.

In addition, the web site for Special Collections has also been recently revamped: http://www.hsl.unc.edu/specialcollections.

The site includes the following new sections: highlights, exhibitions, digital collections, archival collections, historical collections, oral history, research resources, The Bullitt History of Medicine Club, Friends of the Health Sciences Library, etc.

(h/t H-NET-DISABILITY)

On Graphic Medicine

Ian Williams was kind enough to alert me to the existence of a new project he is working on, entitled "Graphic Medicine."  I liked his description and rationale so much, I requested and received permission to post verbatim his discussion:

"It has long been known that comics are “not just for kids”. Over the past decade this underrated  medium has begun to receive recognition and acclaim from literary critics, academics, and broadsheet reviewers. This renaissance is partly due to the rise in popularity of the graphic novel. In contrast to production line, genre based, mainstream comics, graphic novels are full length, square bound “serious” comic books, aimed at adults, usually written and illustrated by one person, thus encapsulating the style, narrative and subjective worldview of an individual. Often drawing on direct experience, the author builds a world into which the reader is drawn. Amongst the growing number of autobiographical works, titles dealing directly with the patient experience of illness or caring for others with an illness are to be found.

Thanks in part to the medical humanities movement many medical schools will now have tutors suggesting students read classic literature or modern novels to gain insight into the human condition.  I think is high time that graphic fiction was taken as seriously: comics and graphic novels could be used as a resource for health professionals, playing a valuable role in: Reflecting or changing cultural perceptions of medicine; Relating the patient/carer/provider experience; Enabling discussion of difficult subjects; Helping other sufferers or carers.  To this end I have set up a website:

www.graphicmedicine.org

which aims to introduce the interested reader to some key works in the comics medium. I have reviewed and rated all the graphic novels and comics I have found to contain stories that could be of relevance (the trouble is, because I am of the opinion that everything is of relevance to healthcare professionals, I keep finding more!). The site aims to promote discussion and critical appraisal of the medium, it is not just a fan site. I have included a site user comments section after every review and a general discussion page. I hope that many people will register with the site and a community will develop.

Of course stories, whether written or drawn are not real life; even autobiographies are carefully constructed representations. Written stories tend to have a structure, with some sort of ultimate resolution or message (as well as a beginning and middle). Stories of illness that are written down or drawn by skilled, articulate authors, published by a commercial company and bought by enough people to warrant reprinting, are a highly selected marginal subgroup of the total that are "out there", passed on by word of mouth, unwritten. Many of these "other" stories will be incoherent, too painful to relate, too distressing to hear, and so utterly bleak, miserable or banal that no commercial press is ever likely to publish them. There are other arguments against taking literature or comics as representative of real experience. I am exploring these issues in my MA dissertation (working title: “Comics as medical narrative: a resource for health professionals?”) which I aim to finish this spring.

Ian Williams, General Practitioner and Trainer, North Wales UK"

_____________________

Recommended!

On the Social Determinants of Health, the NIH, and Translation

Translation is a hot-button word in public health and research policy these days.  This is welcome, because one of the principal themes of this blog has been that even if we ceased all technical innovation in health, we have all the evidence and interventions we need to make our (U.S. and global) population substantially healthier than it is.  This is not to endorse the cessation of innovation, but to note that the link between improved population health and translation of the evidence we already possess, in my opinion, rests on much firmer footing than does the link between population health and increased innovation.

Thus, as always, the policy arguments I suggest are focused on notions of relative priority.  One of the primary criticisms of research and scholarship on the social determinants of health is that much of the evidence is just that, and that SDOH scholars and stakeholders often are focused on documenting the evidence rather than working to translate that evidence into policy and practice.  (As an aside, one can also see the specter of the naturalistic fallacy lurking here, in which too many stakeholders simply presume that the evidence itself justifies normative commitments, which is dubious).  To that end, I was pleased to watch the live Videocast of a talk given by Sir Michael Marmot, one of the most important social epidemiologists in the world and the Chair of the WHO Commission on the Social Determinants of Health.  The talk is (aptly) entitled, "Social Determinants of Health: From Research to Action."

He is a gifted speaker, and both his passion and his erudition shine through in the talk.  He had been invited to speak to the NIH Directors in a closed-door meeting held yesterday, Dec.11, 2008, followed by the public talk.  The NIH Videocast service, which is a wonderful resource, has quickly archived Marmot's talk, which you can access here (RealPlayer required).

There is simply too much incredible information from the talk to encapsulate here in a blog post, but one thing I was struck by is Marmot's insistence on and commitment to strategies and means of implementing the robust SDOH evidence base.  At various times in the talk, Marmot evinces both great pessimism and sunny optimism as to the state of the political will needed to incorporate the SDOH into public health policy.  In my mind, what is most needed is a fundamental reconceptualization of what we deem to be public health policy, such that social policies like housing, occupation, and environment are all expressly and directly deemed to be public health policy, and are implemented as such.

Sadly, for many reasons, I do not share some of Marmot's optimism, especially not in the U.S.  But, as the humanists themselves epitomized, there are some fights worth fighting even if you know you are going to lose.

Thoughts?

On Visible Embryos

The fantastic Morbid Anatomy Blog has a great post on a new online exhibition at the University of Cambridge, organized and produced by Nick Hopwood and Tatjana Burklijas with funding from (who else?) the Wellcome Trust.  Excerpt:

The "Making Visible Embryos" web exhibit approaches a complex, wide-spanning subject engagingly and clearly without ever oversimplifying the subject matter. It is well-designed with heavily (and beautifully) illustrated pages (see above; visit the website to find out more about each image.)

The exhibit deftly explores the changes in metaphor, imagery, and understanding of the mysterious and centuries-hidden embryo, from speculative, religiously influenced illustrations of the 1300s to the modern day ultrasound. It also touches on popular debates about embryology, uses of the embryo in the fine arts, the history of (and uses of) illustration and modeling of the embryo, and contemporary controversies surrounding the embryo in the 21st century.

FYI, Buklijas has a wonderful article on corpse supply and anatomical practices in late 19th century Vienna in the most recent Bulletin of the History of Medicine.  The article, the online exhibition, and the blog post are all highly recommended.