Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Kayvon Modjarrad

  • Drs. William Brady and Alice Hamilton: Contrasts in public health reportage

    Saty Satya-MurtiJoseph LockhartSanta Maria, California, United States Alice Hamilton (1869–1970) and William Brady (1880–1972) were well-recognized physicians of the early twentieth century. They were united by a common goal in the emerging and “untilled” field of public health in the 1920s.1 Their mission was to improve… Read more

  • Pandemic in the palace

    Farah JasarevicIstanbul, Turkey In the sixteenth century, Istanbul was defined by constant movement of people, goods, ideas, and, inevitably, disease. Plague swept through its streets in recurring waves, shaping social patterns and medical responses. In this environment, Haseki Hürrem Sultan, wife of Sultan Süleiman the… Read more

  • Who owns a Nobel Prize? Honor, property, and ethics

    Rao UppuBaton Rouge, Louisiana, United States Every scientist harbors a quiet dream—whether openly admitted or privately held—of winning a Nobel Prize. Early in my career, I naïvely asked my late mentor, Professor William A. Pryor, a leading figure in free-radical research whose work helped shape… Read more

  • Forensic psychiatry in Marco Ricci’s Flight into Egypt

    Stephen MartinThailandAidan JonesUnited Kingdom The Venetian artist Marco Ricci1 (1676–1730) painted Flight into Egypt after being in serious trouble. (Fig 1) We know it was created in England because it is on two individual yard-wide canvases, strip-glued together, and not woven in continental meters. Initialed… Read more

  • Antezana Hospital, Spain

    Mojca RamšakLjubljana, Slovenia In the center of the Spanish city of Alcalá de Henares, near Madrid, stands an exceptional institution—the Antezana Hospital, officially Hospital de Nuestra Señora de la Misericordia. It is one of the oldest continuously operating hospitals in Western Europe, having functioned for… Read more

  • Ancient India in 1,500 words

    Homo sapiens originated in Africa about 300,000 years ago and arrived in India in waves beginning about 65,000 years ago. Early populations were hunter-gatherers and did not adopt a sedentary way of life until about 7,000 years BCE, when they began to domesticate plants and… Read more

  • Rome’s Ospedale Santo Spirito: From ruin to revival

    Sally MetzlerChicago, Illinois, United States Renowned for his restoration of the legendary Sistine Chapel at the Vatican, Pope Sixtus IV (Francesco della Rovere; 1414–1484) embellished Rome with such rapidity and magnitude that he earned the title Urbis Restaurator. Some lauded him as the new Augustus… Read more

  • The spleen and melancholy

    Old Democritus under a tree,Sits on a stone with book on knee;About him hang there many features,Of Cats, Dogs and such like creatures,Of which he makes anatomy,The seat of black choler to see.—Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy The spleen could be described as occupying… Read more

  • The once fatal pernicious anemia

    For much of medical history, pernicious anemia was a baffling and invariably fatal disorder. Characterized by profound weakness, pallor, glossitis, and progressive neurologic decline,  it carried an ominous reputation. Its name—“pernicious”—reflected the despair of physicians who could offer no remedy. The symptoms of this disease… Read more

  • On clubfoot, orthopedics, art, and history

    Avi OhryTel Aviv, Israel A clubfoot,1 or congenital talipes equinovarus (CTEV), is a birth defect in which the foot is inverted. If untreated, children with TEV often walk on their ankles, or on the sides of their feet. The condition occurs about one in every… Read more

  • Earl Bakken: Pacemaker pioneer and founder of Medtronic

    Ahmed NadeemChicago, Illinois, United States Earl Bakken was an electrical engineer who developed the external, battery-operated, wearable pacemaker. He was born in Minnesota in 1924 and received his Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Minnesota. In… Read more

  • Jacobus Rau: Surgical innovator, renowned lithotomist, and educator at Leiden     

    Johann Jakob Rau, latinized to Johannes, was one of the most influential surgical innovators of early modern Europe, best known for transforming the treatment of urinary bladder stones through his lateral lithotomy technique. Born in 1668 in Baden-Baden, he was the son of wine merchant… Read more