Month: June 2018
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The Monros: A medical dynasty
JMS PearceHull, England, United Kingdom In medieval times Celtic life was based on a clan system of lineage in certain territories. Each clan had a chief, kinsmen, and families who worked and lived on their lands. The treatment of illness within the entire clan was the responsibility of a medically trained physician, a selected member…
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Percussion of the chest: Leopold Auenbrugger
Percussion for examination of the chest was first described in 1754 in a little book written in Latin as “a new discovery that enables the physician from the percussion of the human thorax to detect the diseases hidden within the chest.” At publication the book was ignored and percussion received little attention until popularized decades…
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Decoding doctor-speak in the era of OpenNotes
Jennifer WinekePhiladelphia, Pennsylvania, United States Modern-day doctors share a common dilemma: how do you get all of the necessary information into the electronic medical record while still being present with the patient? Every doctor I have talked to approaches this challenge a little differently. Some acknowledge the impersonality upfront and apologize to the patient (“I…
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Sir Charles Symonds 1890-1978 , the neurologist’s neurologist
There was a time when medical practitioners in England would refer their difficult cases to a neurologist paid by the health services to come once a week to consult at the local hospital. Faced with a difficult or puzzling case, this consultant neurologist would send the patient to be seen at the National Hospital for…
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New opioid epidemic: another long day’s journey
Carol LevineNew York, New York, United States Edmund Tyrone, age 23 (August 1912, New London, Connecticut) “It’s pretty hard to take at times, having a dope fiend for a mother!”From Long Day’s Journey into Night by Eugene O’Neill, Act III1 Alexis Lightle, age 17 (December 2017, Chillicothe, Ohio) “My dad was on pills and opiates…
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The feast of health: the Christian legacy of Hygeia
Wilson F. Engel, IIIGilbert, Arizona, United States Michelangelo’s famous fresco in the Sistine Chapel (Figure 1) shows the serpent tempting Eve on the left, and the archangel Raphael expelling Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden on the right. The image oddly enough shows the serpent having a female face, its massive body doubled…
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“Without dissent”: Early black physicians in Alabama
A.J. WrightBirmingham, Alabama, USA There is a brief but interesting note in the July 1953 issue of the Journal of the National Medical Association, the official voice of the organization founded in 1895 for African-American physicians in the U.S. At first glance this decision by the Medical Association of the State of Alabama—as it was formally…
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Not by blood
Simon EdberPittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States Raven knows exactly how she joined the family: “She didn’t want me so she took me to the hospital, and then you came and bought me from the hospital.” Well, almost exactly. “I didn’t buy you,” Cathy corrects her from across the room, smiling but not daring to laugh. Even…
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St. Mary’s Hospital, birthplace of penicillin
Anabelle S. SlingerlandLeiden, NetherlandsKevin BrownLondon, England On April 23, 2018, Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge left the Lindo Wing of St. Mary’s Hospital in London with their new baby boy. Fans of the Royals, who had been camping outside St. Mary’s for weeks, and the crowds and photographers who had gathered for the…
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Beginnings of bedside teaching in Padua: Montanus
Medical historians seem to agree that the first teacher of medicine to instruct his students at the bedside was Giovanni Batista de Monte (1498–1552), better known by his Latin name of Montanus. In 1543 Montanus was appointed to the Chair of Medicine at the University of Padua, a state institution of the Republic of Venice.…