Elizabeth Blackwell — the first woman to earn a medical degree in the United States — and her sister Emily Blackwell are some of the most important physicians of the 19th century, firmly establishing the role of women as physicians, starting an infirmary and hospital for poor women and children, […]
Words matter. At its best, etymology gives us insight not only into the origins of words, but why they remain so important today, especially in medicine, where we’ve been accruing jargon for millennia. In this episode, we’re delving into four specific words — doctor, cerebrovascular accident, rounds, and zebras. […]
For a special holiday treat, we’re going to explore two tales of salmonella disease detectives — the first about Mary Mallon (“Typhoid Mary”) and the birth of a new genre; and the second about a mysterious salmonella outbreak at Massachusetts General Hospital solved with the assistance of a very jolly […]
Diagnosis is arguably the most important job of a physician. But what does it actually mean to make a diagnosis? In this episode, we’ll explore this question by tracking the development of the “classical” model of diagnosis and pathological anatomy and discussing three cases over three hundred years. Along the […]
