– David McCullough
Abstracts of Talks 2010-2011
William Osler (1849-1919): America's Most Famous Physician
Date: Sept. 1, 2010
Speaker: Robert E. Rakel, M.D., Baylor College of Medicine
Abstract: Born in Ontario, William Osler taught at McGill then the University of Pennsylvania. He went on to be the first chairman of Medicine at the newly built Johns Hopkins, and for his last 15 years was the Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford. He wrote the leading medical textbook of the English speaking world "The Principles and Practice of Medicine" that went for 16 editions.
In grammar school he was a prankster and may never have gone on to greatness if his talents had not been recognized and his energy refocused by two of his teachers and the dean of his medical school. It was to these three mentors that he dedicated his textbook. One claim to fame in which he took pride was moving the teaching of medical students from the lecture hall to the bedside.
He was a famous diagnostician helped by his performing over 1,000 autopsies. He once called students to an autopsy to see a mistaken diagnosis that he had made.
Throughout his life he had a fondness for children and helped found the American Pediatric Society of which he was the first president.
Osler had a great sense of humor and would often write amusing "letters to the editor" under the name Egerton Yorrick Davis (EYD).
Attention will be given to the reading list that Osler recommended for all physicians to be well educated and what this list of authors and books would look like today.
The Assassination of John F. Kennedy: A Neurosurgeon's Eyewitness Account of the Medical Aspect of the Events of November 22, 1963
Date: Oct. 6, 2010
Speaker: Robert G. Grossman, M.D., Chairman, Department of Neurosurgery,
The Methodist Hospital
Abstract: The assassination of President John F. Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963, was a prelude to an era of increasing turbulence in American history. The Warren Commission Report, which was published in September 1964, had been prepared to provide definitive answers to the conflicting theories concerning the President's wounds and whether they had been inflicted by a single individual or a conspiracy of individuals. The 900-page report did not settle the issues in the public's mind but rather generated intense and ongoing controversy. A particularly contentious issue has been the exact sites of the wounds that the President sustained. Dr. Kemp Clark and Dr. Robert Grossman were the neurosurgical faculty at Southwestern Medical School who examined the President in Trauma Room 1 at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas. Dr. Grossman will discuss his observations of the President's wounds, his study of Dealey Plaza where the assassination took place and his reconstruction of the bullet trajectories that point to the site from which the fatal shots were fired.
Making Cancer History: Disease and Discovery at The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
Date: Nov. 3, 2010
Speaker: James S. Olson, Sam Houston State University
Abstract: The history of the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center vividly reveals how cancer treatment in America and our attitudes toward the disease have changed since the middle of the twentieth century. One of the preeminent cancer centers in the world, M.D. Anderson is also one of the first medical institutions devoted exclusively to caring for people with cancer and researching treatments and cures for the disease.
Historian James S. Olson's narrative relates the story of the center's founding and of the surgeons, radiologists, radiotherapists, nurses, medical oncologists, scientists, administrators, and patients who built M.D. Anderson into the world-class institution it is today.
Through interviews with M.D. Anderson's leaders and patients, Olson brings to life the struggle to understand and treat cancer in America. A cancer survivor who has himself been treated at the center, Olson imbues this history with humor, passion, and humanity.
The History of Pathology as a Biological Science and Medical Specialty
Date: Dec. 1, 2010
Speaker: L. Maximillian Buja, M.D., Executive Director, Houston Academy of Medicine-Texas Medical Center Library
Abstract: Pathology is defined literally as the study of disease. Actually, the discipline of pathology is both a fundamental medical science, grounded in the basic sciences, as well as a specialty of medical practice. There is a rich historical basis for the development of the multifaceted contemporary discipline of pathology. A driving force has been the interest of physicians in understanding the workings of the human body, the basis for illness and disease, and their need to diagnose disease and understand the natural history of disease progression. The autopsy has been fundamentally linked to the advance of medical knowledge of human disease. The invention and application of the light microscope added immeasurably to the advance of understanding of human disease. Pathology as a distinct branch of medicine and as a core science of medicine came to the forefront in the late 19th century. Numerous individuals and events have led to the contemporary rich mix of experimental pathology and diagnostic pathology, including anatomical pathology and clinical pathology (laboratory medicine). Pathology continues to advance by eclectic incorporation of new scientific knowledge from multiple basic fields, including immunology and molecular biology.
Feb. 1-2 — Annual John P. McGovern Lecture and Banquet
Medicine: Perspectives in History and Art
Date: Feb. 1, 2011
Time: 6:30 p.m.
Place: Le Grand Salon de la Comtesse at La Colombe d'Or Restaurant
Speaker: Robert E. Greenspan, M.D.
Abstract: This is an overview of medicine, pharmacy, and dentistry as told by physicians, patients, nurses, writers, poets, artists, and many others through their quotes, letters, and art. You are invited to meet Hippocrates, Shakespeare, Mark Twain, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Leonardo da Vinci, Sir William Osler, and others in order to give you a chance to understand how medicine and its branches were practiced from the beginning of recorded history. The great discoveries and controversies, as well as the blunders, deceptions, and tragedies are best appreciated in the words and illustrations of those who were there at the time.
What Every Physician Should Know: Lessons From the Past
Date: Feb. 2, 2011
Speaker: Robert E. Greenspan, M.D.
Abstract: The purpose of this lecture is to provide physicians and students with practice guidelines from those who made significant contributions in the past. The emphasis will be on many of the great medical discoveries and will include relevant quotes from Aesculapius, Hippocrates, Maimonides, Thomas Jefferson, William Osler, and others. A brief history of anatomy and the first medical illustrations will be presented along with the history of the "Rx" and early therapeutics. The doctor-patient relationship will be illustrated throughout history by quotes from Voltaire, Benjamin Franklin, and Mark Twain. However, doctors do not always have a shining past and attention will be given to plagiarism, gender bias, quackery, false advertising, and physicians hiding their medical discoveries. Recognition is given not only to those in the medical profession from the past but also to those whose suffering helped guide the hand of their struggling physicians so that they might discover some of the lifesaving cures we enjoy today.
Medicine in Ancient Mesopotamia
Date: March 2, 2011
Speaker: Sajid Haque, M.D., M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
Abstract: Mesopotamia is the region of land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in modern day Iraq and is often referred to as the "Cradle of Civilization" since this is the region where advanced human civilization developed. Recent excavations reveal that complex society may have existed in this region since about 5500 B.C. This slightly predates the earliest known advanced Egyptian civilizations and predates ancient Greece by almost 5,000 years! Ancient Mesopotamian culture was responsible for many crucial firsts, including the wheel, metallurgy, a system of uniform weights and measures, clock dials, the arch, and maybe most importantly – a system of writing. It is due to this last invention that we have detailed information on medical practice from the very dawn of human history. The knowledge gained from these ancient texts and from archaeological excavation allows us to gain insight into the diseases prevalent in the very first human societies and into the variety of medical practitioners present at the time, with details regarding the extent of their medical knowledge, their medical ideology and treatment methods, and laws governing their medical practice.
The History of Texas Children's Hospital
Date: April 6, 2011
Speaker: Rev. B. Lee Ligon, Ph.D., Baylor College of Medicine, Episcopal Diocese of Texas
Abstract: On October 19, 2006, Texas Children's Hospital (TCH) and the Department of Pediatrics of Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) announced Vision 2010, a $1.5 billion initiative that represented the largest expansion program ever undertaken by a single children's hospital. This unprecedented endeavor was consistent with the visions and goals of the two extraordinary individuals who led the department from 1947 and were the Physicians-in-Chief of TCH until 2008. The first Chairman, Dr. Russell J. Blattner, was a renowned virologist first recognized for identifying the etiology of St. Louis encephalitis. He launched the department in 1947 with only himself and his one research assistant and played a primary role in establishing TCH, which opened only seven years later. During his 30-year tenure, both institutions experienced remarkable growth and faced critical times that included outbreaks of infectious diseases and racial uprisings. Upon his retirement in 1977, the board of the still struggling hospital looked for an individual who not only could assume the medical responsibilities but also was adept at managing personnel and finances and was actively involved in the growing scientific fields. They found that individual in Dr. Ralph D. Feigin. Feigin, who later served simultaneously as President of BCM for seven years, brought financial stability to the department and the hospital, led them into first-place positions with NIH funding, and, with hospital director Mark Wallace, launched the Vision 2010. Under his leadership, the department grew to greater than 500 full-time faculty and the funding, which was $1.1 million in 1977, exceeded $92 million annually. In addition to receiving innumerable awards, Feigin was co-editor of the quintessential textbook on pediatric infectious diseases, co-editor of a textbook on infectious diseases, editor-in-chief of Seminars in Pediatric Infectious Diseases, and associate editor of Pediatrics.
Motion Pictures in the History of Medical Education
Date: May 4, 2011
Speaker: Kirsten Ostherr, Ph.D.
Abstract: Early in the twentieth century, the American College of Surgeons was a leading national force in the use of motion pictures for educational purposes. This movement encompassed all facets of the motion picture industry (ranging from education to entertainment), and established the ACS as a central institution in the history of cinema. Moreover, the ACS became an important vehicle for international medical education through motion pictures after World War II, and this aspect of ACS activities provides an important and unique perspective on the varied global uses of medical media in the postwar era.
This presentation will address the medical motion pictures produced, reviewed, distributed, and exhibited by the ACS, from the late 1920s to the present. The talk will be based on research at the American College of Surgeons archive, which contains paper records related to a vast range of medical motion pictures. These films were primarily technical medical films produced by specialists for other specialists, as well as for medical student and resident training. Since the ACS films were concerned not only with medical education but also with the public image of the medical profession, this history serves a critical function in assessing the role of visual images in shaping the popular and specialist cultures of medicine throughout the twentieth century.