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Sunday, June 21, 2015

Civil War medicine by National Library of Medicine historians




Six Ways the Civil War Changed American Medicine

150 years ago, the historic conflict forced doctors to get creative and to reframe the way they thought about medicine


A ward in Carver Hospital in Washington, D.C., during the Civil War. One key innovation during this period was the division of hospitals into wards based on disease. (U.S. National Archives)


Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Buffalo medical museum featured on tv

Fascinating, strange collection to discover at UB's Medical Museum

June 3: Civil War medicine presentation at National Archives


Wednesday, June 3, at 2 p.m.
William G. McGowan Theater & YouTube
Civil War Medicine & Surgery

Archives specialist Rebecca Sharp will discuss The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion, 1861-1865. This published source contains information about Civil War medical and surgical procedures as well as case studies. Video | Captioning | Presentation slides | Handout 1 | Handout 2.

 http://www.archives.gov/dc-metro/events/june.html


Thursday, May 14, 2015

Fwd: [caduceus-l] CFP: A Medical History of the Vietnam War

 On March 10-12, 2016, the Vietnam Center and Archive at Texas Tech University, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, and the Army Medical Department Center of History and Heritage will be co-sponsoring a conference on the medical history of the Vietnam War. This two-day conference will be hosted at the Doubletree Hotel, San Antonio, Texas.
Presentations on all facets of medicine and healthcare related to the Vietnam War are welcome to include historical understandings of military medicine as practiced by all participants and in all geographic regions, the repercussions of the war on the practice of medicine, medicine in various campaigns, medical care outside of Vietnam, effects on the home front, postwar medical issues, mental health issues, and related topics.

Conference organizers welcome both individual presentation proposals as well as preorganized panel proposals that include two to three presentations. Conference sessions will
follow the standard 90 minute format to include one hour for presentations and 30 minutes for questions and discussion. Presentations by veterans are especially encouraged as are presentations by graduate students. All of the conference organizers are partners with the Department of Defense's Vietnam War Commemoration. In keeping with that partnership, there will be a dignified event to thank veterans for their service.

Proposal submission deadline is October 31, 2015. Please send a 250 word abstract and separate two-page CV/resume to steve.maxner@ttu.edu. If submitting a panel proposal, please include separate abstracts for each proposed presentation and CVs/resumes for each speaker.

Thank you for your interest in participating in this conference.

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Dick Mulvaney's polio vaccination campaign remembered

Dick Mulvaney used to volunteer at the National Museum of Health and Medicine. He was the first to vaccinate against polio in Northern Virginia and the Post has a story about him.

A '50s children's crusade, aka Amid debate about vaccines, polio remembered as a scourge defeated

By T. Rees Shapiro

Washington Post April 22 2015

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/amid-debate-about-vaccines-polio-is-remembered-as-a-scourge-defeated/2015/04/21/0d9d9476-e21d-11e4-81ea-0649268f729e_story.html


Monday, April 20, 2015

Morton's Medical Bibliography, Fifth Edition (Garrison-Morton), is now freely available online


From: Jeremy Norman

We are pleased to announce that Morton's Medical Bibliography, Fifth Edition (Garrison-Morton), is now available as an interactive database at HistoryofMedicine.com. This standard reference work for the history of medicine, biology, and dentistry was originated by Fielding H. Garrison, and expanded and revised through four editions by Leslie T. Morton. It was further revised and expanded by Jeremy M. Norman for the fifth edition. The fifth edition, published in 1991, and the last edition in book form, contained nearly 9000 entries, most of which were annotated. The new revised web version, offered free of charge, incorporates interactive features and other enhancements which significantly improve usability.


Jeremy Norman
HistoryofScience.com
HistoryofMedicine.com
HistoryofInformation.com
BookHistory.net
Jeremy Norman & Co., Inc.
 
Mail: P.O. Box 867
Novato, CA 94948
 
UPS, FedEx, DHL:
936-B Seventh St., PMB 238
Novato, CA 94945-3010


Friday, April 17, 2015

Thursday, April 16, 2015

AMEDD Historian #10 out now

Welcome to the another issue of the "AMEDD Historian;" an electronic

history journal designed to bring you articles and pictures on Army Medicine

history.  We want your contributions so if you have an idea for an Army

Medicine historical article, please write it up and submit it to us in the

electronic address in the "AMEDD Historian." 

 

The "AMEDD Historian" will be published 4 times per year (quarterly),

so we'll need your input NLT 1 Mar, 7 Jun, 6 Sep.  This journal will be

success with your contributions and I look forward to receiving your

articles on our proud heritage.

 

Here is the link:

http://history.amedd.army.mil/newsletters/AMEDD_history_newsletterNo10.pdf.

 

 

 

ROBERT S. DRISCOLL

Command Historian and

Chief, AMEDD Center of History and Heritage

US Army Medical Command

2748 Worth Road, Ste 48

Fort Sam Houston, TX 78234-6003

Thursday, April 2, 2015

"Doctoring the Civil War" lecture April 8 in North Carolina


The Health Sciences Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill invites you to a lecture by Shauna Devine, Ph.D., of the University of Western Ontario, who will examine the ways the American Civil War transformed medicine through a series of never before published medical photographs from Civil War hospitals and laboratories.

The lecture will be held April 8 at 5:30 p.m. in the open event space on the second floor of the Health Sciences Library.

Learn more about the lecture and speaker. RSVP to Anne Dudley at dudleyac@email.unc.edu.


Friday, March 27, 2015

NMHM reports new finding aids and updated guide to collections

The National Museum of Health and Medicine has recently posted over 100 new finding aids, as well as a new 254-page guide to its collections at www.medicalmuseum.mil/assets/documents/collections/archives/2014/Guide-to-Collections-2014.pdf. The breadth of medical subjects highlighted in these new finding aids extends to the history of forensic medicine, entomology, electron microscopy, medical illustrations, nursing, penicillin research, photo-micrography, physical therapy, pathology, and yellow fever. For those interested in the history of the Army Medical Museum, new finding aids also chronicle its early work. Some particularly rich collections related to these subjects, which may be of particular interest to archivists and librarians in the history of the health sciences, are described below.


Forensic Medicine:

The Stahl Collection (OHA 315.5) contains materials from the first formal resident in forensic pathology at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP), and the first Navy officer to enter that field, Dr. Charles J. Stahl. Appointed as an approved pathologist for the State of Maryland while completing his residency in the early 1960s, Stahl conducted autopsies in Montgomery County and Baltimore during off duty hours. After finishing his residency, Stahl then spent two years in Guam as the Chief of Laboratory Service and Deputy Medical Examiner from 1963-1964. In 1965, he began his assignment as the Chief of Forensic Pathology at the AFIP, where he remained for the next ten years. During this period, Stahl led the largest department at the Institute, helped develop an extensive educational program, and consulted on a number of high profile cases including the Vietnam War crimes that inspired the film Casualties of War, the deaths of three NASA astronauts at Cape Kennedy, and the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. After stints at the Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, the Department of Veteran Affairs in Tennessee, and Wright State University


Stahl became the Deputy Medical Inspector for the Naval Medical Research Institute; he returned to the AFIP in October of 1992, as the Chief Armed Forces Medical Examiner, and remained in that position until his retirement. Subjects in the collection include anatomical and clinical pathology, forensic pathology, development of forensic pathology at AFIP, aerospace pathology, AFIP training, Vietnam, forensic military cases, Project Gemini, Robert Kennedy, pathology at the Naval Medical Center, and the AFIP's Medical Examiner's Office.


Material in this collection is complemented by the Wright Collection (OHA 375.2), which chronicles the work of Dr. Donald Gene Wright who served as a medical technician and pilot in the Air Force, logging over 3,300 hours of B-52 time from 1958- 1965. Wright went on to earn his medical degree from the University of Missouri in Columbia in 1969 where he began his internship and residency, finishing at Wesley Medical Center in Wichita, Kansas. He completed his forensic residency at AFIP in 1984, received his training at the medical examiner's offices in Baltimore and Washington, DC, and became well-known as a specialist in the investigation of aircraft accidents and mass disasters. After retiring in 1990, he served for several years as Deputy Chief Medical Examiner for the State of Maryland. The bulk of the collection consists of over 15,000 slides from Wright's collection of forensic pathology cases. Manuscripts in the collection include military and professional service records, administrative material, lectures, articles, and material related to Wright's investigations and research, including some photographs.


Medical Illustrations:

The Civil War Medical Illustrations Collection (OHA 135.05) offers graphic depictions of the work captured by trained artists who were recruited by Army Medical Museum Curator John Brinton in the early years of the Civil War. Brinton had illustrators enlist as hospital stewards who were then assigned to duty in the Surgeon General's office. Given the number of casualties during the war, both the Confederacy and the Union needed to educate as many doctors as possible in the skills of military medicine. Medical illustrations were used to depict wounds commonly encountered but rarely seen by civilian practitioners, and were used to demonstrate surgical procedures and the reasons for those procedures. Many of the illustrations in this collection also subsequently appeared in the Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion, a six-volume set of books that played a critically important role in illustrating the lessons learned on battlefields.

The Medical Illustrations Collection (OHA 229) is an artificial collection of medical art (completed primarily by Museum staff), and includes illustrations from the nineteenth century, World War I era, the interwar period, and World War II through the 1960s. This collection is organized into three series based on chronology. Within each series the illustrations are organized by the individual artists represented. The collection includes a wide range of military medicine subjects such as battlefield wounds, anatomical and pathological studies, hygiene and preventive medicine measures, and innovative surgical techniques.


Medical Research:

A number of collections with new finding aids also relate to medical research, primarily covering the period from the Spanish-American War to the Vietnam War. The Osborn Collection (OHA 258.05) includes material related to the service, medical career, and personal life of Dr. William S. Osborn, who joined the U.S. Army in 1899 at age 22 as a hospital corpsman. Osborn spent at least a year stationed in California before serving in the Philippines until 1902. He then graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of the University of Illinois in Chicago in 1904 and went on to work as superintendent at the Wisconsin State Hospital for the Insane and the State Hospital for the Insane in Knoxville, TN during the 1920s. Items of note in the collection include notebooks from the Army Pathological Laboratory and Santa Mesa Hospital in the Philippines (1900-1901); letters written by Osborn to his colleagues and friends describing life in the Philippines; and three personal scrapbooks made by Osborn and continued by his daughter after his death. Additional items include material on his daughter Clare Osborn, a nutritionist, reprints on the subject of fevers in the Philippines, and photographs of the Army Pathological Laboratory and life in Manila.


The Elton Collection (OHA 153) includes papers and research material gathered by pathologist Norman W. Elton, primarily for his studies of yellow fever in Central America in the 1940s and 1950s, when he served on the Canal Zone Board of Health. Elton served in the Panama Canal Zone and Philippines during World War II and was appointed a Colonel in the Medical Corps and Director of the Board of Health Laboratory at Gorgas Hospital in the Canal Zone in 1948. Elton published widely on various subjects in several medical journals throughout his career and became one of the foremost experts on yellow fever in the 1950s. Additional background material on the Board of Health Laboratory and yellow fever research dates to the late 1800s and early 1900s. Materials include Panama Canal Zone government documents, correspondence, patient records, reprints, notes, photographs, newsclippings, maps, X-rays, and slides.


The finding aids for these and other collections are available by contacting the Museum at: http://www.medicalmuseum.mil/index.cfm?p=collections.archives.collections.index

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

History of Naval Medical Dept in WWII vol 3 NOW ONLINE

THE HISTORY OF THE MEDICAL DEPARTMENT OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY IN WORLD WAR II Volume 3: The Statistics of Diseases and Injuries (1950)

https://archive.org/details/HistoryOfTheMedicalDeptInWWIIV3


Volume 2 was previously available:


THE HISTORY OF THE MEDICAL DEPARTMENT OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY IN WORLD WAR II Volume 2: A COMPILATION OF THE KILLED, WOUNDED AND DECORATED PERSONNEL (1953)

https://archive.org/details/HistoryOfNavyMedicalDeptInWW2Vol.2

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

NMHM public affairs position open

Job Title: Public Affairs Specialist

SALARY RANGE:

$107,325.00 to $139,523.00 / Per Year

OPEN PERIOD:

Tuesday, March 17, 2015 to Tuesday, March 24, 2015

SERIES & GRADE:

GS-1035-14

POSITION INFORMATION:

Full Time - Permanent

About the Position:
The National Museum of Health and Medicine (NMHM) inspires interest in and promotes the understanding of medicine, past, present, and future, with a special emphasis on tri-service American military medicine. As a National Historic Landmark recognized for its ongoing value to the health of the military and to the nation since 1862, the Museum identifies, collects, and preserves important and unique resources to support a broad agenda of innovative exhibits, educational programs, and scientific, historical, and medical research.


https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/397791500 - existing Federal employees

https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/397601600 - non-Federal employees

2015 Spurgeon Neel Award competition open


 The Army Medical Department Museum Foundation is pleased to announce the 2015 Spurgeon Neel Annual Award competition for a paper of 5,000 words or less that best exemplifies the history, legacy, and traditions of the Army Medical Department.

Named in honor of Major General (Retired) Spurgeon H. Neel, first Commanding General of Health Services Command (now U.S. Army Medical Command), the award competition is open to all federal employees, military and civilian, as well as nongovernmental civilian authors. More information about MG (Ret) Neel can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spurgeon_Neel.

The AMEDD Museum Foundation will present a special medallion award and a $500 monetary prize to the winner at a Foundation-sponsored event early in 2016. The winning submission will be published in the AMEDD Journal during 2016.

All manuscripts must be submitted to the AMEDD Museum Foundation by September 30, 2015. At the time of submission, a manuscript must be original work and not pending publication in any other periodical. It must conform to the Writing and Submission Guidance of the AMEDD Journal, and must relate to the history, legacy, and/or traditions of the Army Medical Department. Manuscripts will be reviewed and evaluated by a six-member board with representatives from the AMEDD Museum Foundation, the AMEDD Center of History and Heritage, and the AMEDD Journal. The winning manuscript will be selected and announced in December 2015.

Submit manuscripts to amedd.foundation@att.net.  Additional details concerning the Spurgeon Neel Annual Award may be obtained by contacting Mrs. Sue McMasters at the AMEDD Museum Foundation, 210-226-0265.

Thursday, February 12, 2015

Now Available! Recommended Practices for Enabling Access to Manuscript and Archival Collections Containing Health Information about Individuals

Medical Heritage Library collaborators the Alan Mason Chesney Medical Archives of the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions [http://www.medicalarchives.jhmi.edu/] and the Center for the History of Medicine at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine [http://www.countway.harvard.edu/index.html] are pleased to announce the distribution of their jointly authored recommended practices to enable access to manuscript and archival collections containing health information about individuals [available here http://www.medicalheritage.org/announcements-and-articles/ under "Documentation."] These recommendations are intended to alleviate many of the concerns repositories have related to collecting and preserving health services records, especially those repositories that are not affiliated with hospitals or medical schools.

The recommendations are presented in four categories: 1) Determining an Institution’s Status and Policy Needs; 2) Implementing Policy and Fostering Process Transparency; 3) Communicating the Nature of Restrictions; and 4) Describing Records to Best Enable Discovery and Access. Those who care for and provide access to records containing health information about individuals are invited to test the recommendations and provide feedback on their utility; those who use such records in their research are equally invited to comment on their scope.

Researchers who have used or are seeking access to primary sources containing health information about individuals are encouraged to share their experiences and difficulties accessing health services records. Visit the MHL’s researcher access survey site [https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/M38FD39] and contribute to our efforts to improve access to these important records.

For more information, please contact the Medical Heritage Library at MedicalHeritage@gmail.com

This work was made possible through the generous funding of the Mellon Foundation through the Council for Library and Information Resources’ Cataloging Hidden Special Collections and Archives [http://www.clir.org/hiddencollections] program (2012: Private Practices, Public Health: Privacy-Aware Processing to Maximize Access to Health Collections [https://wiki.med.harvard.edu/Countway/ArchivalCollaboratives/PrivatePractices]).

Thank you!
-Hanna Clutterbuck-Cook (on behalf of Emily Gustainis and Phoebe Evans Letocha)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Processing Assistant, Center for the History of Medicine and
Project Coordinator, Medical Heritage Library (http://www.medicalheritage.org/)

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

NLM History of Medicine Lecture - African American History Month

 
You are cordially invited to the next NLM History of Medicine lecture, to be held on Wednesday February 18, from 2pm to 3pm in the NLM Lister Hill Auditorium, Building 38A, National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, MD.  In recognition of African-American History Month, Laura Bothwell, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow in Pharmaceutical Law and Health Services Research, Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics, Harvard Medical School, will speak on "The History of Race in Randomized Controlled Trials: Ethical and Policy Considerations"
 
This lecture will examine how race has been embedded in the history of randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Clinical trial research policies and norms have grown increasingly attentive to the inclusion of racial minorities in RCT subject populations. This lecture will consider when race has been measured in RCTs and why, exploring the question of whether racial groups have been fairly represented in RCTs. Relying on broad collections of historical trials and archival materials in the collections of the NLM's History of Medicine Division, it will include a timeline of racial trends in RCT research subject populations, accompanied by discussion of the role of the NIH in key historic developments related racial diversity in clinical trials
 
All are welcome.
 
Sign language interpretation is provided. Individuals with disabilities who need reasonable accommodation to participate may contact Stephen Greenberg at 301-435-4995, e-mail greenbes@mail.nih.gov, or the Federal Relay (1-800-877-8339).
 
Due to current security measures at NIH, off-campus visitors are advised to consult the NLM Visitors and Security website:
 
 
Sponsored by:
NLM's History of Medicine Division
Jeffrey S. Reznick, PhD, Chief
 
Event contact:
Stephen J. Greenberg, MSLS, PhD
Coordinator of Public Services
History of Medicine Division
National Library of Medicine, NIH
 
 



Tuesday, February 10, 2015

3000th BUMED item uploaded to online Medical Heritage Library

Survey Of U.S. Navy Medical Personnel In Operation Desert Shield / Storm (May 1993) at
https://archive.org/details/SurveyOfU.S.NavyMedicalPersonnelInOperationDesertShieldStorm
is the 3000th item BUMED's medical history office has uploaded to the Medical Heritage Library at
https://archive.org/details/medicalheritagelibrary

All of our items can be seen at https://archive.org/details/usnavybumedhistoryoffice and range from  an 1862 Surgeon's diary from the American Civil War through a 2015  video on the mechanics of blood donation at Naval Medical Center Portsmouth.

The items uploaded by BUMED have had over 130,000 downloads in the three years that we have been adding material to the project.

Michael Rhode
Archivist / Curator
US Navy BUMED Communications Directorate (M09B7)
Office of Medical History
703-681-2539
michael.g.rhode2.civ@mail.mil
Photographs - https://www.flickr.com/photos/navymedicine/
Documents - https://archive.org/details/usnavybumedhistoryoffice

mailing address:
7700 Arlington Blvd
Falls Church, VA 22042

physical address:
BUMED Detachment, Falls Church.
Four Skyline Place, Suite 602,
5113 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church, VA



Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Jan 28: NLM History of Medicine Lecture

 
You are cordially invited to the next NLM History of Medicine lecture, to be held on Wednesday January 28, from 2pm to 3pm in the NLM Lister Hill Auditorium, Building 38A, National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, MD.  Michael Sappol, PhD, Historian with the History of Medicine Division of the National Library of Medicine will speak on "The Apotheosis of the Dissected Plate: Spectacles of Layering and Transparency in 19th- and 20th-Century Anatomy."
 
This is a story about "topographical anatomy — a tradition of slicing and sawing rather than cutting and carving — and its procedures for converting bodies from three dimensions to two dimensions and back again. In topographical cross-section anatomy, the frozen or mummified body is cut into successive layers that are then transcribed and reproduced as pages of a book or a sequence of prints or slides (sometimes with the original slices preserved as a sequence of specimens for the anatomical museum). The talk also confronts our ambivalent relation to anatomical images, which can serve as an effigy of self and other that we all inhabit. This talk features photographs of materials in the NLM collection by artist Mark Kessell.
 
All are welcome.
 
Sign language interpretation is provided. Individuals with disabilities who need reasonable accommodation to participate may contact Stephen Greenberg at 301-435-4995, e-mail greenbes@mail.nih.gov, or the Federal Relay (1-800-877-8339).
 
Due to current security measures at NIH, off-campus visitors are advised to consult the NLM Visitors and Security website:
 
 
Sponsored by:
NLM's History of Medicine Division
Jeffrey S. Reznick, PhD, Chief
 
Event contact:
Stephen J. Greenberg, MSLS, PhD
Coordinator of Public Services
History of Medicine Division
National Library of Medicine, NIH