Medgadget » the good old days…

Landmark 8 Millionth U.S. Patent Awarded to Second Sight Medical’s Retinal Prosthesis

Scott Jung — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 17:21:06 +0000

On July 31, 1790, the first United States patent was issued to Samuel Hopkins for a process for making potash. Millions of patents have been issued in the 221 years since, many of them related to medical devices and technologies. This week, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced the awarding of the 8 millionth patent – a medical device!

We’ve covered this device extensively before – it’s Second Sight Medical’s Argus II retinal prosthesis.

Yellow Fever, Cholera, and the High Seas: A Look at Victorian Naval Medicine

Scott Jung — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 15:47:55 +0000

While today’s seafarers usually have to worry about the occasional breakout of norovirus, the 19th century Royal Navy frequently dealt with “exotic” disease such as yellow fever, cholera, and malaria. The Wellcome Trust has written an insightful piece that looks into naval medicine during England’s Victorian era, and how the field of medicine and public health significantly advanced because of the work of naval MOs (medical officers). Naval MOs had a significant (but often dangerous) advantage to civilian physicians in that they had the opportunity to directly observe these diseases in different parts of the world, in a variety of contexts, and to study their causes and behavior. In addition to treating diseases, the article explains how the role of naval MOs changed with advancements in technology. For example, the transition from the sailboat to the steam engine presented new occupational hazards with heat, steam, and fume issues, as well as dangers in manufacturing the new parts. Perhaps without the work of naval MOs, organizations such as the CDC and OSHA wouldn’t be the same!

From the Wellcome Trust: Victorian naval medicine

When NIH Began, H stood for Hygiene

Dan Buckland — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 15:26:21 +0000

NIH, the source of so much knowledge and red-tape, had to start somewhere. The Scientist magazine recently published an article on where the organization was in its early days. Think of it like preliminary data for the NIH’s application to exist.

As epidemics swept across the United States in the 19th century, the US government recognized the pressing need for a national lab dedicated to the study of infectious disease. In 1887, the government set its sights on a small lab located in the Marine Hospital on Staten Island, New York. Its sole member, 27-year-old Joseph James Kinyoun, belonged to a new generation of scientists and hysicians who were beginning to understand how microscopic organisms underlay the terrible killers of their day, such as smallpox, yellow ever, and Asiatic cholera. That one-room lab on Staten Island, which Kinyoun originally called “the Laboratory of Hygiene,” ultimately evolved into the 27 institutes and centers that now make up the National Institutes of Health.

“Health For Sale” Exhibit Takes a Look at Miracle Cures From the Past

Scott Jung — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 16:42:43 +0000

Every day, we’re inundated with ads for the newest devices and pills that claim to improve our well-being. Often times we laugh and scoff at such remedies, but once in a while we’re irresistibly drawn to an ad that creates a picture of a happier you, thanks to a certain product (and only four payments of $9.99).

Advertisements for health products is nothing new, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art has an exhibit that showcases posters for health remedies from around the world going as far back as the mid-1800′s that were collected by William H. Helfand. Some have more medical backing than others, but all present an interesting look into medical history.

115 Year Old X-ray Machine Brought Back to Life

Gene Ostrovsky — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 12:49:47 +0000

Weeks after Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen published about the development of his X-ray machine, a physicist and a hospital director in Maastricht, The Netherlands, built their own version of the device. Recently, this 115 year old machine was taken out of deep storage, dusted off, and made to work again.
Wired science reports:

Are These The World’s Oldest Prosthetic Devices?

Gene Ostrovsky — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 00:44:54 +0000

We report daily on the latest medical devices and studies evaluating their performance on real human subjects. Rarely do we write about prostheses engineered and built three thousand years ago. Today we’re following up on a post we published in 2007 regarding a couple ancient Egyptian prosthetic toes that Jacqueline Finch from University of Manchester’s KNH Centre for Biomedical Egyptology has been studying. Her goal was to discover whether these toes were simply aesthetic items or maybe they actually were practical for their original wearers.
The money quote from the study article in The Lancet:

Home Made EMR System from a Decade Ago Successfully Working Today

Gene Ostrovsky — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 10:40:14 +0000

Robert Novich, an internist in Westchester County, NY, worked with his son over a decade ago to build his own electronic medical record (EMR) system using commonly available software like Microsoft Office and Acrobat. He has optimized his practice to the point that today he has no receptionists, does his own billing, and picks up his own calls.
Here’s an article in Medical Economics from back in 2002 about his practice:

London Medical Heritage Walking Tour

Wouter Stomp — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 06:02:03 +0000

The website City Stories publishes walks which tell you important stories about the city you are in. If you’re in London or planning a visit, you’ll be happy to know that their first walk is Medical London, and has been produced in collaboration with the Wellcome Collection. It is a tour of Bloomsbury and the surrounding area, covering some important parts of London’s medical heritage. It accompanies the Medical London: City of Diseases, City of Cures book. The walk covers three miles and takes about two hours to complete. An iPhone app has been developed which gives you the full audiovisual experience, with a map showing all steps, video, audio, pictures and written information. The text was written by the historian Richard Barnett and the walk is narrated by Dilly Barlow. The app is available for free from the app store. Alternatively the walk is also available for download as MP3, as a PDF booklet or for view on the website.
iTunes link: City Stories Medical London Bloomsbury…

Finally, An Image of Phineas Gage

Gene Ostrovsky — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 00:00:01 +0000

If ever there was a strange case of a patient survival story unmatched by any other, the 1848 incident of Phineas Gage is surely it. While working on the construction of a railroad in Vermont, Gage accidentally detonated an explosive that sent an iron spear flying straight through his head and brain. He survived, apparently remaining conscious throughout the ordeal, but later exhibited strange changes in his personality. This has earned him the status as the one patient mentioned in about two thirds of introduction to psychology books. Recently the first known photo (daguerreotype, rather) of Gage has been identified and the Smithsonian magazine is running a fascinating story of how Flickr and a few observant folks helped discover it.
Read at Smithsonian: Phineas Gage: Neuroscience’s Most Famous Patient…

The Real Health Risks of Irradiated Products from a Bygone Era

Gene Ostrovsky — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 08:24:40 +0000

Shortly after the discovery of radioactivity, quick thinking entrepreneurs and contemporary holistic medicine men began selling products containing the all-natural property. Claims regarding radiation’s health benefits were endless, until folks like Marie Curie proved them otherwise. (Madame Curie and her husband were well known for entertaining their guests at home parties with glowing flasks filled with radium, according to a terrific book by Richard Rhodes, The Making of the Atomic Bomb.) But in the meantime, untold numbers of people from all walks of life have brushed their teeth with radioactive toothpaste and drank from infusion devices like the Revigator. National Institute of Standards and Technology scientists recently decided to examine the health risks that someone using the Revigator was subject to, and the results are a bit surprising.

According to their recent paper, the researchers measured the amount of radiation emanating from the vessel with a Geiger counter, the radon concentration in the air and water from a jar that had been sealed for one week, and the levels of toxic elements that may have dissolved into water sealed in the jars for one day and one week using a mass spectrometer, a highly sensitive instrument for detecting chemicals and elements.
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