History of medicine Books

Book SynopsisThe biological power of the placebo effect.The power of placebos to ameliorate symptoms has been with us for centuries. Western medicine today is finding it increasingly difficult to ignore the efficacy of placebos. In some clinical trials with placebos as controls, inert or sham replicas of active pharmaceutical drugs and even sham surgeries have been found to be as beneficial as the intervention being tested. In this volume in the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series, Kathryn Hall examines the power of placebos, showing how their effects can influence our clinical trials, clinical encounters and, collectively, Hall argues, our public health. Hall, who has studied the placebo effect for years, reviews the history of the placebo in medicine, tracing its evolution from quackery and patent medicine to its use as a control in clinical trials. She considers the ways that expectations and learning affect our response to placebos; advances in neuroimaging that rev

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Book SynopsisThe History of Nursing is a complex, shifting discipline engaged in an ongoing search for identity and purpose. If its earliest works were celebratory narratives of âgreat deedsâ and âinfluential nursesâ, dominated by biographies of Florence Nightingale and tropes of imperial womanhood, then from at least the 1970s, academicsâdrawn mainly from Womenâs History and Nursingâhave argued for a move from such uncritical stances and towards more analytical and nuanced approaches. Lately, Nursing History has been characterized by the âcultural turnâ, with a shift in focus from class, gender, and race, to the study of practices, ideologies, and life-worlds. Characterized by an emphasis on history âfrom belowâ, it aims to recapture the experiences of both nurses and patients, and to recover voices that never found their way into mainstream histories of healthcare or society.Now, a new title from Routledgeâs Major Themes in Health and Social Welfare series meets the need for an authoritative reference work to make sense of this evolution. Edited by the Director of the UK Centre for the History of Nursing and Midwifery at the University of Manchester, The History of Nursing offers both a historiographical overview of disciplinary trends and a definitive omnibus of classic scholarship and rigorous research studies. Avoiding material which is tendentious, superficial, and otiose, it will be welcomed as an âÃber-anthologyâof the most significant and valuable major works in the History of Nursing.

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Book SynopsisThe first collective record of the evolution of general medical practice as an academic discipline over half a centuryThis anthology captures the stories of the early struggles, between visionary supporters and traditionalist blockers, to set up university departments as well as the steadily increasing successes aided by a dedicated funding system. The accounts are written where possible by the people involved in the early developments of their subject. These tales are of vision, commitment and resilience and are interesting both in their own right and for the more general lessons they tell us about the processes of creating institutional change within a modern democracy.Table of ContentsPreface Acknowledgements Abbreviations Timeline Introduction 1 The University of Aberdeen Lewis Ritchie and John Howie 2 The University of Dundee James Knox and Frank Sullivan 3 The University of Edinburgh John Howie and David Weller 4 The University of Glasgow David Hannay and Graham Watt 5 The Cardiff University School of Medicine Nigel Stott and Chris Butler 6 Academic General Practice in Ireland Tom O'Dowd and colleagues 7 The University of Birmingham Michael Drury and Richard Hobbs 8 The University of Bristol Michael Whitfield and Debbie Sharp 9 The University of Cambridge Bob Berrington, John Perry, Nigel Oswald, Martin Roland, John Benson and Ann Louise Kinmonth 10 The University of Exeter Denis Pereira Gray 11 The University of Leeds John Wright and Conrad Harris 12 The University of Leicester Robin Fraser 13 The University of Liverpool Brian McGuinness, Ian Stanley and Christopher Dowrick 14 The University of Manchester David Metcalfe and Carl Whitehouse 15 The University of Newcastle John Walker and John Spencer 16 The University of Nottingham Idris Williams 17 The University of Oxford Godfrey Fowler 18 The University of Sheffield David Hannay and Nigel Mathers 19 The University of Southampton George Freeman, John Bain and Tony Kendrick 20 The London Medical Schools Imperial College London Charing Cross Hospital Westminster Hospital Colin Leonard, George Freeman, James Scobie St Mary's Hospital Marshall Marinker, Conrad Harris, Andy Haines and Brian Jarman King's College London School of Medicine Guy's Hospital Robert Smith and Donald Craig King's College Hospital Roger Higgs St Thomas's Hospital David Morrell and Roger Jones Queen Mary College St Bartholomew's Hospital Paul Julian and Gene Feder The London Hospital Sally Hull St George's Hospital Sean Hilton University College London Medical School Royal Free Hospital Margaret Lloyd and Chris Donovan University College Hospital Michael Modell and Andy Haines 21 The University of St Andrews Cathy Jackson Appendix 1 Primary Care in the New Medical Schools John Campbell and colleagues Appendix 2 The SIFT/ACT Negotiations John Howie Appendix 3 An Overview John Howie Appendix 4 And Finally! Helen Lester Index

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