Interesting topics in the history of medicine

[bigred001]

Hello all,

I'm interested in writing an undergrad thesis on some aspect of the history of medicine. I realize what a tremendous resource SDN is, and I would find it extremely helpful if people could suggest various preliminary topics that I could explore further. Yes, I realize that this is an insanely broad topic, but hopefully it will give me a foundation to build on. Thanks!

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[THP]

I think a very interesting topic is how various diseases have affected the course of human history. This may not be specifically related to medicine but i think it is interesting how organisms that are so small can have such a profound affect on human events.

 

[MollyMalone]

I think a very interesting topic is how various diseases have affected the course of human history. This may not be specifically related to medicine but i think it is interesting how organisms that are so small can have such a profound affect on human events.

Guns, Germs, and Steel!! Good topic!

Another topic that I find fascinating is the history of research on human subjects. The change over time in what's ethically acceptable, how these changes percolate through the medical community, the debate over how it is appropriate to use infomation gained through studies that were ethically abhorrent... there's a lot of cool stuff there.

 

[CatsandCradles]

Guns, Germs, and Steel!! Good topic!

I have always wanted to read that book, but I never got off my tail to do so. A lot of people say it's pretty good.

bigred001, can you perhaps narrow down a little bit what aspects of medicical history you are interested in or leaning towards. That might help you a great deal.

For example, perhaps you are interested in the history of something we take for granted like a stethoscope (spelling). How on earth did we come to have them - everyone has them these days. Another could be the history of CPR. How did we figure out the proccess of CPR. It's now 30 compressions instead of 15 I heard.

Or perhaps you are interested in historical figures and their impact on medicine. I have always had an interest in military matters, thus I would like to do someone like Florence Nitingale, who during the Crimean War, made a huge impact on saving numerous lives.

If you are a religious person maybe, you'd could explore something like the history of osteopathic medicine - which would be a curious adventure into America's evangelical history as well.

And while we are on osteopathy, perhaps you would be interested in something like, How did we come to have the medical profession today like - how did physician assistant come about, how did we come to have nurse practitioners, how did we come to have an EMS system?

Of course you could also look at things from the patient's eyes too: Like the latest Reader's Digest Magazine that was entitled: Why I Can't Afford to Get Sick. This would be a hot topic for you to pick. You could write about how medicare and medicade came about and how it is today. What about the 46 million Americans who don't have any insurance?

And how bout em pharmacutical companies? You can dig up plent ideas on this area. I did one paper on the history of pharmacutical companies doing human research in Africa - and some of it is extremely unethical. In one case involving Pfizer, the FDA did a "drug raid" and found out the company was using Nigerian kids in a very badly run study on meningitis. I think the trial has been locked up in the lower courts, but this was sometime ago.

Good luck

C&C

 

[DragonWell]

Hmm. Medical History is so interesting, there are *lots* of good topics I would love to research more.

Another topic that I find fascinating is the history of research on human subjects. The change over time in what's ethically acceptable, how these changes percolate through the medical community, the debate over how it is appropriate to use infomation gained through studies that were ethically abhorrent... there's a lot of cool stuff there.

A good example is Eduard Pernkopf's "Topographische Anatomie des Menschen" - widely acknowledged to be the greatest anatomy atlas of all time, but unavailable today due to the questionable way the subjects illustrated may have been obtained - Pernkopf was a Nazi physician. Should this work be used to train future surgeons who will one day save lives? Or should it be destroyed because the information may have been obtained unethically?

http://www.vet.purdue.edu/brad/medill/pernkopf.html
http://www.nih.gov/news/NIH-Record/09_24_96/story01.htm

The history of doctors as serial killers is pretty fascinating.

http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/angels/index.html

William Halstead, MD is an interesting character; a brilliant physician, he was the first professor of surgery at Johns Hopkins, perhaps the developer of modern surgery and a life long cocaine addict. Some have hypothesized that his exacting aproach to surgical technique was partially a result of his cocaine use. (Who says drug abuse and medicine don't mix?)

If you are looking for an entertaining overview, The Teaching Company (http://www.teach12.com/ttc/assets/c...Medicine+Revealed+Through+Biography&pc=Search) has a very well done series on the history of medicine you might be able to dig up at a library.

Let us know what subject you pick!

 

[MollyMalone]

Let us know what subject you pick!

Yes, do, I'd be interested in knowing what you finally settle on.

I regret that I only got to take one history of medicine course in undergrad... but it was an interesting one... "The Medical History of Sex and Sexuality." Lots of fascinating topics there, too.

 

[McDoctor]

Hello all,

I'm interested in writing an undergrad thesis on some aspect of the history of medicine. I realize what a tremendous resource SDN is, and I would find it extremely helpful if people could suggest various preliminary topics that I could explore further. Yes, I realize that this is an insanely broad topic, but hopefully it will give me a foundation to build on. Thanks!

The history of psychiatry is very interesting. Treatment modalities have evolved rapidly over the last 50 years, all of which are fascinating in their own right, from surgical lobotomies, insulin induced seizures, ECT, to modern antidepressant.
But what is most striking is how attitudes have evolved regarding mental illness. It was once something that people took great strides to hide and treatment often involved locking people away in sanatariums. Nowadays, mental illness has gone mainstream, psychotropic medications are among the most widely prescribed, and many wear their afflictions like a badge. Some would argue that we attribute many personal shortcomings to mental illness and as we continue to expand the DSM of psychiatric disorders we take away all kinds of personal responsibility. (Oppostional Defiant Disorder anyone?)
It would be interesting to track the early beginings of psychiatry to the booming self-help "we are all diseased" industry that it has become.

 

[DrBowtie]

DNA Model development, Lister, Polio vacciene.

 

[bigred001]

Thanks for all the great posts, everyone That doesn't mean you're allowed to stop posting though

THP and MollyMalone: Thanks for the ideas. As soon as I read THP's post I thought of Guns, Germs, and Steel as well, so it's cool that we're thinking on the same page.

CatsandCradles: Thanks for all the suggestions. I apologize for the really broad topic, but if I had to choose a thesis topic right now, I think I would lean towards something about epidemiology in the ancient Mediterranean world or something like that. I just realize that I have to break original ground with my thesis and am worried that I won't be able to find a sufficient number of primary source documents relating to this topic.

bodymechanic: Wow, I'm really excited that you brought up surgery, because that's probably the most interesting specialty (well, group of specialties) in medicine for me. I will definitely pursue the issue of surgical ethics further. Thank you!

McDoctor: Thanks for the idea, but I'm kind of leaning away from psychiatry. I'll look into it a little more, though, to see if I find anything that piques my interest.

BrettBatchelor: Out of those the DNA model development sounds the most interesting, but (I could be wrong), I think it's a pretty well covered subject and I'm not sure what new slant on it I could add.

Thanks again, and please keep the posts coming!

EDIT: Right now I only have to present a preliminary plan (6 pages), but the actual thesis will be 100+ pages, so this is the real deal.

 

[CatsandCradles]

EDIT: Right now I only have to present a preliminary plan (6 pages), but the actual thesis will be 100+ pages, so this is the real deal.

Oh no don't apologize

But 100 pages looks to be quite serious. May I ask what the name of this undergraduate work/course is? I know it might not be a course in a sense, but one of those things where the professor lectures in his office to one or two students.



I wish you the very best.

 

[bigred001]

Oh no don't apologize

But 100 pages looks to be quite serious. May I ask what the name of this undergraduate work/course is? I know it might not be a course in a sense, but one of those things where the professor lectures in his office to one or two students.



I wish you the very best.

It's the College Scholar program at Cornell. Those accepted write a huge thesis instead of fulfilling distribution/major requirements (but they can do that too). Of course, you still have to take the normal courseload if you actually want to graduate

 

[CatsandCradles]

It's the College Scholar program at Cornell. Those accepted write a huge thesis instead of fulfilling distribution/major requirements (but they can do that too). Of course, you still have to take the normal courseload if you actually want to graduate

Oh boy! You are going to be one hell of a scholar after this.