An unofficial blog about the National Museum of Health and Medicine (nee the Army Medical Museum) in Silver Spring, MD. Visit for news about the museum, new projects, musing on the history of medicine and neat pictures.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Memorial to French doctors
This relief is on an exterior wall at the Musée d'Histoire de la Médecine in Paris, kind of tucked away and probably not noticed much. I'm glad I found it. It's a memorial to the 1800 doctors who gave their lives for their country in World War 1.
Friday, July 25, 2008
Victor McKusick, Abraham Lincoln and the Museum
At the moment, the museum is not contemplating DNA tests on Lincoln's remains, nor any other individuals.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Reminder: Limb Lab Program Tomorrow
Afternoon Coffee Talk at the National Museum of Health and Medicine
Title: "Limb Labs: Getting Amputee Soldiers Back to Work After World War I"Speakers: Beth Linker, Ph.D., Associate Professor of History, University of Pennsylvania and Jeffrey Reznick, Ph.D., Honorary Research Fellow in the Center for First World War Studies at the University of Birmingham and Director of the Institute for the Study of Occupation and Health, AOTF
What: Join a discussion about early efforts to standardize and construct affordable prosthetic arms and legs for amputee soldiers by orthopedic surgeons in America and England during World War I.
When: Thursday, July 24, 2:00-3:30 p.m.
Where: Classroom (AFIP, Bldg. 54)
http://www.nmhm.washingtondc.museum/about/directions.html
Cost: Free! Coffee!
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Former museum staffer on weight vs height vs driver's license
He also was wandering around Russia looking into the Czar's assassination.
Monday, July 21, 2008
New exhibit in Museum sheds light on identifying missing soldiers, sailors and airmen
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Urology exhibit in Washington-Baltimore area
Trepanation
You see old illustrations of this procedure and it kind of makes your skin crawl and makes you very glad it's not you under the awl or drill. According to wikipedia, cave paintings as far back as the Neolithic era give the earliest documentation of this medical procedure, used for a variety of disorders from migraines to bad spirits. I can kind of identify with that. I used to get some hellacious headaches and if a hole drilled in my head would have relieved them, I would have signed up on the spot. Trepanation is still used today but a little more circumspectly. Regarding this picture, though, even for my headaches, I would have insisted on a nice, lie-down position. This picture was part of a small museum attached to an excavated 12th century church in Dublin, Ireland.
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Old Walter Reed Hospital
Have I posted this before? I lose track. I was just looking at my Flickr stats and saw that this picture of the old (original) Walter Reed Hospital was viewed several times yesterday. I took this last fall, the second-best time of year to be in Washington. If you haven't been here in spring, put it on your Bucket List. Washington is indescribably beautiful in the spring, but fall is almost as good. Look at the color of that sky.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Agent Orange's lasting effects
About three years ago my husband went for a routine physical and got the bad, terrifying news that he was diabetic. Even though I have a sister who's diabetic and I thought I knew all there was to know, it turned out neither Bob nor I knew much of anything. He had no family history whatsoever. Overnight, it seemed, he lost quite a bit of weight because he was afraid to eat anything. The doctor told him no bread, potatoes, rice, or pasta and he gave it all up cold turkey. He manages pretty well now, thanks, but has a pretty good idea of what awaits him down the line.
Now here's the kicker. About a year after he was diagnosed, his brother was trolling the VA website and found information relating diabetes to Agent Orange. The bottom line is, if a soldier set foot in Vietnam and now has diabetes, the VA makes the presumption that Agent Orange is the cause. You don't have to prove anything other than show your DD214. Sure, they make you jump through hoops but if you have it, pass Go and collect your claim. And it's not just diabetes. If you know a Vietnam vet who's having health problems, please direct him or her to the VA website.
SOPs for death of employees
"
"
I've been processing a collection from a former director of the AFIP (Armed Forces Institute of Pathology), a doctor who was in the forefront of aircraft accident investigations, causes, and pathology, back in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Much of the collection relates to papers he wrote and conferences he spoke at and attended, interesting to a certain point, but still... However, among his papers I found these gems that, 50 years on, made me smile. I know you'll have to click through to read them. I think they're worth it.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Resolved: The Story of Capt. Robert M. Young and His Return Home
"Resolved: The Story of Capt. Robert M. Young and His Return Home"
In the spring of 1970, a U.S. Army helicopter was hit by enemy fire and
forced to land on the border of Cambodia and South Vietnam. The soldiers
on the aircraft were captured and interred as prisoners of war. In 1973,
several of the soldiers were released while others remained
missing-in-action. Two of the soldiers were found to have died in the
camps. One of these soldiers, Capt. Robert M. Young, left behind a young
wife and three-year-old daughter.
Over 25 years later, Capt. Young's remains were positively identified by
the Central Identification Laboratory through several lines of evidence,
including an examination of anthropological remains and DNA analysis.
This family's story provides a real-life illustration of the process of
identification exhibited in "RESOLVED: Advances in Forensic
Identification of U.S. War Dead."
Monday, July 14, 2008
Afternoon Coffee Talk at the National Museum of Health and Medicine
Title: "Limb Labs: Getting Amputee Soldiers Back to Work After World War I"
Speakers: Beth Linker, Ph.D., Associate Professor of History, University of Pennsylvania and Jeffrey Reznick, Ph.D., Honorary Research Fellow in the Center for First World War Studies at the University of Birmingham and Director of the Institute for the Study of Occupation and Health, AOTF
What: Join a discussion about early efforts to standardize and construct affordable prosthetic arms and legs for amputee soldiers by orthopedic surgeons in America and England during World War I.
When: Thursday, July 24, 2:00-3:30 p.m.
Where: Russell Auditorium (AFIP, Bldg. 54)
http://www.nmhm.washingtondc.museum/about/directions.html
Cost: Free!
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Customer service at museums
Experienceology: Customer service and the visitor experience
"Pioneering Heart Surgeon"
"Michael E. DeBakey, 99, the father of modern cardiovascular surgery, who invented scores of medical procedures and instruments, developed the Mobile Army Surgical Hospital and established what later became the Veterans Affairs hospital system, died July 11 at Methodist Hospital in Houston. The hospital did not release the cause of death, but he had undergone heart surgery in 2006."
There are numerous posts out there about DeBakey, but I thought it was worth linking to this brief note from the crew at NPR's Science Friday.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
The Vietnam Center and Archive Blog
The Vietnam Center and Archive Blog
The Vietnam Center and Archive is proud to announce the launch of our new blog located at http://www.vietnamarchive.blogspot.com. This blog will be used for a variety of topics and will be updated often by members of the Vietnam Center and Archive staff.
Blog topics will include: Vietnam Center and Archive news and updates, information about the Oral History Program, updates concerning the Virtual Vietnam Archive and the physical archive, interesting items from our holdings, website updates, and reference resources and outreach. We hope this new blog will both be a way to keep people informed about the progress of the Vietnam Center and Archive, as well as provide a valuable research tool. Several articles have already been posted, so
please visit our blog and leave us your comments.
A link to our blog is also located in the top right corner of our website [http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu].
Mary McLain Saffell, C.A.
Associate Director, Archivist
The Vietnam Center and Archive
Texas Tech University
Special Collections Library, Room 108
Lubbock, Texas 79409-1041
A day in the life...
Turned on the computer this morning and saw the screen above and this email...
Effective immediately, when you log onto the AFIP network you will see a New DOD Consent Banner and User Agreement. Please take a moment to read this banner, by clicking ok you are in agreement with the consent banner.
The new warning and consent banner establishes that there is no expectation of PRIVACY when using DOD Information systems and all use of the Information system is subject to searches, audits, seizure, and monitoring.
In the past the helpdesk personnel have waited many hours to implement needed updates for security and software. This new banner makes it clear that when such needs arise the systems can be accessed by the personnel without prior notification. However, we will continue to make courtesy calls unless restricted by deadlines.
If for some reason you are not in agreement with the new banner and user agreement you will NOT have access to Information systems within the organization. This is a directive of MEDCOM, which means we MUST follow it. I can hardly contain my enthusiasm for seeing that message every day, or working for people whose level of trust mandates it.
Later in the afternoon, Kathleen and I went down to the Borden Institute, which publishes the Textbook of Military Medicine series, to work on a picture book on the history of Walter Reed medical center. With the other editors, we culled some of the photos from the 'teens and twenties chapters as we had too many.
A Flickr / Getty Images deal in the works?
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Do Not Smoke
Stop Consuming Your Body
“Stop Consuming Your Body”
Advertising Agency: NeogamaBBH, Brazil
Art Director: Sidney Araújo
Copywriter: Alexandre Gama
Leprosy Stigma
Afternoon Coffee Talk at the NMHM
What: Lecture, "Carville, the Landscape of Stigma," by Elizabeth Schexnyder, Curator, The National Hansen's Disease Museum
When: Wednesday, August 27, 2:00 p.m.
Where: Russell Auditorium, National Museum of Health and MedicineLeprosy is known as the "Biblical" disease and has been associated with a stigma that affects the lives of those with leprosy, both physically and socially. Did you know that at one time Coca Cola refused to pick up empty Coke bottles from the National Leprosarium in Carville, Louisiana for fear that contact with the bottles might spread the disease? Join Elizabeth Schexnyder, curator of the National Hansen's Disease Museum, for a discussion of the meaning and significance of the social response to leprosy in the development of the National Leprosarium in Carville, Louisiana. She will describe how the process of "othering" human beings diagnosed with leprosy along with the socio-historical factors affecting the disease stigma shaped the unique landscape--both social and physical--of the National Leprosarium.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Jim Cassedy lecture at National Library of Medicine
NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE,
History of Medicine Division Seminar - First Annual James Cassedy
Memorial Lecture Tuesday, July 15, 2008, 2-3:30pm (Note Revised Date)
Lister Hill Center Auditorium, Bldg 38A, NLM Bethesda, MD
"Medicine by the Numbers: Revisiting James Cassedy's America."
Robert Martensen, MD, PhD
Director, Office of NIH History
To honor the distinguished historian of medicine and long-time National Library of Medicine staffer Jim Cassedy, the History of Medicine Division at NLM is sponsoring the first annual James Cassedy Memorial Lecture. The first speaker will be Robert Martensen, MD, PhD, who will speak on "Medicine by the Numbers: Revisiting James Cassedy's America."
During his long career, Cassedy repeatedly explored the rich history of counting and calculating that preoccupied many mid-19th century American physicians. While numerical inquiries had long interested social historians and demographers, Cassedy's American Medicine and Statistical Thinking, 1800-1860 (1984) and Medicine and American Growth, 1800-1860 (1986) stimulated intellectual historians to analyze how and why our medical forbears embraced statistics. In this talk, Martensen re-visits
Cassedy's mid-century accounts and explores how physicians re-defined medical arithmetic as medicine turned increasingly to laboratory science in the century's closing decades.
All are Welcome
Note: The next history of medicine seminar will be on Thursday, July 24, 2-3:30pm in the Lister Hill Visitor's Center NLM's Bldg 38A. Doctoral candidate Chin Jou of Princeton University will speak on "Prescribing Bodies: Medical Critiques of Fat and Thin, 1890-1930."
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Cool article on London's archeological skeletons
Museum of London's skeleton key to the bodies under city's streets
Tens of thousands of skeletons that lie hidden beneath the streets, houses and offices of London have been revealed for the first time on a map, in a collaboration between the Museum of London and The Times.
Monday, June 30, 2008
When robots operate
The invasion of the surgeon robots. - By Kent Sepkowitz - Slate Magazine: "There is one realm, however, in which robots really are joining the gang: the operating room. It turns out that Americans love to be operated upon by them. Last year, robots participated in thousands of surgeries, and the years ahead promise even more choices. Cancer surgery, heart surgery, brain surgery, you name it—R2-D2 awaits your call. The robots even have their own medical journal (OK, it's run by the humans who operate the robots, but egad!)."
Friday, June 27, 2008
Eakins' The Gross Clinic
The Philadelphia Museum of Art will bring back The Gross Clinic this summer. According to the latest newsletter, it is "described by some as the most important painting by any nineteenth-century American artist." It will be exhibited in gallery 119 from August 2 until February 2009. Read more about the painting itself, including how it was nearly lost to Philadelphia, at wikipedia.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Acupuncture
Here's a mannequin from the History of Medicine Museum in Paris that I think is pretty neat. If I read the French correctly, the label says it shows acupuncture points. The other picture is a close-up of some cards that are in the case with the mannequin.
For those of you without personal acupuncture experience and perhaps doubt that it really can work, let me tell you it does. My husband always said he'd quit smoking when cigarettes hit $1 a pack. Of course, this was a very long time ago, and also of course, easier said than done. But he heard about a doctor in Austin or Houston, I don't remember now, who performed acupuncture and for $50 decided to give the guy a try. The doctor put one little staple-looking thing in Bob's ear, in that ridge of cartilage, put a piece of tape over it, and told him to leave it until it fell out. About a week later it did, but from the time the staple went in, Bob never smoked again. He said the cravings came and went in a flash, more quickly than he even had time to think about them, and gradually faded away. Amazing, isn't it? I'm a believer.
Rhode hasn't been here cracking the whip
and so postings to this blog have gotten pretty slack. But he's back now and trying to make us all feel guilty. It's working.
Well, as I promised, or warned, depending how you want to look at it, here are a couple of pictures of kidney stone removal tools. (I wish they were a little sharper, but you do what you can with what you have. In this case, the camera was hand-held.) If these don't make you get your 128 ounces of water every day, I don't know what will.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Flickr - we are not alone
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Wow. Wow. Wow.
Human egg makes accidental debut on camera: "Look closely: this is history in the making. These are the clearest pictures ever taken of what is the starting point of every human life: ovulation occurring inside a woman's body."
Human ovulation captured on film: "Following the publication last week of the best ever photos of the ovulation of a human egg, we now go, Fantastic Voyage-like, to the first video footage of the moment itself."
Thanks to New Scientist for bringing this to us.
Mememto Mori, or, The Head of Janus
I made a rewarding visit to the Musée d'Histoire de la Médecine in Paris last month, but thoroughly grossing out my husband with its extensive exhibits of surgical tools, including kidney stone extractors. Not something that a man who has had a kidney stone especially wants to look at. I've not had kidney stones, and I found the tools and illustrations painful to look at, and I've seen some pretty gross things in the course of my job. Do you want to see them? Next time.
I really liked this ivory carving from the 17th century, called the Head of Janus. I don't know if the Catholic school I went to didn't teach mythology as a matter of theology or what, but I never learned about the myths. So wikipedia to the rescue: "Janus was usually depicted with two heads (not faces) looking in opposite directions, and was frequently used to symbolize change and transitions such as the progression of past to future, of one condition to another, of one vision to another, the growing up of young people, and of one universe to another. He was also known as the figure representing time because he could see into the past with one face and into the future with the other."
There's nothing that says transition from one condition to another like a face on one side and a skull on the other.
Telemedicine, literally
While human interaction is still necessary because self-reporting isn't always reliable, allowing patients to text-message results from their urine tests - and get free minutes as a reward - apparently gets better participation during the six-month regimen.
Companion Animals for Stress Response - program at Walter Reed
This came in via email today, but before you get to it, let me introduce you to a companion animal I met one day at lunch, Georgia the assistance dog ---->:
Her "uncle," the brother of the patient who Georgia assists, let me take several pictures of her while she was out for some exercise. She's a beauty and full of energy. I think it was very hard for her to lie still for 30 seconds.
Now, back to our sponsor:
Dear Friends of CAMP PTSD,
Please join us for our next program, Benefits of Companion Animals for
Stress Response on Thursday June 26, 2008 at 4:30pm - 6pm at the Joel
Auditorium at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
Our presenters are:
* Kevin Simpson, Director of Animal Behavior and Training at the
Washington Humane Society, and
* Joan Esnayra, Phd, Founder of the Psychiatric Dog Service
Society
Please forward this message to anyone you know who may be interested in
this fascinating program.
To RSVP, contact Elsyse Greenberg at elyse.greenberg@amedd.army.mil
Hope to see you there!
Robin Carnes, Chair
Complementary and Adjunctive Medicine Practitioners PTSD Study Group at
Walter Reed Army Medical Center
(240-423-8544)
CAMP PTSD Study Group
Monday, June 16, 2008
A Day in the Life...
Here's one from a few weeks ago. We're part of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (see the sidebar history) and their Radiology Department had a lead on some personal papers they were interested in. The American College of Radiology has stored their records with the History Factory in Chantilly, VA, and in their collection they had personal papers of Dr. William Thompson. Thompson was instrumental in setting up the large radiology program at AFIP. The ACR was willing to hand over this series of records to AFIP since it didn't really relate to their core holdings. I tend to wear a dual hat as AFIP's archivist as well as the Museum's so I was on the job.
Poaching from other archives never thrills me, although at times it makes sense. Years ago, we returned photographs of unidentified corpses that we had received from the NY Medical Examiner to the NY Municipal Archives to reunite them with the paper records of the cases. I was fine with that, but there have been plenty of times when people come in to do research and say "wouldn't this be better if it was in..."
Anyway, two people from the radiology dept., and 3 museum staffers took a van from Walter Reed while I drove myself from home. I beat them by about an hour so I hung around with the archivist there. He showed me the collection - it was pretty straightforward personal papers including diaries, some awards and some photographs, both personal and professional. I've seen dozens like it, and at 3 linear feet, it wasn't large. So we talked shop and then when everyone else arrived, they looked at the records. The radiologists were particularly interested as one doesn't see fifty-year old diaries every day, I suppose. We took a quick look in the stacks at the rest of the ACR collection - most archives look alike especially in the 'bulk' storage areas - and I've got to say that they have a nice set of advertising trade literature if you're doing anything on radiology's history. We also looked at the 3-D artifacts because there was some confusion in our party if we were supposed to be checking on them as well.
After signing the paperwork transferring it to us, we headed back to AFIP. Lauren Clark, who's volunteering as an intern this summer, has processed the collection and written a finding aid to it, which should make it onto our regular website soon. There's nothing deeply interesting or dramatic in Thompson's papers, but they help round out the history of radiology at AFIP.
Two more links for you, if you can handle the excitement
- The iPhone gets all the cool new apps. Sometimes I wish I'd gone into medicine so I could get access to all those wonderful toys.
- Morbid Anatomy - where you can find the awesome with each post - offers a snippet about a cool "20th century facial prosthetic" someone "found at an estate sale." I never find anything like that at estate sales.
Three words: "Belly button escargot"
He had me at "I apologize in advance..."
If you look carefully, you'll see something familiar to this blog's readers and our visitors. Once you spot it, leave your answer in comments. First person (not on the staff or former staff!) to guess correctly gets the best reward of all: my sincere gratitude for reading all the way through this post.
All the good headlines were taken
And yes, I am probably giving away a slice of my blog reading habits by linking to those two blogs above, but for gummi bear anatomy, it's worth it.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Our West Coast Connection
Enjoy.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Upcoming lunchtime lectures this month at NMHM
of Health and Medicine this month!
On Thursday, June 19 at noon, AFIP pathologist Wayne Meyers, M.D. will
discuss the history of leprosy in America.
Then, on Thursday, June 26 at noon, James L. Krahenbuhl, Ph.D., director
of the federal National Hansen's Disease (Leprosy) Program will offer a
talk about the need for a greater awareness about leprosy in the U.S.
Both lectures are free and will take place in Russell Auditorium at
NMHM. After the talks, take advantage of the opportunity to visit our
temporary exhibition, "Triumph at Carville: A Tale of Leprosy in
America."
Here are the details:
What: Lecture by pathologist Wayne M. Meyers, M.D., Ph.D., Armed Forces
Institute of Pathology
When: Thursday, June 19, 2008; 12:00-1:00 p.m.
Where: Russell Auditorium at NMHM (on Walter Reed Army Medical Center,
Building 54)
Cost: Free! Bring a bag lunch.
What: Learn the 113-year history of the "national leprosarium" and the
need for an awareness of leprosy in the U.S. medical community, with
James L. Krahenbuhl, Ph.D., director of the federal National Hansen's
Disease (Leprosy) Program
When: Thursday, June 26, 2008; 12:00-1:00 p.m.
Where: Russell Auditorium at NMHM (on Walter Reed Army Medical Center,
Building 54)
Cost: Free! Bring a bag lunch.
Museum Address: 6900 Georgia Avenue, NW, Building 54, Washington, DC,
20307. (Photo identification required.) Free parking is available.
Contact: (202) 782-2200 or http://www.nmhm.washingtondc.museum
Army School of Nursing Annuals now on Internet Archive
The Annual
1921 http://www.archive.org/details/ArmyNursingAnnual1921
1923 http://www.archive.org/details/ArmyNursingAnnual1923
1925 http://www.archive.org/details/ArmyNursingAnnual1925
1926 http://www.archive.org/details/ArmyNursingAnnual1926
1927 http://www.archive.org/details/ArmyNursingAnnual1927
Taps
1929 http://www.archive.org/details/ArmyNursingAnnual1929
1930 http://www.archive.org/details/ArmyNursingAnnual1930
1931 http://www.archive.org/details/ArmyNursingAnnual1931
Monday, June 9, 2008
1923 Army Nursing Annual now online
Saturday, June 7, 2008
1921 Army Nursing School Annual online
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Yet another new Flickr page
Monday, June 2, 2008
Cool Flickr site
Free Health Fair at the National Museum of Health and Medicine!
Saturday, June 7, 2008 -- 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.
Tell your friends! Tell your family! Children's activities, too!
Explore the Museum and take advantage of free health screenings!
Screenings for health indicators: cholesterol, glaucoma, blood sugar, vision, blood pressure, hearing, body mass index
Children's activities, too! Including hands-on experiences with plastinated organs, dolls and mannequins!
Participants: Columbia Heights Lions Club, D.C. Diabetes Prevention and Control Program, D.C. Healthy Families, Food and Friends, Health Pact, Inc., Men's Health Network, National Ovarian Cancer Coalition of Northern Virginia, and Prevention of Blindness Society of Metropolitan Washington
WHERE: National Museum of Health and Medicine, on the campus at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, 6900 Georgia Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C. 20307. (Enter at Georgia Ave. and Elder Street, NW.) (Photo identification required.) NMHM is in Bldg. 54.
WHEN: Saturday, June 7, 2008, 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.
CONTACT: On the Web http://www.nmhm.washingtondc.museum or call (202) 782-2200.
NOTE: Free parking, free admission! No reservations required.
Sunday, June 1, 2008
National Museum of the Marine Corps
Today I went to the Marine Corps Museum in Quantico, Virginia. It's terrific, with a lot of interactive exhibits (care to lift a pack that a recruit has to carry (that's the pack there, on the right), or listen to drill instructors screaming at you from every direction?) and lifelike combat scenes. Here's one of a Marine being cared for by a corpsman. I thought the look on the wounded Marine's face was perfectly portrayed. What I liked about this one, in addition to the face, is that we have photos just like this in our collection, right down
to the IV bottle suspended from a rifle stuck in the ground bayonet first (just out of view here but you can see the line being inserted in his arm). It's a great museum with free admission, both indoor and outdoor exhibit space, and is open 364 days a year. If you're in the neighborhood, I recommend a visit.
Saturday, May 31, 2008
More thoughts on exhibit signage
Friday, May 30, 2008
Thought Control
Friday, May 30 - Museum closed
Exhibit Development at the Pentagon
Dean Kamen designs prosthetic arm for military amputees
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Friday, May 30 - Museum closed?
New Guy at the Museum
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
British military medicine conference CFP
SECURING THE ULTIMATE VICTORY П
A conference exploring the history of military medicine and health care
15th -17th April 2009
ARMY MEDICAL SERVICES MUSEUM Mytchett, Surrey
The Army Medical Services Museum is to host a conference exploring the history of military medicine and health care covering the period from 1600 to the present. The conference will take place in the Defence Medical Services Training Centre, Keogh Barracks, Mytchett, Surrey, where the museum is situated.
Papers are invited on the history of military medicine particularly covering the following themes: Nursing, catastrophe and post conflict medicine, veterinary medicine, dentistry, pioneers of military medicine, disease prevention and research, the influence of the military on civilian medicine and the history of dedicated hospitals for the care of the sick and wounded military patients.
Closing date for the submission of abstracts is 1 August 2008. Abstracts should be submitted using the attached form and sent to:
Director
Army Medical Services Museum
Keogh Barracks
Ash Vale
Aldershot
GU12 5RQ
01252 868820 Email: armymedicalmuseum@btinternet.com
SECURING THE ULTIMATE VICTORY П
Title: Full Name:
Name of Institution (if applicable):
Full Postal Address:
Email address: Telephone No:
Title of Abstract:
Bookings for the conference will open on 1 September 2008.
For booking forms please contact:
The Director
AMS Museum, Keogh Barracks, Ash Vale, Aldershot, GU12 5RQ
armymedicalmuseum@btinternet.com
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Wash Post on leprosy
OHA 114
* Binford Leprosy Material, 1922-1975
* .5 cubic foot, 1 box.
* No finding aid, arranged, inactive, unrestricted.
* Public Health Bulletins, reprints, manuscript articles, journals, and photographs related to leprosy. Includes articles and correspondence by Chapman H. Binford, chief of the AFIP Geographic Pathology department.
Museum mentioned on History News Network
By Jeffrey S. Reznick, a former curator at the museum. Jeff used a couple of photos from the archives, as you can too if you click on our Flickr links to the right.
London history of medicine conference includes military medicine
Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL
Thursday and Friday 19-20 June 2008
The conference will feature eighteen papers from research students in
four areas of the history of medicine:
- Understanding Medicine and the Body in History
- Medicine, Health and War in History
- Asian Medicine in History
- Healthcare in British History
There will also be panel discussions chaired by established academics including Professors Steven King and Paul Weindling of Oxford Brookes University and Professor Roger Cooter of UCL
The conference will close with a keynote address from Professor Anne Hardy of UCL, Editor of Medical History
Places are limited and will be assigned on a first come first served basis. There will be a small fee to cover registration and cateringcosts.
If you are interested in attending the conference, contact George Gosling at gcgosling@brookes.ac.uk by Friday 30 May 2008.
The full conference programme and poster can be accessed by following
this link: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/histmed/library/hmrs_conf
For information on this event and other opportunities see the 'History
of Medicine Research Students' group on facebook at
http://brookes.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6213918604
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Forensic identification of dead in China disaster
China’s Rush to Dispose of Dead Compounds Agony
By EDWARD WONG
Published: May 24, 2008
Family members have not been able to identify relatives and traditional reverence for the deceased has been upset.
Article on future of military museums
"Museums Look Into the Future of Military History," By Michael E. Ruane, Washington Post Staff Writer, Sunday, May 25, 2008; Page C01.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
A medical museum reopens in UK
A day in the life...
The caption reads: Breast. Burn, X-Ray. Wax model. No. 92 X-ray burn involving right breast and axilla. Necrosis of tissue producing sloughing ulceration, the bottom of which includes pleura and lung tissue. X-ray treatment was applied for carcinoma of the breast. Colored, woman, age 35 years. Army Medical Museum model prepared by Dr. J.F. Wallis.
Wallis means that it was done during World War 1, because that's when he was on the staff. We might still have this model in historical collections, but that department was working at the warehouse today, and thus missed the coffee and cake that we had to celebrate the Museum's birthday.
So how does one find something in the Archives? We've got an internal database (or fifty) that you can access a derivative of at our Guide to Collections. With the help of contract Archivists from the Information Manufacturing Company, we're scanning tens of thousands of images per year and uploading them into an internal database, only available to our staff now, but eventually we'll open it to a wider audience. And some of the finding something is me or one of the other archivists knowing where something is because we put it away a decade ago or so.
Today is our birthday
Surgeon General Hammond
In Circular No. 2, issued on May 21, 1862, Army Surgeon General William Hammond specifically stated "Medical Directors will furnish one copy of this circular to every medical officer in the department in which they are serving." (Henry p. 12) This circular established the Museum, stating:
As it is proposed to establish in Washington, an Army Medical Museum, Medical officers are directed diligently to collect, and to forward to the office of the Surgeon General, all specimens of morbid anatomy, surgical or medical, which may be regarded as valuable; together with projectiles and foreign bodies removed, and such other matters as may prove of interest in the study of military medicine or surgery.
These objects should be accompanied by short explanatory notes.
Each specimen in the collection will have appended the name of the medical officer by whom it was prepared.
Shortly after the initial circular letter was issued, Hammond recalled John Hill Brinton from duty on the western battlefields. Brinton arrived hoping to receive one of the newly-created medical inspectorships, a job for which he felt well-qualified. Instead, he was assigned to the examining board for surgeons, placed in charge of the Museum, and told to prepare the surgical history of the war. Brinton's colleague, Joseph Javier Woodward, had been assigned to the Surgeon General's Office on May 19, and was responsible for the medical (ie caused by disease) collections and history of the war.
Monday, May 19, 2008
2 articles on military medicine
"Military medical advancements benefit civilian health care," by Navy Lt. Jennifer Cragg, American Forces Press Service - which is always nice of course, but here's the takeaway quote, "In today's war, in the combat theater, 97 percent of those people who
were wounded in theater survived those wounds because of the medical care," Dr. Kilpatrick said. "That's just a phenomenal number, and it's because that care is so immediate.
and
"AFMC surgeon general: joint medical teams saving lives," by Chuck Paone,66th Air Base Wing Public Affairs, and the quote to note is: But what's more, follow-on studies are now showing that military trauma care professionals are achieving identically dramatic fatality reductions at home. "That means they're bringing these skills back with them and getting the same results for people who suffer non-combat-related traumas," he said.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Prosthetics ruled equal, not better
Friday, May 16, 2008
And what about the future of Walter Reed (and thus the Museum?)
See "House Panel to Delay Work on Two Projects: Bill Seeks Better Military Health Care," by Amy Gardner, Washington Post Staff Writer, Friday, May 16, 2008; Page B01.
A day in the life...
I was walking through the exhibit floor this morning and heard voices coming out of our Human Body, Human Being exhibit. The exhibit flooded over the weekend when Washington got 5-7 inches of rain. That side of the museum is built into a hill and has been flooding off and on for about a decade now. On the past Monday, the exhibits and collection staff had dismantled the exhibits against the wall - on the urinary system and bones - and moved them out of the way so the building engineers could look up and say, "yup, it's leaking water."
The whole hall (the Anatifacts area in this map), which is about 1/4 of the exhibit floor, was closed all week, but this morning Steve Hill, head of our exhibits staff, Tim Clarke Jr, our public relations guy and Beth Eubanks, our registrar, were muscling some of the exhibit cases into a new configuration about 10 feet from the wall. I lent a hand and helped and a little after opening the cases were in place. Brian Spatola, collections manager of anatomical collections, brought the specimens back from storage and the four of them put the display back together. Meanwhile...
...I was leading a tour of people who had bought a silent auction benefit behind-the-scenes tour. Our former PR guy Steven Solomon had started these a few years back. We started in historical collections where collections manager Alan Hawk pulled out a bunch of surgical kits dating from the Civil War until World War II, and then showed them wax and plaster models of facial reconstruction surgery from the same time period. Anatomical curator Franklin Damann was giving a tour of his own in anatomical collections, so we swapped groups and he showed my group Civil War amputated femurs, Ham the space chimp, plastinated organs and a quick glance into the wet tissue room where specimens are stored in bottles of formalin.
We combined the two groups and neuroanatomical collections manager Archie Fobbs displayed some of our brain slides. Instead of making a microscope slide, his predecessors sectioned and mounted slices of whole brains and you can see stroke or tumor damage. I think the high point for the group was when Archie opened up his demo tub of a brain preserved in alcohol and let people handle it. Nobody was in the Human Developmental Anatomy Center, so I did a quick riff on scanning slides of embryos which had been collected 100 years ago to make first wax or plaster models of organ systems. These are now being scanned with the models made in the computer. Finally I gave my standard tour of the archives, including a letter signed by Walter Reed, a 1917 doctor's diary, a revised confidential asbestosis report for Johns Manville from 1949, a lantern slide photograph of a survivor from Hiroshima, an album of the museum's Civil War Surgical Photographs and some of our trade lit advertising material.
So there's a good bit of a typical day. If there's interest in more posts like this, comment below please.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
New Grog Ration from Navy's medical historian
The table of contents:
Page 1: Care Amidst the Shortage: The Relationship between the American Red Cross and the Navy Nurse Corps in World War I by Jennifer Telford, RN, PhD
When the United States declared war on 6 April 1917, the nation had but a nucleus of an army and a navy. The swift growth of the number of troops within a year from 100,000 to 4 million men presented a problem of enormous magnitude to the nursing profession; it was a shortage of epic proportions. The Army Nurse Corps had a mere 400 nurses on active duty, while the Navy had 160. The need for a rapid expansion of nursing in wartime to provide care both on the home-front and overseas brought about a controversy over who, in fact, was qualified to serve. The role of Katrina Hertzer, the liaison officer between the Red Cross Nursing Service and the Navy Nurse Corps, and who aided in the enrollment of nurses into the Corps, is of particular interest.
Nursing leaders during World War I debated about whether or not minimally trained nurses' aides should be recruited to help offset the professional nursing shortage. The result was the formation of an Army School of Nursing and the enrollment of volunteer nurses' aides into the Red Cross. The recruitment of nurses' aides to offset the nursing shortage of the World War I era was a logical solution to meeting the needs for nursing personnel. Whether or not this action compromised the status of nursing as a profession is still a matter of interest.
This article is adapted from lectures given at the Society for the History of Navy Medicine (SHNM) session in Rochester, NY, and as part of the Surgeon General's Speaker Series (SGSS) in Bethesda, MD, in April 2008. A PowerPoint of her SHNM lecture can be found at http://www.history-navy-med.org/home.html. A video of her SGSS lecture can be accessed at http://www.health.mil.
Page 7: Elvis Has Boarded the Ship
In 1958, LTJG Julia Pickering was one of two Navy nurses serving aboard the troop transport USS General Randall (AP-115) in port at Brooklyn, NY. Also on board this ship was a newly enlisted Army sergeant who had already established his name as an American pop icon. In a 2004 interview with the Office of the Historian, Pickering remembered this special passenger.
Page 8: The Surgeon's Log: Navy Medicine in Washington, DC
In 1908 a young hospital apprentice named Albert B. Montgomery reported for duty at the Naval Hospital, Washington, DC, then located on old "Observatory Hill" in Foggy Bottom. Years later he looked back upon his experiences-from racing horse-driven ambulances on cobblestone streets to obtaining study specimens at the city morgue for Naval Medical School students.
Page 11: Scuttlebutt
Find out about the upcoming Navy medical events (e.g., film premieres and lectures).
Page 12: Navy Medical Quiz
Good luck on this issue's quiz. As always, the first person to submit correct answers to all questions will receive a special prize. The answers from our previous quiz can be found on page 13.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Tried and True Always Works
- Two offerings from our awesome friend Joanna at Morbid Anatomy: A few photos from her visit to the Musée Dupuytren in Paris (France, not Texas) with links of her own to follow; and vintage photos of med students with their cadavers. Both posts - worth it.
- Street Anatomy points us toward the Skull-A-Day project. I love it when blog titles exactly capture what their posts feature.
- And from pathtalk, a blog about pathology, is a link to a video that is beautiful and cool, but beyond me technically. The blog post - Animated DNA - and this bit of description 'incredibly cool animation of the central dogma of molecular biology' - offer some more clues. I watched it, I liked it, and think you might, too.
- And how about these very pretty pictures of surgical instruments, demonstrating that artistry can be found in anything and anywhere. Check out the post from something called SurgeXperiences. Who knew there was a blog carnival about surgical stuff? (And could that be less technical? "Surgical stuff"?)
Wounded Warrior Project
The Wounded Warrior Project and the Wounded Warrior Disabled Sports Project are two initiatives to help injured soldiers from Irag, Afghanistan, and the Global War on Terrorism return to life stateside, to give them a place and the means to recover their bodies, minds, and spirits. Two of their vans were on campus recently.
My husband is a Vietnam vet who has told of the reception he and his fellows received on their return (and who hasn't?), and it does my heart good to see the support our newest vets are getting.
Welcome home, soldiers.
Save the Date! Leprosy documentary and talk at NMHM, Thurs., 5/22
Enjoy a special lunchtime screening of the documentary 'Triumph at Carville: A Tale of Leprosy in America' at the National Museum of Health and Medicine, featuring a brief introduction by the filmmakers John Wilhelm and Sally Squires. (Film running time: approximately 58 minutes.) While at the Museum, check out the temporary exhibition highlighting the story of the country's only national leprosarium and
learn more about leprosy (also called Hansen's disease) and the unique social and cultural life at Carville. More online at http://www.nmhm.washingtondc.museum/exhibits/triumphatcarville/index.html.
Date: Thursday, May 22, 2008
Time: 11:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Where: Russell Auditorium at NMHM/AFIP (Bldg 54/Walter Reed Army Medical Center)
Cost: FREE! (Bring a bag lunch.)
Questions? Email nmhminfo@afip.osd.mil or visit the Museum online at http://www.nmhm.washingtondc.museum.
Armed Forces signs at Walter Reed
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
New National Library of Medicine exhibit
The National Library of Medicine (NLM), the world's largest medical library and a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), recently launched a new exhibition, "Against the Odds: Making a Difference in Global Health." The exhibition will be on display at the NLM on the outskirts of Washington DC until 2010, and can be viewed online at: http://apps.nlm.nih.gov/againsttheodds//index.cfm
The exhibition explores aspects of the history of global health as well as current issues, highlighting the shared concerns of communities around the world. Materials from the History of Medicine Division of the National Library of Medicine are on display alongside artifacts and images gathered from across the globe and video interviews. Featured stories include the early years of the AIDS epidemic in the United States and the work of ACT UP (the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power), the
Chinese barefoot doctor movement, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, and the smallpox eradication program led by the World Health Organization.
Alongside scientific discoveries and ongoing challenges, the stories illustrate the importance of clean water, safe housing, nutritious food, affordable healthcare, and protection from violence in fostering health and wellbeing. Visitors to the exhibition web site are invited to share their perspectives on these issues and GET INVOLVED: http://apps.nlm.nih.gov/againsttheodds/get_involved/index.cfm
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Hirschhorn v. Army Medical Museum
What's particular of interest in that statement is that in 1963, the Army Medical Museum had a similar number of visitors, while interest in museums and visitors to them has grown exponentially in Washington since then. Naturally our numbers on a guarded Army base five miles north of the Mall and a mile from a subway are in no way compatible. One does wonder how many people a National Museum of Health & Medicine on the Mall would be bringing in; I'm positive it would be more than the number we did in 1963 and that the Hirshhorn is doing now.
Anatomical Theatre website launches
Wax and plaster models as well as other specimens from the NMHM are included.
Friday, May 9, 2008
Lecture on The Early History of NIH Biomedical Computing
Lecture: The Forgotten Revolution: The Early History of NIH Biomedical Computing
History of Biomedicine Lecture at the NIH May 16, 2008, 3:30 p.m.
Building 10 (Clinical Center), Room: Hatfield 2-3750
Dr. Joseph A. November, Ph.D., will present the 2008 DeWitt Stetten, Jr. Lecture, titled "The Forgotten Revolution: The Early History of NIH Biomedical Computing," on Friday, May 16 at 3:30 p.m., in Building 10 (Clinical Center), Room 2-3750 (Hatfield side). All are welcome.
About the Speaker:
Dr. November is the current DeWitt Stetten, Jr. Memorial Fellow and an Assistant Professor at the University of South Carolina's Department of History. He received his doctorate in history from Princeton University in 2006. At NIH his research focuses on how NIH promoted the development of computer technology in the 1950s and 1960s. He is preparing a book on the early history of biomedical computing.
Abstract:
At NIH today, digital electronic computers are a vital, necessary component of almost all aspects of research and administration. However, there was nothing inevitable about NIH's adoption of computers or the ways the machines came to be used. As late as 1956, the majority of NIH's leadership was firmly against dedicating resources to computing in research. It took a hard-fought campaign throughout the late 1950s and
early 1960s, led by Drs. Frederick Brackett and Arnold "Scotty" Pratt, and supported by Director James Shannon, to overcome NIH's reluctance to adopt the new technology.
The campaign bring computers to NIH may be long forgotten, but its consequences profoundly altered not only biomedical computing beyond the NIH campus but also computing in general.
This lecture will cover three interconnected stories. First, it will examine how the Division of Computer Research and Technology (now CIT) grew out of Brackett and Pratt's long struggle to computerize research at NIH. Second, it surveys the far-reaching activities of the Advisory Committee on Computers in Research (NIH-ACCR), which was established in 1960 and generously funded by the U.S. Senate for the purpose of introducing computers to laboratories and hospitals worldwide. Third, it describes NIH's important but seldom-discussed role in the development
of the Laboratory Instrument Computer (LINC), a small, general-purpose, real-time digital computer built in 1963 at MIT especially for biomedical researchers; the roots of many aspects of personal computing can be traced back to the LINC.
This presentation is sponsored by the Office of NIH History. The NIH Biomedical Computing Interest Group (BCIG) will be recording the lecture. For more information about the Biomedical Research History Interest Group (BRHIG) and upcoming events, please visit the websites at http://history.nih.gov or http://www.nih.gov/sigs/brhig.
NIH Visitor information:
See http://www.nih.gov/about/visitorsecurity.htm and
http://parking.nih.gov/visitor_access_map.htm.
For more information or special accommodations, please contact Deborah
Kraut at 301-496-8856 or krautd@mail.nih.gov.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Reeve233
Chapel at Walter Reed
It's a lovely place, inside and out.
Here's a picture of the stained glass window over the altar:
There are "gargoyles" at the top of the tower. Some of them represent the Gray Ladies:
and there are others that represent science and religion. Not sure which one this is.
Old Walter Reed Hospital
Monday, May 5, 2008
Yahoo on TV diseases
Regarding slide 3 - FOP - you can see an example at the Mutter Museum.
The Washington Society for the History of Medicine wants you!
Washington Society for the History of Medicine
Membership Form 2008
NAME: ___________________________________________________________
ADDRESS: ________________________________________________________
CITY: _____________________________________________________________
STATE: _________________________ ZIP CODE: ___________________
TELEPHONE: ____________________________Work_____ or Home_____
EMAIL ADDRESS: __________________
AFFILIATION: ____________________________________________________
MEMBERSHIP CATEGORIES:
STANDARD: $15.00 __________
SPONSOR: $25.00 __________
STUDENT: $10.00 __________
Dear WSHM Member
Please make your checks payable to the WSHM. Mail your membership dues and this form to: Judy M. Chelnick, Secretary-Treasurer, WSHM, 4868 Cloister Drive, Rockville, Maryland 20852 Thank You!
Check out our Website: http://wshmdc.blogspot.com/
Sunday, May 4, 2008
More medical technology - robot-assisted surgery
Prepping Robots to Perform Surgery
By BARNABY J. FEDER
New York Times May 4, 2008
From knees to the heart, more operations are being performed by robots, under the guidance of surgeons.
Gastric bypass surgery for diabetes?
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Museo Storico Nazionale Dell Arte Sanitaria (I think this means something along the lines of Medical Museum), in Rome
A couple of years ago, when the dollar was still showing signs of life against the euro, my husband and I took a trip to Italy. While we were in Rome, we made a quick visit to the Museo Storico Nazionale Dell Arte Sanitaria. Being an American and therefore not speaking/reading/writing any language other than English made for an interesting visit in that in many cases I couldn't quite decipher the labels on the exhibits and to do a significant amount of guessing. Here's one I just didn't get at all, no matter the amount of puzzling over the label I did. My husband's take: a labor-inducing machine for those recalcitrant babies who don't want to ease on out on their own.