Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Sudarshan Ramachandran

  • A look back at insulin

    Shrestha Saraf Sutton Coldfield, United Kingdom Sanjay Saraf Sudarshan Ramachandran Birmingham, United Kingdom   Sir Frederick Banting and Dr. Charles Best co-discoverers of Insulin. Library and Archives Canada. Via Wikimedia. As we approach the centenary of the isolation, purification, and clinical use of insulin, it is an appropriate moment to reflect on the impact of…

  • Homeopathy: medicine or placebo?

    Shrestha Saraf Sutton Coldfield, UK Sudarshan Ramachandran Birmingham, UK   Samuel Christian Friedrich Hahnemann. Mezzotint by R. Woodman after G. E. Hering. Wellcome Collection. Public Domain Mark Homeopathy, based on a pseudoscientific system of alternative medicine, was developed by German physician Samuel Hahnemann around 1790. The primary principle of homeopathy is “like cures like,” i.e.,…

  • The Hôtel-Dieu de Beaune, a testament to the health benefits of religious charity and vineyards

    Kate Elizabeth Shipman Sudarshan Ramachandran Birmingham, United Kingdom   Introduction Exterior shot of L’Hôtel-Dieu de Beaune, Burgundy, taken from within the central courtyard. (photographed by S Ramachandran) Charitable hospitals are fairly ubiquitous worldwide and are often associated with religion. Indeed the earliest known institutes devoted to healing were Egyptian temples, followed by ancient Greek temples devoted…