Situating Medicine: New Directions Conference, 5-6 June 2014
Centre for the History of Medicine, University of Warwick
Panel: The ‘Usefulness’ of History for the Practice of Medicine, 1750-today
ABSTRACTS
Frank Huismann, University Medical Center Utrecht /Descartes Centre for the History and Philosophy of the Sciences and the Humanities Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care
Inconvenient Questions: Medical Humanities for Medical Students
It has been argued that the nature of ‘Medical Humanities’ is rather undecided and that its boundaries are unclear. At the same time, it is regarded as a potential threat to medical history. In my paper, I would like to show how medical history can contribute to ‘Medical Humanities’ in meaningful ways. I would like to do so by telling about how medical history is integrated in an eight week course of ‘Medical Humanities’ in the Utrecht medical curriculum.
In the medical curriculum of Utrecht University, Medical Humanities isdefinedas an interdisciplinary field that incorporates the humanities (medical ethics, health law and medical history), the social sciences (mainly medical sociology) and the arts (some). It sets out to understand modern medicine by inviting students to reflect on its historical and philosophical roots, as well as on its current ethical and legal dilemmas. Because students are stimulated to train their skills of critical analysis and self-reflection, Medical Humanities hopes to contribute to the academic and social shaping of the future physician. In the third year of the undergraduate program, two courses of four weeks each are available; they are no elective courses but fully integrated in the medical curriculum. While both courses make an attempt to contextualize modern medicine and health care, their focus is different. In MH1 the focus is on collective health care, while MH2 is looking at individual health care. After a general introduction to the course as a whole, each week is devoted to a specific topic: medical research, scarcity in health care, prevention, the doctor patient relationship, the end of life, medical technology and scientific literacy.
In my paper, I will argue how the past can be used as a ‘social laboratory’. Focusing on twoweek topics - medical research and scientific literacy– I hope to show that by asking inconvenient questions students are triggered to self-reflection and critical analysis.
Volker Roelcke, Institute for the History of Medicine, University of Giessen
Why medical history? Reflections on the ‘usefulness’ of history for the medical profession (and beyond)
In the paper, I shall argue thatinstitutional structures, norms of clinical practice, as well as core epistemological assumptions in medical research are not static and given "by nature", but fluid and the result of preceding decisions of involved actors. Therefore, the analysis of the emergence and dynamics of such phenomena, i.e., processes over time by historical reconstruction enables a better understanding, transparency, and an increased awareness of the scope of possible actions in present day medicine. This general argument will be illustrated by using examples from medical ethics and biomedical research.
Tom Broman, Dept. of History of Science, University of Wisconsin - Madison
What's Pragmatic about a pragmatische Geschichte? Kurt Polykarp Sprengel's Versuch einer pragmatischen Geschichte der Arzneykunde
When the first volume of Versuch einer pragmatischen Geschichte der Arzneykunde by Kurt Polykarp Sprengel appeared in 1792, it marked a dramatic rupture in the historiography of medicine. In contrast with his immediate predecessors, who tended either toward detailed source criticism or polemical narratives featuring controversial figures in medical history such as Galen or Paracelsus, Sprengel’s lengthy narrative offered detailed attention to the historical contexts in which ideas and practices in medicine first emerged. This paper will argue that Sprengel’s construction of medical history in this form was motivated by his critical attitude toward contemporary developments, both political and medical. In essence, he wrote the Versuch to argue for the validity of an approach to medical practice featuring the same historical attitude toward knowledge that shaped the historical narrative of medicine itself.