The Hunterian Museum at the University of Glasgow.
This weekend I was visiting a friend in Glasgow and found the time to see the Hunterian Museum. It has a permanent exhibition called “A Healing Passion“, dedicated to the impact of Glasgow and Western Scotland on medicine. Read more »
I’ve spent a lot of time running this summer, preparing for my first half marathon in September (photo credit). I usually run on gravel roads in the woods close to where I live. But as most of my vacation was spent away from home I was forced to run more on asphalt than I’m used to. Read more »
I’ve just finished listening to the BBC Radio series “The Making of Modern Medicine”. A total of 30 programmes about the development of medicine from the ancient Greece to the scientific medicine of today. Read more »
Last night I watched the first episode of the BBC miniseries “Medical mavericks” (photo credit). It tells the story of important breakthroughs in medical history by focusing on doctors and scientists that used themselves as guinea pigs. Read more »
On most occasions I know exactly what to expect when I’m heading out to film some procedure or other. Operations are routine work and I know how patients tend to react to different biopsies, infusions etc. But one recent assignment really caught me off guard.
There is a treatment option for skin cancer which sounds easy and gentle. Most cancers can only be treated with major surgery, radiation or massive chemotherapy schedules. But for skin cancer patients, a treatment involving light has emerged the last 15 years.
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I’ve just finished reading The Alarming History of Medicine by Richard Gordon. Popping up as a suggestion when ordering some other books, I guess this line from the back cover sold it:
Using hilarious stories, based on actual facts, Richard Gordon shows that most of the monumental discoveries [in medicine] were originally accidents.
About a year ago I was scheduled to make a video of a lumbar puncture on a child with Hodgkin’s lymphoma. The purpose of the video was to demonstrate the procedure and show the specifics of puncturing children. I was going to shoot an actual puncture, so we had to get the parents’ consent to me being present with my camera.
The problem was, lumbar puncture is a diagnostic procedure, so we’d have to ask the parents of a child with recently discovered disease. Fortunately I didn’t have to ask myself, and the nurse who did it did not feel comfortable asking parents who’s life has been turned upside down if we could film their child. Naturally most of the parents we asked declined.
But then we found this 5-year-old boy. Read more »
Ever wondered who the “Down” in Down’s Syndrome is? Or how Creutzfeldt and Jakob discovered the convulsive seizures and dementia associated with the disease that bears their name? Read more »
