White House Physician Talk Set for 2/4/09

Thanks, Suture for a Living, for the link to our upcoming 'Health, Illness and the Presidency' program on Feb. 4th. I'm looking forward to this talk and we're hoping that it's well attended. The speaker worked as White House Physician for three presidents and was at Walter Reed, and we're glad Dr. Mohr was interested in talking about his experiences at the Museum. Are you planning on attending? Let us know in comments! See you there.

Ghoulish ride

Ghoulish ride
Originally uploaded by rasputina2

Another one. I can't contain myself.

Spinal

Spinal
Originally uploaded by rasputina2

I just might ride again if I could have a bike like this.

New malaria book by one of our researchers

One of our researchers, Leo B. Slater, just let us know that his book has been published. That's our photo on the cover, which has been cropped a bit and edited a bit more, and here it is, full size, from one of our Flickr accounts.

National Museum of Health & Medicine is CLOSED TODAY

The National Museum of Health & Medicine is CLOSED TODAY because the Walter Reed Center is shut for the Inauguration.

Otis Historical Archives Annual Report part 4 and final

Rhode served on the AFIP's Institutional Review Board and HIPPA committees as well as Museum committees including the Admin group, the collections committee (as did Stocker), and the database committee (as did Stocker). Volunteering to do so, Stocker photographed parts of collections for use in the museum’s newsletter, for exhibit production, and for uploading to the Internet Archive, and has photographed both in-progress and completed exhibits. Montgomery and Strigel worked on a brochure on the museum’s photographs and IMC’s role in scanning them, which is still in draft form.

Gaskins retired in September. He had been part of the Museum staff since 2004, but he was a mainstay of AFIP for years longer than that. He had been with the Institute for seventeen years, joining it from the Federal Records Center in Suitland. Gaskins singlehandedly ran the fifty-year old Medical Illustration Service Library of 3,000 boxes of hundreds of thousands of photographs. The library was the Department of Defense's official medical photograph repository from 1949 on into the 1990s and he inherited all of the responsibility for the Library as staff left and were not replaced. Gaskin's sense of duty and responsibility preserved the Library, through at least two moves, and in spite of disinterest or worse on the part of some. Gaskins joined the Archives due to the Information Manufacturing Corporation scanning project. The initial plan was to do a low-resolution scan of the Library’s photographs and then discard the originals. Fortunately we were able to modify that plan and add the collection to the Museum. Gaskins was an integral part of making possible hundreds of thousands of scans. His knowledge of the collection and willingness to share it has been the only thing that enabled us to make sense of the staggering amount of pictures. Without Tom, the project would not have gotten off the ground. He also worked in the Archives and scanned all of our Civil War photographs. Lauren Clark volunteered in the archives over the summer to see if she was interested in a museum career. She rehoused parts of the Vorwald Collection and added folder headings to the finding aid, as well doing cataloguing and filing trade literature in the GMPI Collection.

Research and historical material, mostly on military medicine, was provided to AFIP, especially the Public Affairs Office and the Departments of Dermatologic Pathology, Telemedicine, Radiologic Pathology, and Soft Tissue Pathology among others. External users included US Army Office of the Surgeon General; US Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery; OTSG’s Borden Institute; Bay Pines Veterans Administration Healthcare System; Home Front Communications; Samuel Merritt College (California); Columbia University; US Patent and Trademark Office; The Scientist Magazine; TRICARE Management Activity; Fort Lee (Virginia); Kunhardt Productions; USUHS; Ambo|Anthos Publishers (The Netherlands); Baker-Cederberg Museum and Archives (New York); Medical Museion, University of Copenhagen; George Washington University Law School; National Inventors Hall of Fame (Ohio); Command Surgeon, USSOCOM; NCI Communications; The Burns Archive; Canadian Broadcasting Corp.; Boston University; Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology (Illinois); Henry Holt Publishers; Actuality Productions, Inc.; Fuji Television Network, Inc. (Japan); Fairfax County Public Library; Taniwaki & Associates, Inc. (Washington, DC); Oxford Film & Television (England); National Museum of American History; US Army Historian’s Office; Los Angeles Daily News; Historian’s Office, Walter Reed Army Medical Center; The Many-Headed Monster, Live Art Development Agency (England); American Red Cross; National Library and Archives Canada; St Paul's Cemetery; Esras Managing; Steptoe and Johnson LLP (Washington, DC); Institute for the Study of Occupation and Health; National Geographic; ColourFIELD (Germany); Wisconsin Historical Society; Aslan Productions; Tucson Medical Center; NARA; Kingsmen Exhibits Pte Ltd (Singapore); North Carolina Museum of History; James F. Humphries & Assoc. (West Virginia); Rice University; National Building Museum; University of Michigan; Gettysburg National Military Park; Sovereign Pharmaceuticals; Communications Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (New Zealand); Health Protection Agency, United Kingdom; Compass Point Books; Public Affairs and Content Development, Armed Services Blood Program; CBS Eye Too Productions / Discovery Channel; Mind & Media; Phoenix Controls (Massachusetts); Foundation El Portavoz (Costa Rica); Indiana University; Hiroshima Peace Institute (Japan); Victorian Society at Falls Church; AOTF American Occupational Therapy Foundation; Weider History Group, Inc.; Synvasive Technology, Inc.; Journal AnBlokk (Hungary); International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR); Visual Eyes, Inc.; South Windsor Historical Society and Wood Memorial Library; PMA Sciences (Canada); Turn of the Century Electrotherapy Museum (Florida); St. John's Riverside Hospital,/Cochran School of Nursing (New York); University of California – Irvine; Shawnee town, City of Shawnee, Kansas; University of Missouri – Columbia; Veterans Administration Medical Center (Wisconsin); Twofour Digital Ltd. (England); Design Minds, Inc; University of Alberta; University of Manchester; University of Toyama (Japan); Army Historical Foundation; Oxford University; NBM; AUDLM; and the University of Newcastle.

Sharing historical photographs

Boy, those Otis Historical Archives annual report segments are riveting, aren't they? But they're all about attempting to get information out to you, our interested constituency. Here's a good article about the Flickr Commons site, which we may still join, and mentions Wikipedia's Commons site that we'll be looking into now -

Link by Link
Historical Photos in Web Archives Gain Vivid New Lives
By NOAM COHEN
Published: January 19, 2009
Over the last year there have been important new efforts to put these classics online.

Otis Historical Archives Annual Report part 3

The Archives has a significant presence on the Internet including the Guide to the Collections of the Museum on the museum website which remains the main way researchers begin to use the archives. Stocker has revamped the Guide for the first time since 1998 and has it almost ready to go on the web. Several finding aids were added to the website. Finding aids for the Townsend Collection of aviation pathology records, the Donald Collection of World War 2 hospital ship material, the NMHM Audiovisual Collection, and the General Medical Products Information Collection (GMPI) were loaded onto the Museum’s website. Stocker has reformatted, added material, and edited the Ball Collection of ophthalmologic materials, and it is almost ready to be added to the website. No more archival collections were listed in the Library of Congress' National Union Catalogue of Manuscript Collections (NUCMC); however, finding aids should still be sent to NUCMC in the future for the different audiences it reaches.

In fall 2006, archives staff began adding interesting photographs to Flickr’s website. By late January 2008, approximately 400 photographs had gotten 48,000 views; in January 2009, 683 images had received 107,526 views, an increase of about 155%. This clearly demonstrates the appeal of the photographs held in the Archives; however, WRAMC now blocks access to Flickr so any additional photographs are added by staff from home. The Archives also received an invitation to join the Flickr Commons, a site for displaying the public photo collections of cultural institutions, which would increase viewership into the millions, but this has been waiting Legal Counsel’s review for several months. In the spring, Rhode began A Repository for Bottled Monsters, an unofficial blog for the museum, which has also attracted a worldwide audience. Because WRAMC blocks access to the blog, all posts to it are added by staff from home in their own time.

Books and documents scanned by IMC were uploaded to the free Internet Archive, where they are available for downloading. Titles uploaded included The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology - Its First Century 1862-1962 (1962); A History of the United States Army Medical Museum 1862 to 1917 compiled from the Official Records (1917) by Daniel S. Lamb; the Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion (six volumes, 1870-1888); the Medical Department of the US Army in the World War (15 volumes, 1923-1929); "The Annual" (Nursing Yearbook) from Walter Reed General Hospital in Washington, DC, and Letterman General Hospital in San Francisco, California (1921-1927); “Taps" Annual (Nursing Yearbook) from Walter Reed General Hospital (1929-1931); An Illustrated Description of First-Class Achromatic Microscopes, Apparatus, Specimens, etc., Miller Brothers (1879); A Catalogue of Surgeons' Instruments, Air and Water Beds, Pillows, and Cushions, Bandages, Trusses, Elastic Stockings, Inhalers, Galvanic Apparatus, and Other Appliances Used by the Medical Profession, Maw and Sons (1866); A Medical Survey of the Bituminous-Coal Industry (1947); The Kennedy Autopsy Report by Pierre Finck of the AFIP; Cantor Lectures: The Microscope (1888) - lectures on the history of the microscope by British collector John Mayall, Jr. excerpted from the Journal of the Society of the Arts, 1885-1888; Decorations and Medals of the United States of America (1943), John Wyeth and Brother broadsheet; Frances Pleasants' photograph album from the Civil War; When You Go Home - take this book with you - a WWI pamphlet directed at US troops about the dangers of venereal disease; Nouveau Appareils a L'usage des Medecins et des Chirurgiens - M.G. Trouvé Medical and surgical instruments from the M.G. Trouvé company, 1872, excerpted from Les Mondes, May 9 and 16, 1872; Nouveau Appareils a L'usage des Medecins et des Chirurgiens - M.G. Trouvé Medical/surgical instruments from the M.G. Trouvé company, Paris, excerpted from Les Mondes, July 15, 1869; Phase Contrast Equipment with the Heine Condenser microscope instruction manual; Instructor's Guide for Casualty Simulation Kit Device, a handbook for casualty simulation in disasters; The Graf-Apsco Company, 1943 catalog: a catalog of microscopes, dissecting instruments, and related medical and laboratory equipment; The Graf-Apsco Company 1946 catalog: a catalog of microscopes, dissecting instruments, and related medical and laboratory equipment; Kolff-Brigham Artificial Kidney (ca. 1950s) manual; Variable Axis Total Knee Surgical Techniques (ca. 1977) advertising booklets; Gillette Receipts (187?): a handwritten "receipt" (recipe) book from the late 19th century, of mostly pharmaceutical remedies, including those for asthma, cough, gangrene, "the itch," cholera, and bilious colic, but also for lucifer matches and liquid blacking.

Anatomy of the Orbit

Two more illustrations from the Ball Collection, from Agatz's "Atlas zur chirurgischen Anatomie und Operationslehre," 1860. These are real beauties when viewed in a larger size.

Acc. 18938
















And Acc. 18938-2

Otis Historical Archives Annual Report part 2

The Medical Illustration Service Library, through the IMC scanning project, continues to be digitized. Rhode is the Task Order Manager for the MIS part of the project; he and the assistant archivists and technicians selected material for scanning, reviewed the material, and recommended accepting the work on behalf of the government. Stocker provides the quality control. The members of the IMC team are processing and cataloging the images prior to scanning so the records of the images are complete upon their return. 350,000 images were scanned last year, and cataloguing and indexing are being finished. Collections scanned or added to the online system last year included the World War 1-Reeve Collection, Surgical Photographs, the Museum’s 19th century collections logbooks, captured Viet Cong medical journals, accession files for the Orthopathology collection, and HDAC’s Carnegie collection records. AFIP’s Veterinary Pathology Dept. 35mm teaching slide set was scanned, and added to the MIS Library as an electronic collection. 220,000 images are anticipated for this year including finishing 10,000 military medicine photographs newly added to the New Contributed Photographs collection and scanning the Museum’s Accession Files as well as images of WRAMC from their DPW department and historical images from the Navy’s Bureau of Medicine and Surgery. Stocker identified an additional 1300 images from the WWII-era MAMAS collection, then catalogued and sent them to IMC for scanning. All roughly 500,000 photographs are searchable on the AFIP’s AWARS system to anyone who has registered to use the system.

Computerized cataloguing on the collection level has continued in the shelf inventory. Cataloguing of new material coming into the museum was done for the General Medical Products Information Collection, Medical Ephemera, New Contributed photographs, Audiovisual Collection, AFIP Historical Files, WRAMC Historical Collection and other artificial collections. Implementation of a comprehensive computer catalogue for the entire Museum continued with data from the archives being turned over to KE Software for conversion to their EMU database, although this project was slowed due to financial issues. Uploading of Archives data was finally resumed in the fall and has been tested three times. It is expected to be usable this spring. After all five collection divisions are included this spring, data from IMC’s database will be imported in the summer and an extensive single database of the Museum’s holdings should be available in the fall for widespread use.

New material acquired included a daguerreotype by William Bell depicting a man with drooping eyelid, ca. 1852, purchased through the generosity of Frederick Sharf, 5 Army School of Nursing yearbooks including Taps 1929, 1930, 1931 and The Annual 1926, 1927 from the US Army Medical Department Museum, a box of lantern slides and box of patient records associated with WWII service of neurologist Dr. Augustus McCravey, 11 boxes of research files from amputee service at Valley Forge General Hospital in Phoenixville, PA from the Vietnam War era, a framed Plexiglas print of synthetic estrogen molecule "Moxestrol" by Mara Haseltine, digital photographs from the book War Surgery in Afghanistan and Iraq from the Borden Institute, 6 linear feet of files related to AFIP radiologist Colonel William L. Thompson, circa 1907-1975 from the American College of Radiology, approximately 48 thousand 35-mm slides of gross veterinary pathology and 11 veterinary tools from Dr. John King, 1 linear feet of records of Dr. John (Henry) Budd of WWII service with 34th Evacuation Hospital, 4th Auxiliary Surgery Group on neurosurgery, items associated with the practice of Dr. Alexander N. Letko including one prescription pad for narcotics (1948) and a folder of papers and letters, dental lecture videotapes from the U.S. Army Dental & Trauma Research Detachment, one empty dressing packet for "Bontecou's Soldier's Packet for first Wound Dressing” and 21 books on medical photography authored by Dr. Stanley Burns from Dr. Burns, a copy of a dissertation on leprosy "Letters from Carville: Narrating the Unspoken Story of the Landry Family," (2007) and miscellaneous books.

Medical collection articles in University Museums and Collections Journal 1/2008

Our colleagues at the Medical Museion blog pointed out the first issue of University Museums and Collections Journal 1/2008 which has articles on medical collections in Vienna including a survey article and short specific pieces on drug and pharmaceutical collections (the drug link is broken as of this writing).

What the field needs now is an in-depth volume on the history of medical museums around the world.

Four more from the Ball Collection

I was able to get back to Ball today and had to scan these when I found them.


Acc 19322
Sarcoma of the iris and
Syphilitic iritis

















Acc 19321
Marginal eczema pustule and
Epithelioma involving both the cornea and conjunctiva


















Acc 19320
Spring conjunctivitis




















Acc 19319
Recent scleritis

Exploring War and Conflict Through Oral History CFP

Call for Papers
Exploring War and Conflict Through Oral History


Date: 1 May 2009
Location: The Library of Congress, Washington, DC
Sponsors: OHMAR (Oral History in the Mid-Atlantic Region)
Veterans History Project, American Folk Life Center, Library of Congress

War and conflict have been a formative part of United States history during the twentieth century, a trend that has continued into the new millennium. Since World War II, oral history has become a progressively more valuable tool in exploring the causes of war; the fierce national and international debate over the efficacy of waging war; the experiences of the combatants and civilians caught up in the conflict; and the social, political, and economic consequences of war. Drawing on this rich history, OHMAR and the Veterans History Project are soliciting papers for a conference that explores war and conflict through the use of oral history.

The program committee is seeking proposals for individual papers or complete panels that focus on the use of oral history in documenting the impact of war and conflict on world history during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Proposals for individual papers should be based on a twenty-minute presentation; complete panels should incorporate three papers within a panel lasting ninety minutes.

Proposal Format

For individual proposals, submit a one-page abstract, a one-page vita or resume, and a short (100 words or less) presenter bio. If proposing a three-person panel, submit a title, a session abstract of not more than two pages, and a one-page vita or resume and short bio for each participant.

Proposals should be postmarked or emailed by 15 February 2009. We prefer that proposals be sent by email. Email the cover sheet and proposal below as one complete electronic document in Microsoft Word to oralhistoryofwarandconflict@gmail.com. The program committee will acknowledge the receipt of incoming proposals as they are received. If you have questions, email oralhistoryofwarandconflict@gmail.com or contact John Lonnquest, program committee chair, at 703-428-6563. Applicants will be notified by 1 March 2009 if their proposals are accepted.

Technical Support

All of the conference facilities will be equipped with computers and LCD projectors. As part of their proposals, presenters should indicate their audio and visual support requirements. Please be as specific as possible so the program committee can properly evaluate the resources required. Please contact the conference program committee at oralhistoryofwarandconflict@gmail.com if you have any questions.

Cover Sheet
Exploring War and Conflict Through Oral History
Library of Congress
1 May 2009
Hard copy proposals should include five copies each of the cover sheet, panel proposal (if applicable), individual proposals, bios and individual resumes. We prefer emailed proposals. Be sure to read the Call For Papers to ensure you have met all requirements. Please type or print clearly.
Panel or Paper Title: ________________________________________________

AV and space needs: ( ) VHS player/monitor ( ) DVD player/monitor ( ) LCD projector
Other (describe thoroughly): ______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

AV requests must be indicated at this time. Please check with your panel members before submitting your proposal.
Panel organizer or paper presenter's name: __________________________________
E-mail: _____________________________ Affiliation ________________________________
Complete Mailing Address: _______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
City: _______________ State: ________ ZIP Code________ Country: _________
Work phone: ________________ Home phone: ________________ FAX:____________
If proposing a panel, please provide the following information as well.
Chair's Name: ________________________________________________________
First MI Last
E-mail: __________________________ Affiliation: __________________________________
Complete Mailing Address: _______________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
City: ______________ State: _______ ZIP Code: _______ Country: ___________
Work phone: _______________ Home phone: ________________ FAX: ___________

Commentator (if desired):____________________________________________
First MI Last
E-mail: ____________________________ Affiliation: ___________________________
Complete Mailing Address: _______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________
City: ______________ State: _______ ZIP Code: _______ Country: __________
Work phone: _______________ Home phone: ________________ FAX: ____________

Panelist: ____________________________________________________________
First MI Last
Paper Title: _________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
E-mail: ___________________________ Affiliation: ____________________________
Complete Mailing Address: _______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________
City: ______________ State: _______ ZIP Code: _______ Country: ____________
Work phone: _______________ Home phone: ________________ FAX: ____________

Panelist: ____________________________________________________________
First MI Last
Paper Title: __________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
E-mail: ____________________________ Affiliation: _________________________________
Complete Mailing Address: _______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________
City: ______________ State: _______ ZIP Code: _______ Country: ___________
Work phone: _______________ Home phone: ________________ FAX: ____________

Panelist: ____________________________________________________________
First MI Last
Paper Title: ____________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
E-mail: ______________________________Affiliation:________________________________
Complete Mailing Address: _______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________
City: ______________ State: _______ ZIP Code: _______ Country: ___________
Work phone: ______________ Home phone: ________________ FAX: _________________
Proposal packages should be emailed to: oralhistoryofwarandconflict@gmail.com
Written proposals should be mailed to:
John Lonnquest
US Army Corps of Engineers
Office of History
7701 Telegraph Road
Alexandria, VA 22315
Cover sheet and proposals must be postmarked or emailed by February 15, 2009

Otis Historical Archives Annual Report part 1

OTIS HISTORICAL ARCHIVES 2008 Annual Report

STAFF (A-Arrive; D-Depart):
Michael Rhode, Chief Archivist
Kathleen Stocker, Assistant Archivist
(D) Thomas Gaskins, Archives Technician
Donna Rose, IMC Supervisor Archivist
(D) Kirsten Strigel, IMC Contract Archivist
Amanda Montgomery, IMC Contract Archivist
LaFonda Burwell, IMC Contract Archives Technician
(A) Karen West, IMC Contract Archives Technician
(A) Anna Korosec, IMC Contract Archives Technician
(D)Shanika Queen, IMC Contract Archives Technician
(D) Natasha Lyles, IMC Contract Archives Technician
(A/D) Lauren Clark, student volunteer


January 2009 marks Rhode’s twentieth year as the Museum’s archivist. In that time the Archives has grown immensely and has been far better catalogued. A 1988 guide to archives listed it as having 200 linear feet of collections, but that number is in the thousands now. Users and researchers have increased tremendously as well, as have the ways the collection is used. In 1989, there was one computer, with one database of a few photographs on its 24-megabyte hard drive; in 2009, the Archives is approaching one terabyte of digitized information. Photographs are no longer sent to a photography department for reproduction with a lag of months, but are scanned and sent to the requestor almost immediately. However, some once-common media such as ¾” videotape fill the Archives, but are now impossible for us to access. Technology has changed the way we do business and will continue to do so at an increasing pace, but we hope to continue adding to the collection and making the medical history of America available to our constituency.

Substantial requests for information were handled, frequently regarding sensitive topics. Of the requests that we tracked, we had at least 183 substantial reference requests this year, including 93 from people representing institutions and 9 countries outside the US. The museum’s photography collections received notice from the fine arts world: the Smithsonian American Art Museum borrowed eight of William Bell’s Civil War photographs of soldiers for an exhibit, the Metropolitan Museum of Art called for help in cataloguing their copies, and in January 2009 the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston began reviewing photographs for a loan. The Vorwald Collection continues to be used for research for asbestosis lawsuits in spite of being open to the public for two decades. Interest in the 1918 influenza epidemic has not yet peaked, and many requests were received to use images from the Archives, all of which are viewable on the website to facilitate research. Rhode was interviewed by Bill Koslosky for “The National Museum of Health & Medicine: archival images on Flickr,” was an invited participant for the “Archival Research” panel of the Graduate Student Symposium for historians of medicine at the National Library of Medicine, and spoke on “Genealogical Possibilities in the National Museum of Health and Medicine,” for the National Capital Region of Association of Professional Genealogists at the National Archives. Rhode wrote “Book Review: Rehabilitating Bodies: Health, History and the American Civil War by Lisa A. Long,” for the Journal of Southern History; “Foundations: E.R. Squibb, 1854,” and “Foundations: Photomicroscopy, circa 1876,” for The Scientist. He submitted a paper on the Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion for publication in the Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, and is currently implementing reviewer comments on it. Rhode has had a paper on the Museum in World War I accepted for the American Association of the History of Medicine’s annual meeting in April. Tours were given to National History Day students (June), the DC Public Health Department (June) and the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference, aka MARAC (November).

Stocker and Rhode have been assisting the Borden Institute with a photographic history of WRAMC for the 2009 anniversary. In addition to providing scans of photographs of the base and personnel, they are also writing captions while contributing to the layout and editing of the publication. The book should appear in the spring, and features many photographs from the Archives.

Save the Date 4/18-19/2009: Symposium on Lincoln's Health at National Museum of Health and Medicine

SAVE THE DATE: APRIL 18-19, 2009 – SYMPOSIUM ON LINCOLN’S HEALTH AT NATIONAL MUSEUM OF HEALTH AND MEDICINE

To commemorate the 200th anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln’s Birth, the National Museum of Health and Medicine Presents “A Symposium on President Lincoln’s Health”

**Endorsed by the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission**

Saturday, April 18, 2009, 1:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.

* Ronald S. Fishman, M.D. and Adriana Da Silveira, D.D.S., M.S., Ph.D., Lincoln’s Craniofacial Microsmia

* Laura P. W. Ranum, Ph.D., Molecular Genetics with an Historical Twist: Spectrin Mutation Causes Spinocerebellar Ataxia Type 5 in President Lincoln’s Pedigree

* Todd J. Janus, Ph.D., M.D. The Neurologic Death of Abraham Lincoln

* Thomas M. Scalea, M.D., Could Lincoln Have Been Saved?

6:30 p.m.: Keynote Address by Frank J. Williams, noted Lincoln scholar and former chief justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court

Sunday, April 19, 2009, 1:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.

* Adrianne Noe, Ph.D., The Lincoln Exhibit at the National Museum of Health and Medicine

* Thomas M. Scalea, M.D. and Todd J. Janus, Ph.D., M.D., The Neurologic Death and Possible Rescue of Abraham Lincoln

* Kenneth Leetz, M.D., Abraham Lincoln, Psychotherapist to the Nation: Lincoln’s Depression and Its Transformative Effects on Empathy and Therapeutic Communication Through Metaphors

* Armond S. Goldman, M.D., Lincoln’s Gettysburg Illness

**Speakers, topics and schedule subject to change.

SYMPOSIUM IS FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. LIMITED SEATING—RESERVATIONS ARE REQUIRED! For more information and reservations, call (202) 782-2673 or email nmhminfo@afip.osd.mil

ALSO NOTE:

NMHM is proud to announce an upcoming exhibit, "Abraham Lincoln: Final Casualty of the War" (opens February 12, 2009), featuring artifacts related to the assassination of President Lincoln, including the bullet that killed the president.

Links:

* NMHM news release: http://www.nmhm.washingtondc.museum/news/symposium_on_lincoln_health.html

* Details about the Lincoln Symposium: http://nmhm.washingtondc.museum/events/lincoln_2009.html

* NMHM Lincoln artifacts: http://www.nmhm.washingtondc.museum/exhibits/nationswounds/lincoln.html

* Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission: http://www.abrahamlincoln200.org/

* Lincoln Bicentennial Celebration in Washington, D.C.: http://www.lincolnindc.com

Location:

National Museum of Health and Medicine
On the campus at Walter Reed Army Medical Center 6900 Georgia Ave., N.W. (enter at Elder Street)
Washington, D.C. 20307

Free Parking – Free Admission

NMHM is open daily (exc. Dec. 25 and Jan. 20) 10:00 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.

"Health, Illness and the Presidency" Lecture with former White House Physician, 2/4/2009 at NMHM

National Museum of Health and Medicine
Walter Reed Centennial Year Lecture Series
Wednesday, February 4, 2009, 12:00 p.m.

"Health, Illness and the Presidency"

Join NMHM as we celebrate the centennial year at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Lawrence C. Mohr, Jr., MD will discuss his experiences as White House Physician to three presidents – Reagan, Bush and Clinton – and his career at Walter Reed.

Where: Russell Auditorium, National Museum of Health and Medicine (AFIP, Bldg. 54) , on the campus at Walter Reed Army Medical Center (further location details are below)

Cost: Free

NOTE: The next major public program offering from the National Museum of Health and Medicine will be “Sex, Sin, and Science: A History of Syphilis in America,” Saturday, February 14, 2009, 11:00 a.m. Did syphilis travel from the New World to Europe on Columbus’ ships? What remedies did Lewis and Clark use to treat the disease on their expedition? What impact did the introduction of penicillin have on the spread of venereal disease? Join NMHM for this Valentine’s Day talk with noted medical historian John Parascandola as he discusses his book, "Sex, Sin, and Science: A History of Syphilis in America." A book signing will follow the presentation. Cost: Free

Location:

National Museum of Health and Medicine
On the campus at Walter Reed Army Medical Center
6900 Georgia Ave., N.W. (enter at Elder Street)
Washington, D.C. 20307

Free Parking – Free Admission

NMHM is open daily (exc. Dec. 25 and Jan. 20) 10:00 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.

Phone: (202) 782-2200
Public Affairs: (202) 782-2672
Public Programs: (202) 782-2673

Medical Museum CLOSED on Inauguration Day, January 20th

The Medical Museum is CLOSED on Inauguration Day, January 20th, because all of Walter Reed Medical Center is closed.

AFIP Recognized by U.S. and Canadian Academy of Pathology

This showed up at work yesterday. USCAP grew out of the International Association of Medical Museums that the Army Medical Museum helped to found. AFIP is slated to be closed by 2011 due to BRAC, and replaced with a Joint Pathology Center, which is still undefined.

UNITED STATES AND CANADIAN ACADEMY OF PATHOLOGY, INC.
The United States-Canadian Division of The International Academy of Pathology

FRED G. SILVA, M .D .
Executive Vice President
January 6, 2009

TO:
Dr. Florabel Garcia Mullick
Armed Forces Institute of Pathology
FROM: Fred Silva, M .D .
Executive Vice-President and Secretary-Treasurer

USCAP Scientific Abstracts from your Institution

According to our records, this year your institution was in the top twenty in number of first authored scientific abstracts accepted for presentation at the USCAP 2009 Annual Meeting in Boston. There was an all time record of almost 2,800 scientific abstracts submitted from over 430 different medical school programs and academic institutions (over 230 in the US and Canada and 200 from around the rest of the world) . This represented the highest ever percentage increase (16%) over the previous record year . All abstracts are subject to blinded peer review, and the cutoff score was quite high . Well over 3,000 pathologists are expected to attend the 2009 meeting where the accepted scientific abstracts will be presented . These scientific offerings are also published in the January issues of both of our Academy's journals, two of the "top five general pathology journals" by impact factor in the world - Modern Pathology and Laboratory Investigation -which reach well
over 10,000 subscribers, both individuals as well as institutions throughout the world . As you know we have partnered with the most outstanding medical publisher in the world-Nature Publishing Group (NPG). These journals are also online with NPG with its 60,000 monthly eTOC subscribers and on our international USCAP Website (the latter of which now receives up to five million hits/month internationally from up to 22,000 individual pathologists/month from 129 countries) . The USCAP,which is one of the oldest pathology societies in North America, is generally viewed as the premier academic society of anatomic, surgical pathology, and diagnostic molecular pathology and the attendance at our annual meeting is the largest gathering of physician-pathologists in the world by far. Thank you for your efforts on behalf of the future of pathology and medicine and all those patients, physicians and students we serve. It is obvious that your institution has worked hard to support and generate these important studies which will help advance the specialty of pathology as well as medicine in general. On behalf of the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology I want to extend our congratulations to you and express my personal appreciation for all that you and your faculty have done to enhance the scientific program of our Academy and our discipline.

A simple checklist

The Washington Post reports on an article published in today's New England Journal of Medicine that says verbal checklists used before, during, and after surgery can cut death rates “by nearly half, to 0.8 percent from 1.5 percent, and other complications falling to 7 percent from 11 percent.” This reminded me of an article we read a while ago about how a checklist used at Johns Hopkins for patients with I.V. lines dramatically cut infection rates. Of course there are those who are skeptical of the recent study with all the “yeah, but” comments, but what does it cost, how much effort does it take, and where is the harm in running through a checklist? If it was me under the knife, my choice would be to checklist away.

Emu editing complete; WRAMC book editing not quite

Kathleen and I got through editing the archives data for our new online Emu database today. At some point in 2009, all five collection divisions should be included and anyone will be able to search our data. We've been striving for this for years now.

Tomorrow, we'll be back to working on a photo history of Walter Reed Army Medical Center. The book, which will be from the Borden Institute, will cover 100 years of the campus in photographs. More information to come in the future.

And we'll be writing the Archives annual report this week too. You'll see it here when we finish it.