Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Travel

  • Notes made after a medical meeting in Rhodes a long time ago

    It is time to relax between presentations, away from medical crowds, from lectures and posters, from science, medical education, and eager pharmaceutical representatives. It is also a respite from sleet and snow, and there is no need to wear a coat, for the sun shines almost all day. This is also an opportunity to learn…

  • The role of doctors in the intellectual life of Spain

    “One of the aspects of Spanish intellectual life which struck me repeatedly was the fact that civic leadership so often rested in the hands of medical men. They wrote the best books, made the most daring statements and were revered as the elements of society that could be trusted to support good movements. The doctors…

  • Medical tourism

    Kozlova LiudmylaMykolaiv, Ukraine Medical tourism is a highly profitable industry that offers a range of medical procedures, highly specialized medical services, and tourism opportunities. It combines travel for health and medical services with recreational tourism. While on the one hand, medical tourism may reduce the current and future health capital of a country through its…

  • The navel of the world: Belly buttons, innies and outies

    John RaffenspergerFort Meyers, Florida, United States In 1999, I traveled from Panama to Easter Island, via the Galapagos, as a passenger/deckhand/ship’s surgeon on an old square-rigged sailing ship. The Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl’s history and description of the island had captured my imagination. Easter Island, the most remote, isolated place on earth, was originally settled…

  • Traditional medicine in Yang Talat district, Isaan, Thailand

    Khwan PhusrisomBaan Dong Bang, Thailand & UK Isaan is northeast Thailand, wedged between Laos and Cambodia. I grew up there, in Yang Talat district, (Fig 1) in the Baan Dong Bang village headman’s teak house, where I saw traditional medicine in use from an early age. More recently I asked villagers including elders, farmers, teachers,…

  • Book review: Island Dreams: Mapping an Obsession

    Arpan K. BanerjeeSolihull, United Kingdom Gavin Francis is a Scottish doctor, author, and traveler who has worked in emergency medicine, family medicine, and as the resident doctor for the Antarctic survey, which resulted in a previous book. His wanderlust and way with words have been favorably compared to the late Bruce Chatwin. Island Dreams: Mapping…

  • Dead Sea: Health claims and tourist delights

    After the death of Alexander the Great, the land now comprising Israel and Jordan fell under the successive domination of the Seleucid kings, Rome, Arabs, Ottoman Turks, and the British empire. Lying in almost the center of that area is the Dead Sea. It is actually not a sea but rather a salt-water lake, and…

  • The Emberá of Panama

    L.J. SandlowGeorge DuneaChicago, Illinois, United States The Emberá are an indigenous people who live near the Panama-Columbia border. There are about 33,000 living in Darién, Panama, and 50,000 in Colombia. Until 1960 most lived in extended family settlements along the rivers. Since the 60s many have moved together into small villages, still along the river.…

  • From woodpeckers to Auenbrugger

    James Franklin Chicago, Illinois, United States In learning the art of physical diagnosis, every medical student is taught the technique and application of percussion. Percussion involves placing the palm and fingers of one hand on the patient and using the tip of the third finger of the other hand as a hammer, striking the distal interphalangeal…

  • Budapest: Medicine and paprika

    L.J. SandlowGeorge DuneaChicago, Illinois, United States The Magyars, ancestors of modern Hungarians, came from the region of the Ural Mountains and invaded Europe around AD 800. Crossing the Carpathian Mountains, they conquered the Pannonian plain and established a large and important medieval kingdom. In 1526 they were defeated at the decisive battle of Mohacs, their…