Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Biology

  • AI and the language of medicine

    Elena IliadisWashington, D.C., United States The better part of medical school, I would argue, is learning to speak the language. The language of medicine is nuanced: there is language of diagnosis and of prescribing, language between medical professionals, and importantly, language within the physician-patient relationship.… Read more

  • A measles death in the family

    Ellen DavisChapel Hill, North Carolina, United States In 1949, before there was a vaccine, my thirteen-year-old brother Freddie died from encephalitis, a direct complication of measles. A person with measles (rubeola or “standard” measles) develops a fever and redness of the eyes, nose, and throat… Read more

  • Medicine in ancient and modern Syria and Lebanon

    Syria and Lebanon are modern countries with ancient memories. The earliest settlements date back to the Paleolithic era, while during the Bronze Age, the coastal cities of Byblos, Sidon, and Tire emerged as trading hubs and conduits of knowledge, as their ships carried cedar, purple… Read more

  • Taiwan: History and healthcare

    Taiwan is a mountainous island about 180 kilometers off China’s mainland coast, with a population of roughly 23 million. A prosperous society, it is a leading center of advanced semiconductor production by companies such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. Its history begins with Austronesian-speaking Indigenous… Read more

  • Harry Dowling  

    Dr. Harry Filmore Dowling (1904–2000) was a distinguished physician, educator, and pioneer in infectious-disease medicine. Born in Washington, D.C., he graduated magna cum laude from Franklin and Marshall College and received his medical degree with distinction from George Washington University in 1931. He then completed… Read more

  • The wrong geographical timeline

    Riddhi NaikBambolim, India It was just another day in medical school. I was posted in the postnatal ward on a bright, sunny March morning. The ward was filled with young mothers full of hope and love for their newborns. Spring was in full bloom- both… Read more

  • Hortus Sanitatis (1491): The Garden of Health

    Christopher DuffinLondon, England The Hortus Sanitatis was published in Mainz (western central Germany) on June 23, 1491 by Jacob Meydenbach (fl. fifteenth century).1 In the forty years or so since Johannes Gutenberg (c. 1393–1406–1468) first invented printing using movable type, the industry had undergone many… Read more

  • Uganda, the Pearl of Africa

    Winston Churchill described this landlocked East African country as the “Pearl of Africa.” Archaeological evidence shows that humans have lived there for at least 50,000 years and that, over millennia, Bantu-speaking cultivators gradually cleared forests, introduced ironworking, and established stable agricultural communities. By the first… Read more

  • Kenya: Progress on a long road

    With a population exceeding 50 million and more than 40 distinct ethnic communities, Kenya stands as one of Africa’s most diverse countries. Its history stretches back to some of humanity’s earliest ancestors, with fossil discoveries in the Rift Valley suggesting the region played a key… Read more

  • Self-experimentation

    Jayant RadhakrishnanChicago, Illinois, United States Scientists have conducted experiments on themselves on many occasions for a variety of reasons.1,2 Karl Landsteiner was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1930 for discovering human blood groups. He found it convenient and economical to carry… Read more

  • Bigotry is a public health issue

    Ali AbdullahKansas City, Missouri, United States Bigotry affects the health of nations. This is exemplified in Germany, where in the early 1900s roughly 50% of Berlin’s1 physicians were Jewish, as were 70% of doctors in Vienna1 and 16% in Prussia.2 After the ascent of the… Read more

  • A millennium of medical care in Kyiv

    Kyiv, one of Europe’s oldest cities, became the capital of Kyivan Rus, a powerful medieval state that united the Slavs living along the Dnipro River trade routes. After the adoption of Christianity in 988, Byzantine ideas about healing, charity, and hospital care entered the region… Read more