Medical Humanism in the Posthuman Era: A Critical Examination of its Past, Present, and Future.

This paper explores the historical and contemporary significance of medical humanism and its potential value in medical education. Medical humanities emerged as a response to the issues arising from science-driven modern medicine, most notably the marginalization of the individual in medical practice. Medical humanism has evolved to become a guiding ideology in shaping the theory and practice of medical humanities. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought about significant changes in medical humanities, challenging the foundations of humanism beyond medical humanism. The rise of posthumanism raises fundamental questions about humanism itself. The climate crisis, driven by human greed and capitalism's exploitation of nature, has led to the emergence of viruses that transcend species boundaries. The overflow of severely ill patients has highlighted the classic medical ethics problem of "who should be saved first" in Korea, and medical humanism is facing a crisis. Various marginalized groups have also pointed out the biases inherent in medical humanism. With this rapidly changing environment in mind, this paper examines the past and present of medical humanism in order to identify the underlying ideology of medical humanism and its future potential in medical education. This paper assumes that there are two axes of humanism: human-centeredness and anthropocentrism. Medical humanism has historically developed along the axis of human-centeredness rather than anthropocentrism, emphasizing the academic inquiry into human nature and conditions, as well as the moral element of humanity. Furthermore, this paper discusses the challenges that medical humanism faces from post-human centeredness and post-anthropocentrism, as well as the recent discourse on posthumanism. Finally, the implications of this shift in medical humanism for the education of the history of medicine are briefly explored.

Books Received

Conflict of Interest and Medicine: Knowledge, Practices, and Mobilizations. McGill-Queen's/Associated Medical Services Studies in the History of Medicine, Health, and Society. Perilous Medicine: The Struggle to Protect Health Care from the Violence of War.

Medicinal bismuth: Bismuth-organic frameworks as pharmaceutically privileged compounds

Historically organometallic compounds have been used to cure certain diseases with limited applications. Although bismuth belongs to the category of heavy metals, many of its derivatives have found applications in modern drug discovery research, mainly because of its low toxicity and higher bioavailability. Being an eco-friendly mild Lewis acid, compounds having bismuth as a central atom are capable of binding several proteins in humans and other species. Bismuth complexes demonstrated antibacterial potential in syphilis, diarrhea, gastritis, and colitis. Apart from antibacterial activities, bismuth compounds exhibited anticancer, antileishmanial, and some extent of antifungal and other medicinal properties. This article discusses major synthetic methods and pharmacological potentials of bismuth complexes exhibiting in vitro activity to significant clinical performance in a systematic and timely manner.Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd

Mao's Bestiary: Medicinal Animals and Modern China. Liz P. Y. Chee

Chee's histories of animal medicines should change how we think about both China's wildlife trade and the TCM sector. Although previous studies have shown how TCM is a modern construction, essentially reinvented in competition with "Western" medicine,[2] Chee analyzes the industrial character of this modernization in a fundamentally new way. Keywords: Traditional Chinese Medicine;Animal history;People's Republic of China;Modern Chinese History EN Traditional Chinese Medicine Animal history People's Republic of China Modern Chinese History 230 231 2 04/11/23 20230401 NES 230401 The use of wild animals in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) remedies has long been controversial, but the Covid-19 pandemic brought new attention to the practice. [Extracted from the article] Copyright of Journal of the History of Medicine & Allied Sciences is the property of Oxford University Press / USA and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Strategies of Epidemic Control and Histories of Disease

In this short essay, I place the diversity of international responses to Covid-19 into the longer history of epidemic control strategies. Following a brief discussion of such strategies prior to the twentieth century, I focus on the trajectory of the idea of eradication throughout the twentieth and into the twenty-first century. I examine why elimination and eradication were seen as achievable epidemic control objectives in the mid- to late 20th century, and why that, by and large, has ceased to be the case in recent decades. © 2021 Authors. All rights reserved.

The Mystery of the Missing Pandemic

In the history of medicine, the 1918 influenza pandemic (otherwise known as the Spanish flu) occupies a curious place. For decades, historians have claimed that this event reshaped human history, but then somehow disappeared, leaving little historical trace. They have also claimed that this forgetting is particularly evident in the Global South, which experienced the worst devastation. If the Spanish flu has been forgotten, what would its memorialization look like? The first part of this essay outlines the dangers of presuming a proper mode of remembering. The second part proposes an alternative: what if we take the absence of memorialization not as a lack demanding intervention but as a conceptual insight? Finally, this essay clarifies the implications of this refusal to identify the Global South as a zone of exceptional abjection—of human lives as well as of historical accounting—for our practices of remembering COVID-19. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of History of the Present is the property of Duke University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Arrhythmias in COVID-19: Clinical significance and management

Worldwide spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) caused overwhelming mortality rate during preceding half of the year 2020. Although coronavirus infection was known for mostly respiratory tract involvement, novel COVID-19 pandemic showed excessive cardiac mortality and arrhythmic complications. We aimed to summarize current literature and emphasize on underlying pathological mechanisms and global point of view to coronavirus and arrhythmia relationship.Copyright © 2020 Heart, Vessels and Transplantation.

Disputing Epidemics, Public Health, and Alternative Therapies in Latin American History

Villella reviews The Gray Zones of Medicine: Healers and History in Latin America edited by Diego Armus and Pablo F. Gomez, Compound Remedies: Galenic Pharmacy from the Ancient Mediterranean to New Spain by Paula S. De Vos and For All of Humanity: Mesoamerican and Colonial Medicine in Enlightenment Guatemala by Martha Few.

COVID-19 Vaccine Development Studies and Nanotechnology Approaches

Despite the development of new antigens and adjuvants in conventional vaccine studies, different approaches are required in vaccine formulations due to the poor immunogenicity, in vivo intrinsic instability, toxicity, and the need for multiple administrations of conventional vaccines. To overcome these problems, nanotechnology approaches have recently been incorporated into vaccine formulations. As the development of vaccines is directed towards "minimal” compositions with low immunogenicity, there is an increasing need for new formulations that enhance the efficacy of antigens and adjuvants. There is an urgent need to regulate existing advanced treatment options for the global health threat posed by COVID-19, as well as to accelerate the development of new vaccines and drugs. Nano-sized carrier systems developed for the diagnosis and treatment of many diseases, especially cancer, continue to maintain their importance in the COVID-19 pandemic. The use of nanoparticles in medicine started about 30 years ago, but gained momentum with the pandemic and reached many people in a short time with vaccine formulation. The rapid development, approval and delivery of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines is one of the most important achievements in the history of medicine, and nanomedicine is part of that history. Within the scope of the review, up-to-date information was given about the use of nanotechnology and nanoparticles in COVID-19 vaccine development studies.

Encephalitis lethargica. What is still wrong?

Encephalitis lethargica developed in epidemic from 1919 to 1926 in Europe and throughout the world. From the clinical point of view, the disturbances of consciousness and alertness and the possible outcomes of a postencephalitic Parkinsonism has attracted much attention. For a long time, it was thought that such a disease may still occur sporadically. In this review, the authors examined historical and current pictures of epidemics that may be related to Encephalitis lethargica. The previous Nona and Russian Influenza exhibited frequent neurological symptoms. The Spanish flu, formerly related to Encephalitis lethargica, would appear an epidemic that had its development in a partially overlapping period. The current pandemic linked to COVID-19 sometimes has aspects that can resemble Encephalitis lethargica. Based on historical analysis and the more recent immunological data, it could be suggested that Encephalitis lethargica was an autoimmune encephalitis that arose in a secondary form to the action of a viral agent. It cannot be ruled out that this agent was a coronavirus. From the nosological point of view, the term Encephalitis lethargica should be abolished in designating autoimmune encephalitis pictures that run sporadically.

A History without End: Corona and Recent Contemporary History

Contemporary history is known to be when history is still smoking. But how can we study history that is even still burning? The paper presents initial findings of a history of COVID-19 in Germany to provide answers to this question. On the one hand, the focus is on methodological considerations of recent contemporary history: how should we work with digital sources in the future? How can a global pandemic be studied in a national, regional or local context? How can we research pandemics as social constructions? On the other hand, the essay aims to give new impetus to a contemporary history of health. The history of COVID-19 is also a plea for closer cooperation between different disciplines. Historians, physicians, sociologists, psychologists and many others should work more closely together to research pandemics and epidemics.

Medical Records: A Historical Narrative.

The history of medical records is thousand-year-long, with earlier roots in ancient civilizations. Until the 19th century, medical records mainly served educational purposes, later assuming other roles such as in insurance or legal procedures. This article comprehensively describes and reviews the development of medical records from ancient to modern times in Europe and North America, reflecting alterations and adaptations compliant with the mental and technological capabilities of a given period. We searched PubMed and Google Scholar databases to collect pertinent articles. English articles or those having English abstracts were considered. The search terms included "Medical Records," "Health Records," "History of Medicine," and "eHealth" and covered the last hundred years. References were also picked out from the identified articles. Overall, 600 articles were identified, 158 of which were judged thematically relevant. The general conclusion is that medical records undergo a revolutionary change from paper-based to electronic format, which reflects the development of eHealth systems. The migration process to eHealth records involves the use of artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms that streamline medical services by using faster and simpler working methods. AI benefits both patients and providers as it improves patient management and communication among medical centers, spares resources, identifies contamination or infections, and limits health costs. These advantages have become pointedly apparent during the recent COVID-19 scourge.

The History of Infectious Diseases and Medicine.

From ancient times to the present, mankind has experienced many infectious diseases, which have mutually affected the development of society and medicine. In this paper, we review various historical and current infectious diseases in a five-period scheme of medical history newly proposed in this paper: (1) Classical Western medicine pioneered by Hippocrates and Galen without the concept of infectious diseases (ancient times to 15th century); (2) traditional Western medicine expanded by the publication of printed medical books and organized medical education (16th to 18th century); (3) early modern medicine transformed by scientific research, including the discovery of pathogenic bacteria (19th century); (4) late modern medicine, suppressing bacterial infectious diseases by antibiotics and elucidating DNA structure as a basis of genetics and molecular biology (20th century, prior to the 1980s); and (5) exact medicine saving human life by in vivo visualization and scientifically verified measures (after the 1990s). The historical perspectives that these five periods provide help us to appreciate ongoing medical issues, such as the present COVID-19 pandemic in particular, and remind us of the tremendous development that medicine and medical treatment have undergone over the years.

Green Pass versus Health Faiths. To travel in confidence with public health

The Green Pass (EU Digital Covid Certificate) was reconfirmed on June 13th 2022 by the European Parliament as an indispensable tool for coordinating travel safety in Europe. The subject is still debated today, although similar regulations have existed in the Old World since the 15th century. In this letter, i want to briefly recall the means used in the past to regulate the movement of people in different countries, means not different from those used today © 2022, Medicina Historica.All Rights Reserved.

The Medical and Health Humanities in the Middle East: Report on the Meeting of the 2nd International Conference on the Medical Humanities in the Middle East (online) in Doha, Qatar

On April 9 and 10, 2022, over 79 scholars and 230 attendees met online to share their research on the health and medical humanities in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region at the 2nd International Conference on the Medical Humanities in the Middle East (online). This meeting was the second convening of experts since the successful 2018 in-person conference in Doha, Qatar at the Sheraton Hotel. The 2022 conference was jointly sponsored by VCUArts Qatar and Weill Cornell Medicine – Qatar, and was convened by Drs. Alan Weber, Byrad Yyelland, and Mohamud Verjee. The diversity and increase in submissions from 2018 to 2022 testify to the growing importance of humanism in medicine in the region. The published s in this special issue of QScience Connect provide a comprehensive overview of the medical and health humanities as they are currently practiced and researched in the Middle East region. For example, the first keynote speech, "Is the Beauty Industry a Virus Invading the Medical Profession?" by Iraqi surgeon and visual artist Dr. Ala Bashir, addressed a critical issue in the region, the growing popularity of cosmetic surgery and the unlicensed and unregulated nature of the industry. The second keynote speech by health humanities professor Paul Crawford (University of Nottingham) entitled "Towards Creative Public Health: The Contribution of the Medical and Health Humanities," provided an overview of recent international initiatives to harness the arts for health education, healing, and wellness. The other presentations from researchers in Kuwait, UK, Jordan, US, Turkey, Israel, Iran, Qatar, Iraq, UAE, India, and Egypt represented the full range of the medical and health humanities that are developing internationally, including the history of medicine, medical sociology and anthropology, narrative medicine, literature and medicine, graphic medicine, healthcare communications, art therapy, the visual arts, film and medicine, and medical ethics. In addition, a panel of premedical and medical students led by Maryam Arabi and Abdallah Tom provided their perspectives on the topic with respect to the educational needs of students. A group of gerontology experts composed of Mark Clarfield, Regina Roller-Wirnsberger, and Desmond O'Neill directed a workshop on publishing research on the health and medical humanities in scientific scholarly journals. Authors Shahd Alshammari and Robin Fetherston gave dramatic readings from their fiction and non-fiction works. Three posters published on the website added to the oral presentations (https://qatar-weill.cornell.edu/event/medical-humanities-in-the-middle-east/posters). Three of the oral presentations spoke to ethics in medical humanities within the Middle East. Banu Buruk and Berna Arda shared the Turkish National Artificial Intelligence Strategy (TNAIS) report which describes methods for determining and initiating national priorities related to AI. This report identifies four ethical values and eight ethical principles worthy of examination since almost one in five AI strategies are applied in the health sciences. The authors discussed TNAIS and concomitant ethical issues, concluding with recommendations for dealing with conflicts as they arise. Alya Al Shakaki then presented on ethical questions related to use of the gene-editing tool, CRISPR-Cas9, which enables "designer babies". CRISPR has been used in China to create babies that are immune to HIV and thereby able to create offspring with similar immunities;however, what happens to individual autonomy in such cases? Scholars of Islamic bioethics ask two questions: which cells will be edited and what is the aim of the editing? Editing confined to one individual without affecting the offspring is considered acceptable but human dignity must be protected. Fahad Ahmed, Yazgı Beriy Altun Güzelderen and Sefik Yurdakul shared their research on publications written by Turkish authors that have been retracted from scientific journals. In a study of PubMEd, Scopus and Web of Science databases, they identified 147 pub ications that had been removed due to duplication and irrelevant studies. Six presentations were related to the history of medicine in the Middle East. Dmitry Balalykin tied the apodictic method (the method of rational and rigorous proof), typically accepted as the method of knowledge in the natural sciences, to the development of medicine as seen in anatomical dissections, clinical systematization and general pathology in Greek and medieval Islamic medicine. Balalykin cited Galen and Muhammad ibn Zakariya as pivotal influences. Katarzyna Gromek then discussed the history of perfumes as medical agents in early Islamic states;for example, scenting clothes, mostly undergarments, shirts, dresses, and bed linens, was also thought to increase therapeutic health effects, both in the sick and healthy. Fatima Saadatmand continued the historical discussion with a look at mystical applications of arithmetic, Ariṯmāṭῑqῑ in Arabic, in treating disease throughout the 9th to 13th centuries through an examination of ancient texts and modern writings. Abdulnaser Kaadan's historical research moves us into the writings of Avicenna (Ibn Sina) related to the diagnosis and treatment of breast lesions and the relevance of this historical work to current medicine. Amanda Caterina Leong then shared her work on the writings of Qajar Iranian Princess Taj al-Saltana in 19th century Iran, who discussed systemic challenges in reactions to Iran's cholera epidemic and subsequent health care perils related to a corrupt patriarchy. Leong connected this work to current governmental handlings of COVID-19 issues. Finally, Forozan Falahatpishe examined the invisibility of autopsy within Islamic medicine. Of interest to mystics, theologians and philosophers as well as physicians, the autopsy has been historically avoided within the Avestan (ancient Iranian) approach to Islamic medicine because it has been perceived as a violation against the sanctity of the human body. Nevertheless, surgery has thrived within the Islamic world. Art therapy in the Gulf was well represented by two full panels, one of which presented by Trish Bedford, Mowafa Househ, and Dr. Jens Schneider surveyed current art therapy practices including development of an art therapy app for making initial assessments powered by AI. In addition, Michelle Dixon, Natalia Gómez Carlier, Sara Powell, Mariam El-Halawani, and Alan Weber detailed in the paper, "Art Therapy Service Provision during the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)" how services provision shifted abruptly to online telehealth. Natalia Gómez Carlier and Sara Powell additionally reported on their art therapy pilot dyadic (parent/caregiver and child) telemedicine program for children living with Autism Spectrum Disorder. In a panel dedicated to healthcare communications, one paper described the best practices in communication skills with visually impaired patients (Dr. Nahla Khalaf Ali, Dr. Abdulsalam S. Sultan, Muna Hameed Faris, Muna Muneer Ahmed, Mohammed Modar Hameed, and Dr. Marab younis Abdullah Al-Fathy). A paper by Raji Anand and Dr. Sohaila Cheema included usage data that demonstrated that digital tools such as Mailchimp direct-mail campaigns can effectively promote positive public health behaviors. Another successful intervention for public health awareness was described in the panel "On Film and Medicine: Reflections on 'Medfest Egypt', an international 'film for health' forum," chaired by Khalid Ali, Mina El Naggar, and Robert Abrams. Gatherings such as the 2nd International Conference on the Medical Humanities in the Middle East are designed to share the latest research findings among area experts, to help form new research collaborations, and to encourage translational medicine projects in which insights and pilot and full-scale studies of the medical and health humanities can be harnessed to revise medical education curricula, improve training for health sciences students, enhance clinical practice and ultimately improve patient outcomes to create more equitable, satisfying, and effectiv healthcare systems. Additionally, medical and health experiences can form the basis of artistic expression since health, disease, and illness represent key milestones in the universal life course. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of QScience Connect is the property of Hamad bin Khalifa University Press (HBKU Press) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

A New Time of Reckoning, a Time for New Reckoning: Views on Health and Society, Tensions between Medicine and the Social Sciences, and the Process of Medicalization

This article seeks to capture variations and tensions in the relationships between the health–illness–medicine complex and society. It presents several theoretical reconstructions, established theses and arguments are reassessed and criticized, known perspectives are realigned according to a new theorizing narrative, and some new notions are proposed. In the first part, we argue that relations between the medical complex and society are neither formal– nor historically necessary. In the second part, we take the concept of medicalization and the development of medicalization critique as an important example of the difficult coalescence between health and society, but also as an alternative to guide the treatment of these relationships. Returning to the medicalization studies, we suggest a new synthesis, reconceptualizing it as a set of modalities, including medical imperialism. In the third part, we endorse replacing a profession-based approach to medicalization with a knowledge-based approach. However, we argue that such an approach should include varieties of sociological knowledge. In this context, we propose an enlarged knowledge-based orientation for standardizing the relationships between the health–illness–medicine complex and society.

275 years of Northampton Hospital Child Healthcare ‘surrounded by many mercies’

54 Figure 1[Figure omitted. See PDF]ReferencesWilliams AN ‘The joy to Bless and to Relieve Mankind.’ Northampton General Infirmary 1744 Arch Dis Child. 2005 Dec;90(12):1227-9.Stonhouse J Sir. 1716-1795 entry on OCLC World Cat. http://worldcat.org/identities/1ccn-n85067392 Accessed April 6th 2018.Williams AN, O’Dell F Hektoen International Journal of Medical Humanities ‘Surrounded with many Mercies’: 270 years of patient advice https://hekint.org/2019/06/20/surrounded-with-many-mercies-270-years-of-patient-advice/

Introduction

Introducing Information Technology (IT) tools in today’s and future medicine is being increasingly considered all over the world, especially in developed countries. Indeed, these countries are suffering the most from population aging and chronic diseases. This induces original challenges not only for healthcare but also for wellbeing. In this sense, Predictive, Preventive and Personalised Medicine (3PM) has been identified since more than a decade as a research avenue having huge potential for developed societies. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020.