Urology exhibit in Washington-Baltimore area

The Post ran this story on the William P. Didusch Center for Urologic History in Maryland - "Appetizers in The Urology Museum," By Gabe Oppenheim, Washington Post Staff Writer, Saturday, July 19, 2008; Page C01.

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.

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.

Agent Orange's lasting effects

I'm going to get on my soapbox for a minute and if I've written about this before, just skip this post.

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

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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.

Resolved: The Story of Capt. Robert M. Young and His Return Home

As part of the next NMHM Docent Meeting and to coincide with the opening of the museum's newest exhibition, "RESOLVED: Forensic Identification of U.S. War Dead, the museum will host a special talk on Wednesday, July 23 at 11 a.m. If you are interested in attending, please call 202-782-2673.

"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."

Afternoon Coffee Talk at the National Museum of Health and Medicine

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!

Customer service at museums

I came across this blog, her newsletter and book (which I am looking forward to reading) when doing some Googling this past week, and wanted to offer a link here for our readers. I liked this tidbit from a post of hers: "Tip of the day: If you're answering the phone, smile before you pick it up. It changes your brain chemistry, making you more open and helpful, as well as warming up the tone of your voice."

Experienceology: Customer service and the visitor experience

"Pioneering Heart Surgeon"

Quoting here from the Washington Post's obituary, which ran on Sunday's front page (below the fold):

"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.

The Vietnam Center and Archive Blog

The following post came through an archives listserve today. I took a quick look - it seems like a good resource. In the museum, we actually have a massive amount of Vietnam War medical records, but most are not yet processed. We've got hundreds of hours of video footage from the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research's film team for example, but no inventory of it. The Wound Data Munition Effectiveness Study (WDMET) was recently transferred back to us from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences and we're in the process of digitizing over the 10,000 records of wounds suffered, usually by American soldiers, during the war.

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?

Somehow I stumbled across a report today that says Getty Images, one of the mammoth stock-image companies, is in talks with Flickr about trolling for images that have been uploaded there. Of course Flickr can't make deals on people's work but it can give exclusive rights to Getty for that kind of access. Some people who have commented say it's not so much that Getty wants access for art's sake (my paraphrase) but to keep access from other companies. I don't really know, but just in case, being the Flickr addict that I am, I'm going to have to start beefing up my tags on my own pictures. Oh, and if you're wondering what this has to do with the museum, etc., etc., if this is indeed the case it can only mean better exposure for our own pictures that we've uploaded. The latest account is here.

Do Not Smoke

I ran across a blog that I think might be interesting to some of our readers. Street Anatomy covers the use of human anatomy in art, advertising, and design. I thought this artwork featured on one of the posts was very cool:

Stop Consuming Your Body

June 23rd, 2008 by misvan

“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 Medicine

Leprosy 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.

Jim Cassedy lecture at National Library of Medicine

I didn't know Jim well, but he was always very friendly and I'm sorry that I won't get a chance to read the book on John Shaw Billings, head of the Museum and Library, that he had been working on. Billings had a strong interest in statistics and helped compile the Census.


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."

Cool article on London's archeological skeletons

The Times June 28, 2008

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.

When robots operate

I thought this was interesting. For the moment, we have a prototype robotic surgical assistant on the gallery floor: learn more about Penelope right here.

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!)."

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.

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.