Clio in the Clinic: History in Medical PracticeJacalyn Duffin This set of essays on the benefits of history for medical practice is the first of its kind. Twenty-three physicians, who are also accomplished historians, write autobiographically about how they use history in practicing medicine. Sometimes it suggests a brilliant diagnosis or effective treatment. At other times, it consoles and encourages, not with inspirational tales of discovery and triumph but with reminders of the timelessness of medical uncertainty, weariness, and despair . History also prescribes a sobering antidote for the arrogance that tracks life in medicine like an occupational hazard. The authors are from five countries and diverse specialties. Acclaimed writer and surgeon, Sherwin Nuland, describes the sudden presence of history in the operating room. Martensen, Bryan , and Cule each discover a stalwart ally when they confront terrifying new plagues. Psychiatrists Belkin and Braslow rely on history to comprehend difficult patients (and themselves). To pediatricians, Markel, Baker, Schalick, and Shein and to nephrologist Moss, it exposes the transience of diseases, both new and old. Internists Crenner, Humphreys, and Moulin are guided by history through helplessness at the bedsides of the dying. Comfortable with crossing boundaries of time, historical learning eases travel over other boundaries of culture, race, and experience. |
Contents
An Introduction | 3 |
Consulting the Past | 17 |
The Night I Fell in Love with Clio | 19 |
Speculum medicinae Reflections of a MedievalistClinician | 27 |
Facing Epidemics | 47 |
A Wartime Plague in Crotone | 49 |
Plagues and Patients | 56 |
Coping with the HIVAIDS Epidemic | 73 |
One Blue Nun | 170 |
Prescribing the Right Treatment | 187 |
William Witherings Wonderful Weed | 189 |
Dr Heisenberg Are You Certain about the Diagnosis? | 201 |
Explaining Differences | 211 |
Trust and the Tuskegee Experiments | 213 |
Beware the Poor Historian | 226 |
We Are All Historians Thoughts about Doing Psychiatry | 236 |
Reviving Defunct Diseases | 87 |
La Crise | 89 |
Floating Kidneys | 92 |
Historical Adventures in the Newborn Nursery Forgotten Stories and Syndromes | 105 |
Susan and the SimmondsSheehan Syndrome Medicine History and Literatures | 116 |
Recognizing New Diseases | 129 |
The Histories of a History The Boy the Baron and the Syndromes | 131 |
Who Says You Have to Crawl before You Walk? Sudden Infant Death Syndrome Crawling and Medical History | 146 |
Making a Diagnosis | 159 |
An Appallingly Sudden Death Explained SeventySix Years Later | 161 |
Confronting Futility | 249 |
Timeless Desperation and Timely Measures | 251 |
A Brief History of Timelessness in Medicine | 269 |
How Medical History Helped Me Almost Love a VA Hospital | 283 |
When Clio Falters | 297 |
What Do You Know? Cancer History and Medical Practice | 299 |
Seeing through Medical History | 308 |
319 | |
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African-American American antibiotics asked babies baron became began bioethics blood Braslow breast cancer called century chest cians clinical practice clinician clinician-historians Clio colleagues crawling culture Dapsone death described diagnosis dialysis disease doctors drugs early electrocardiograms enzyme epidemic essay eucaine experience fever floating kidney foxglove George hematology hemoglobin historian History of Medicine hospital hypopituitarism illness infant infection Johns Hopkins Katherine Scott kidney knew later learned lung malaria Markel medi medical history medical school medical students medieval months mother Münchhausen newborns normal nurse operation Osler pain parents past patients Patricia pediatricians Pediatrics perhaps perspective physicians pituitary plague problem psychiatry public health question resident Schalick seemed Sheehan's syndrome sick SIDS Sister Lucia social Stewart story surgeon surgery Susan symptoms syndrome syphilis teaching tests therapy timelessness tion treatment Tuskegee Tuskegee experiments understand University Press William William Osler William Withering York