Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Famous Hospitals

  • The Steno Memorial Hospital of Copenhagen

    Anabelle S. SlingerlandLeiden, Netherlands Where science and human nature meet In November 2017 the Niels Steensens Hospital or Steno Memorial Hospital of Copenhagen, celebrated its 85th anniversary (Figure 1). It was named after the distinguished Danish scientist Nicolaus Steno(nis) (1638-1688), a modern-day Renaissance man, autodidact and polyglot, who explored anatomy, geology, and religion. He was…

  • Montefiore: instrument for social good

    Grace SotomayorCharlotte, North Carolina, United States At this time in the United States, there is heated debate and rancor about whether health care is a right or a privilege and how and if our country should pay for healthcare. However, some members of one American institution, the hospital, have been quietly continuing to innovate, contribute…

  • A hospital for sick children

    Joseph deBettencourtChicago, Illinois, United States Down a narrow street in an old London neighborhood sat a large, forgotten house. It used to belong to a well-known doctor who built an addition just for his medical library, inviting students to come and pour over the leather bound tomes he spent his life acquiring. With the windows…

  • Groote Schuur Hospital, location, lineage and legacy

    Annabelle S. SlingerlandLeiden, the Netherlands Façade of Groote Schuur Hospital Beginnings The Groote Schuur Hospital in South Africa’s Cape Town sits on a site first discovered in 1488 by the Portuguese Bartolomeu Dias. He called the peninsula Cabo Tormentosa (Cape of Storms), a good description of a site where the notorious South-Easter wind wrecked many…

  • The Joslin Diabetes Center

    Annabelle S. SlingerlandLeiden, the Netherlands Matthew BrownBoston, Massachusetts, United States Of the many hospitals that have risen to fame because of the accomplishments of their staff, the Joslin Diabetes Center is one of the most iconic. Founded at a time when diabetes was largely untreatable and often a death sentence, it was named after Elliott…

  • The Jikei University Hospital, first charity hospital in Japan

    Ruri AshidaTokyo, Japan The Jikei University Hospital stands in the middle of Tokyo near the governmental offices and Tokyo Tower. It was established in July 1882 as the first charity hospital in Japan; its original name, Yushi Kyoritsu Tokyo Byoin (Tokyo Charity Hospital), suggested that it was cooperatively supported by voluntary contributions. The founders were…

  • Kirkleatham Hospital

    Stephen MartinMahasarakham Art and architecture in historic almshouses provided aesthetic pleasure, improved self-esteem and attended to spiritual need. An example of early Enlightenment philanthropy in the English village of Kirkleatham, Cleveland, provides major humanitarian lessons for the planners of today. East Cleveland was used to progressive thinking. A remarkable socio-geographical commentary on the area was…

  • Charite hospital

    Annabelle SlingerlandLeiden, the Netherlands On November 14, 1709, King Frederik I of Prussia planted a small seed that over the following three centuries grew, branch by branch, into one of the foremost medical research and treatment centers in the world. Plague House, 1709 In 1709 a malignant outbreak of bubonic plague that had almost depopulated…

  • The origins and development of the Lewis Hospitals

    Nicola MacArthurAberdeen, Scotland The Isle of Lewis is the largest island of Scotland’s Outer Hebrides. Its current population of 18,500 has decreased from 30,000 in the eighteenth century, when one fifth lived in the capital, Stornoway. Throughout history Stornoway was an important center for the fishing industry, naval harbor during World War I, and air…

  • Gorgas Hospital, Ancon, Panama

    W. Paul McKinneyLouisville, Kentucky, United States  A man, a plan, a canal: Panama. This well-known palindrome describes the grand vision of Count Ferdinand de Lesseps for constructing, under the flag of France, a sea level canal linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans in the late nineteenth century. Despite the best efforts of the French, the…