MedWorm provides a medical RSS filtering service. Over 6000 RSS medical sources are combined and output via different filters. This feed contains the latest medical blog items that have been tagged with 'collections'. Sat, 03 Sep 2011 02:33:27 +0100 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5181870&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2011%2F09%2F02%2Fthe-final-program-for-the-artefacts-meeting-in-leiden%2F Eventually, the final program for the annual Artefacts meeting (this year in Leiden), has just been sent out. Three of us here at Medical Museion (Louise Whiteley, Niels Vilstrup and myself) are going — here are Louise’s and my abstracts: Louise Whiteley: Preserving the material culture of functional neuroimaging: Objects of process Functional neuroimaging research aims to reveal the physical basis of the mind. Since the late 1980s, functional neuroimaging has been a prominent player in contemporary neuroscience, and its strong public profile and invocation in policy contexts also argue for the importance of preserving and engaging with its material culture. Yet brain scanners are not natural museum objects; huge, heavy, and expensive, their most salient sensory qualities deriv... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5181870 Fri, 02 Sep 2011 09:20:16 +0100 5181870 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5181770&cid=t_223875_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F68GqLjEXQe4%2F By Chris EdwardsIf you looked at the new CBO report on the budget, you may have noticed that federal spending this year will be $3.6 trillion. In fact, federal spending this year will top $4 trillion. But virtually all reporters and budget wonks (including me) routinely use the lower number when discussing total federal spending. I don’t think the higher $4 trillion number even appears anywhere in the CBO report. The $3.6 trillion figure is “net” outlays. But “gross” outlays, or total spending, is quite a bit higher. The difference is caused by “offsetting collections” and “offsetting receipts.” These are revenue inflows to the government that are netted against spending at the program level, agency level, or government-wide level. Some examples are national park fees, Me... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5181770 Tue, 30 Aug 2011 20:25:36 +0100 5181770 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5174651&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2011%2F08%2F29%2Feuropean-anatomical-collections-network-initiative%2F Great initiative! Elena Corradini at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (Italy) and Marek Bukowski at the Museum of the Medical University of Gdansk (Poland) are proposing a European Anatomical Collections Network. Elena and Marek’s idea is to launch a joint European program for the preservation, handling, and availability of anatomical collection based on contemporary best practice in the field (the image to the right is from one of our temporary anatomical exhibitions in 2008): They are going to present the project at the UMAC (University Museums and Collections) meeting in Lisbon in September, but as a starter they would like curators of anatomical collection around Europe to respond to a survey, with questions like: Type of collection (anatomical and/or pathological and... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5174651 Mon, 29 Aug 2011 13:09:38 +0100 5174651 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5008266&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2011%2F07%2F05%2Fwet-to-the-bone-saving-medical-museions-collections-after-the-copenhagen-cloudburst%2F As Lucy wrote earlier today, Copenhagen was hit by 6 inches (150 mm) of rain last Saturday night. The basement level in all Medical Museion’s buildings were flooded by surface and sewage water — the highest water level inside was 36 inches (almost one meter)! All available staff has been working hard during the last three days to save artefacts from the basement storage rooms, especially our big collection of human remains from medieval plague leprosy cemeteries. Here’s a short video shot by our in-house movie-maker, Astrid Mo, titled “After the Cloudburst” (Danish: “Efter skybruddet”) with background music by Kevin McLeod: It perfectly catches our mood at the moment — my ‘favourite’ part is the water-filled skull at the e... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5008266 Tue, 05 Jul 2011 19:31:10 +0100 5008266 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5008269&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2011%2F07%2F05%2Fthe-role-of-medical-museums-in-contemporary-medical-education%2F We have just submitted an application for a major new gallery based on our anatomical and pathological specimen collections — and the in-house discussions are already becoming vigorous. How to find conceptually interesting ways to display cancer tumours, conjoined twins, and twisted torsos? What’s the balance between spectacular engagement and ethical concerns? How to make the historical collections of the macroanatomical past work together with the microanatomical and molecular collections of present biobanks? During the next couple of years we will embark on a more detailed planning process — we will engage medical experts, medical historians/sociologists, museum colleagues and the general public in a discussion about the best ways to build such a gallery and ho... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5008269 Tue, 05 Jul 2011 08:00:46 +0100 5008269 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4997586&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2011%2F07%2F04%2Fcollection-impossible-distributed-curatorship-as-an-alternative-to-centralised-acquisitioning%2F I thought of sending this abstract to the Artefacts meeting in the Museum Boerhaave, Leiden, 25-27 September (this year’s theme is ‘Conceptualizing, Collecting and Presenting Recent Science and Technology’): COLLECTION IMPOSSIBLE: Distributed curatorship as an alternative to centralised acquisitioning Centralised collecting of the artefacts from contemporary science, technology and medical (STM) visual and material culture seems to have rather bleak prospects. The looming financial and social global crisis is not conducive to centralized efforts by big museums to save the contemporary STM heritage, not least because the modern state-subsidised museum institution is running out of funding (at least in the West). What can curators then do to uphold their professional obligation to ... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4997586 Mon, 04 Jul 2011 10:00:04 +0100 4997586 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4997587&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2011%2F07%2F03%2Fwhat-shall-the-new-medical-galleries-in-londons-science-museum-look-like%2F I was in London last week to attend a workshop organised by Robert Bud and the medical curatorial staff at London’s Science Museum. They had invited some 20 people from a variety of academic backgrounds to discuss the future redevelopment of their medical galleries. The day before the workshop we prepared ourselves by a guided tour to the present medical galleries: Science and Art of Medicine from 1981, which the museum describes as “an object rich treasure trove that relates the history of Western Medicine according to a broadly chronological (‘Plato to Nato’), encyclopaedic approach”; a later addition to ‘Science and Art of Medicine’ called ‘Living Medical Traditions’, which examines four contemporary non-western medical traditions.... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4997587 Sun, 03 Jul 2011 09:00:33 +0100 4997587 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4953145&cid=t_223875_123_f&fid=39036&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpediatricinc.wordpress.com%2F2011%2F06%2F21%2Fto-be-paid-or-not-to-be-paid%2F A pediatrician wouldn’t dismiss a parent’s hardship that hinders a child’s health because they know that the well-being of the child has a direct correlation to the well-being of the parents. If the parents aren’t doing well (financially, emotionally, physically, etc), the child will have a hard time doing well as well. Thus, in order to appropriately provide care to patients, the parent issues need to be addressed first. Not doing so could be considered negligent. This concept is no different in a “private” medical practice; whereas the wellbeing of the child is in direct correlation to the wellbeing of the practice’s welfare. However many pediatricians don’t seem to grasp the concept that there is a direct correlation between the financial health of a practice and the wel... Pediatric Inc blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4953145 Tue, 21 Jun 2011 14:00:40 +0100 4953145 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4934279&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2011%2F06%2F15%2Fwant-to-do-short-time%2F Science Museum in London announces two short-term Visiting Research Fellowships, 2011-2012. The Science Museum very large collection relating to the history of science, technology and medicine.  They welcome proposals for any topic which makes good use of the museum’s collections. The fellowships are available to both established scholars and newly qualified PhDs. The stipend will be £1,600 per month for a maximum of three months, covering travel, accommodation and subsistence and up to £500 will be available for attendance at a conference in connection with the fellowship. The successful candidate’s institution has to accept the stipend to cover the Fellow’s leave of absence. The fellowship shall take place between August 2011 and March 2012. Send CV and a covering l... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4934279 Wed, 15 Jun 2011 11:57:37 +0100 4934279 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4883659&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2011%2F05%2F30%2Fmadness-and-museums-collecting-and-exhibiting-the-history-of-psychiatry%2F “While much has been written on the history of psychiatry, remarkably little has been written about psychiatric collections or curating”, says the back-cover of Exhibiting Madness in Museums: Remembering Psychiatry Through Collection and Display, edited by Catharine Coleborne and Dolly MacKinnon. A first sketch to a comparative history of collections of psychiatric objects, the volume, which will be published by Routledge in August, investigates collectors, collections, displays, and the reactions to exhibitions of the history of insanity. Unfortunately, it’s limited to museums in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the UK, but that’s a good start — we’re eagerly waiting for a sequel treating the many rich psychiatric museum collections in continen... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4883659 Mon, 30 May 2011 08:00:07 +0100 4883659 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4734159&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2011%2F04%2F21%2Fhow-to-use-museum-collections-in-teaching-history%2F Of course you can, but few history teachers actually take the opportunity. Museum collections remain a remarkably underutilised resource in academic history teaching. And the history of science, technology and medicine is no exception. Here at Medical Museion we have occasionally brought material objects into our medical history courses and also into the course we’re giving on medical science and technology studies for medical engineering students. We have plans to do much more, especially when it comes to integrating traditional academic and curatorial perspectives on material objects, and we are very eager to learn about other university museums with more teaching experience than we have. Therefore, the initiative taken by The Subject Centre for Philosophical and Religious ... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4734159 Thu, 21 Apr 2011 12:02:29 +0100 4734159 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4709236&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2011%2F04%2F13%2Fcollecting-the-voices-and-materials-of-genomics%2F I haven’t been to an interesting scholarly meeting for a long time — so it was pretty frustrating to realise that two meetings on some of my favourite research and curatorial interests are taking place at the same time. The first meeting (which I’ve already signed up for as a contributor) is a small workshop on “collecting genomics”, 12-14 May. It’s organised by John Durant at the MIT Museum and Liba Taub at HPS Cambridge and there are only going to be 15-20 people around the table; a perfect setting for in-depth discussions about one of the crucial challenges to science, technology and medical museums in the future: how to document, collect and make sense of one of the most important developments in late 20th century ST&M. The other meeting i... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4709236 Wed, 13 Apr 2011 13:00:24 +0100 4709236 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4704698&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2011%2F04%2F12%2Fanother-packed-programme-for-a-universeum-meeting-when-will-they-ever-learn%2F The programme for this year’s Universeum meeting (in Padua, 26-29 May) is available here. Universeum has rapidly become a vital organisation for the revival of European university museums. The annual meetings have an important role to play to raise the awareness among university administrations that their museums are not only worth preserving but, even better, worth expanding. Last year’s programme in Uppsala was terribly packed, however: one damned 15-20 minutes presentation (including comments) after the other, short and inevitably rushed coffee breaks, etc. Unfortunately this year’s programme seems to suffer from the same illness. When will they ever learn? But Padua is beautiful in late May and some of the presentation titles, like “To be or not to be a ... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4704698 Tue, 12 Apr 2011 04:28:49 +0100 4704698 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4684413&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2011%2F04%2F05%2Fyesterday-was-whyilovemuseums-day%2F These are some of the reasons to love museums found on twitter yesterday: Museums help you ask new questions. You get a little knowledge and crave more. Because they make me feel excited, like a child. They open up the world and expose the tiny little bubble we all live in. Museums are for EVERYONE. They are somewhere to shed our skin and set free the inquisitive child in each of us. They promote creativity, freedom of choice, questioning, reason, understanding and identity! Because they’re a conversation between what has happened, what could happen, and what will happen. Who says I love museums? Sometimes they get me so frustrated I guess only love would be reason for staying. Museums attract passionate, clever and interesting folks with many a story to tell. Because I love looki... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4684413 Tue, 05 Apr 2011 20:11:34 +0100 4684413 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4658408&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2011%2F03%2F30%2Fwhat-intellectual-and-practical-approaches-should-be-developed-to-document-and-preserve-the-history-of-recent-science-and-technology%2F Actual and potential readers of this blog — that is, everyone with an interest in contemporary medical science and technology in museums — might be interested in this year’s meeting in the Artefacts series on the theme ‘Conceptualizing, Collecting and Presenting Recent Science and Technology’, to take place 25-27 September, 2011, in the Museum Boerhaave, Leiden. The central questions for the meeting are: What intellectual and practical approaches should be developed to document and preserve the history of recent science and technology?: How can museums and academic communities develop an overview of the breadth and diversity of material culture associated with recent science and technology created at a variety of sites (universities, industry, government, and... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4658408 Wed, 30 Mar 2011 12:00:32 +0100 4658408 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4615157&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2011%2F03%2F21%2Fqueen-ingrids-rollator%2F On my continuing investigation into the aesthetics of rollators I was told about the Danish Queen Ingrid. After falling and breaking her hip, she appeared in the summer of 1998 for the first time publically using a rollator. Photographs and news footage of her shows her dressed in a glamorous couture gown and pushing a matching coloured rollator. Going to a gala wearing her prom dress and matching rollator and proudly escorted by her grandson Prince Frederik became a powerful image that encouraged others not to be ashamed of their rollators. Determined to draw this culturally and historically important artifact I found that there was an exhibition about Queen Ingrid’s life at the Amalienborg Museum. In the final room many of Queen Ingrid’s clothes were on display and in a long glass d... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4615157 Mon, 21 Mar 2011 15:00:13 +0100 4615157 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4577929&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2011%2F03%2F12%2Fthe-order-of-tangible-things-at-harvard%2F Has any readers of this blog seen Harvard University’s exhibit ‘Tangible Things’, which “brings together 200 objects from the back rooms and Z-closets of Harvard’s museums and libraries”? The idea behind the exhibit is the contemporary-traditional critical view of the ordering and categorisation of things: Questioning the modern Western intellectual categories that distinguish art from artifact, specimen from tool, and the historical from the anthropological, Tangible Things brings together materials from Harvard’s museum and archival collections. Beginning in the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments, the exhibition introduces visitors to established ways of organizing things and challenges them to classify an assortment of objects according to... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4577929 Sat, 12 Mar 2011 10:36:11 +0100 4577929 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4560334&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2011%2F03%2F08%2Fthe-museographer-and-the-object%2F In the process of selecting objects for a new exhibition, I (re)discovered this room: It is located beneath the roof of the museum, and contains, as the picture shows, literally hundreds of small glass vials with various chemical labels. Most are empty, but a few still has the original contents. Aside from being a treasure chest for our exhibition, the room also reminded me of the degree to which being in a house filled with things makes me think differently about the history of medicine. This might not exactly be a groundbreaking insight, but is bears repeating often. The material environment we occupy is foundational for our cognitive states. This sentiment is expressed in the following quote from Claude Lévi-Strauss, which, although it is aimed at ethnographical collectors, seem to m... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4560334 Tue, 08 Mar 2011 14:00:47 +0100 4560334 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4554639&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2011%2F03%2F07%2Fcompanies-preparing-skeletons-for-schools-in-the-early-post-war-period%2F My curiosity was just raised by a mail inquiry by Stuart Tallack, who’s asking members of the UK Medical Collections Group for help to clarify a memory from the late 1950s: I visited a company that prepared and articulated skeletons. A room at the back of the premises contained two tanks, one of caustic solution and the other of plain water. Both had gas flames beneath and were used to clean the skeletons of earth and tissue. I do not remember the room where they were articulated with springs and wires but I do recall the office and its cabinet of older and more interesting specimens. I seem to remember shaking the hand of a seven foot Russian, long dead, but still impressive. The company must have been near University College Hospital as I went via Goodge Street station and crosse... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4554639 Mon, 07 Mar 2011 10:39:24 +0100 4554639 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4489715&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2011%2F02%2F16%2Fa-manifesto-for-creating-science-technology-and-medicine-exhibitions%2F Two weeks ago I mentioned that the Museums Journal had published Ken Arnolds and my Dogme 95-style manifesto for creating science, technology and medicine exhibitions, first presented last September at a conference organised by Medical Museion in Copenhagen. We have now received the journal’s permission to publish the full version of the manifesto. Enjoy and/or criticize! Just over 15 years ago, Danish directors Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg spearheaded Dogme 95, a manifesto to purify the art of film-making. The aim was to engage audiences more profoundly and make sure they weren’t distracted by over-production. The Dogme manifesto ruled out special effects, post-production changes and other tricks in order to focus on the story and the performances. Since then, writer... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4489715 Wed, 16 Feb 2011 21:43:31 +0100 4489715 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4361048&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2011%2F01%2F18%2Fmalaria-museum-coming-up%2F We got this cuddly edition of the malaria parasite from Marco Herbst who was here visiting the museum last week, to get inspiration for his upcoming Malaria Museum in Berlin. Marco’s approach to making a museum was refreshingly nontraditional. Far from being webbed up in museological concepts and theories, he builds on a growing fascination with his subject along with the human instinct to collect interesting things. The former owner of a night club in Dublin and a bar in Berlin, Marco has some of the passion and personality of the renaissance collector with his cabinet of curiosities. I’m looking forward to popping by his museum for my daily gin and tonic – a drink originally invented to prevent malaria, as the tonic water contains the alkaloid quinine. But of course ba... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4361048 Tue, 18 Jan 2011 09:29:51 +0100 4361048 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4251143&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F12%2F11%2Fwhy-do-we-visit-anatomical-museums-for-curiosity-or-for-learning-or-maybe-some-other-reason%2F Plakat für ein anatomisches Museum, Hamburg, 1913 (from Morbid Anatomy) Next Friday, 17 December, Elena Corradini at the Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia organises a seminar on “Visiting an Anatomical Museum: curiosity or training?”: Anatomical University Museums are the keepers of collections which often are very old and different for their consistence and typology. These museums have a fundamental role for the preservation and valorization of cultural historical‐scientific heritage, therefore must become a place of interdisciplinary synthesis. They represent the progress of studies in the past and for the future, and play their fundamental role for the research and for the promotion of educational activities. This role will allow them to be a service for University students ... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4251143 Sat, 11 Dec 2010 12:34:10 +0100 4251143 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4183323&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F11%2F19%2Fviews-of-ageing-rollator-drawings-part-2%2F Rollator drawings, 30th September – 4th October 2010: Continuing my appreciation of the aesthetics of seemingly ugly and mundane artefacts we associate with ageing, I investigated a second rollator. This was a contemporary model. It had a clear plastic tray, a wire shopping basket and four wheels rather than three for extra stability. It was squatter, sturdier and in some ways even uglier than the earlier three wheel model. The hidden complexities and detailing within the design meant it took much longer to draw than I had anticipated.  I intentionally drew it from the position someone would see it if they were approaching it to use it. The moulded plastic on the handles had been textured for extra grip and had an organic quality. The bolts and connections remained evident but were mor... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4183323 Fri, 19 Nov 2010 09:00:41 +0100 4183323 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4175749&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F11%2F17%2Fviews-of-ageing-rollator-drawings-part-1%2F Rollator drawings  27th–28th, 28th–29th September 2010: When I began drawing the rollator I asked myself why I was drawing something that was so boring, so ugly with no interesting features. I was reminded of the talk Nurin Veis, Deputy Head Sciences – Science Communication and Senior Curator of Human Biology and Medicine at Museum Victoria, Australia, gave at the EAMHMS conference. In her talk about issues in displaying the cochlear implant, Nurin stated that the problem lies with our insistence in seeing the ‘black box’ item as ugly and not suitable as a museum artefact. Rather than trying to avoid it, rewrite it change or replace it with something explaining something about it, she asked why couldn’t we just accept it and learn to appreciate it? Maybe it is our job to see... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4175749 Wed, 17 Nov 2010 09:18:41 +0100 4175749 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4162949&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F11%2F13%2Fbuilding-new-museums%2F When a new museum is established, it is formed both by ideas of what the role of the medical history museum in society is, and by the context out of which that specific museum comes. The challenge of building new museums was approached from three very different angles at the Copenhagen conference in September. Kerstin Hulter Åsberg shared her vision of exhibiting the contemporary part of the history of medical sciences in the research centers where it happened and is happening. As it is the researchers and students who are at the same time the audience for the historical exhibitions and the makers of the future of medical science, they should be involved in the making of the museum from the very beginning. Read Kerstin’s full abstract here. Wendy Atkinson expressed that for her the miss... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4162949 Sat, 13 Nov 2010 09:00:38 +0100 4162949 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4155258&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F11%2F11%2Fcollecting-contemporary-medicine%2F One of the sessions at the September conference dealt with the problems and challenges in collecting contemporary medicine. Judy M. Chelnick presented the challenges of collecting today as being mainly lack of space, and the difficulty in trying to guess what objects will be historically valuable to your collections in the future. Read Judy’s full abstract here. James Edmonson went on to talk about the importance of collecting the advertising and marketing strategies of contemporary medicine as well as the products themselves, because money plays such a major role in the medical industry of today. Read James’ full abstract here. The last speaker of the session John Durant suggested the need to further develop our relationships with researchers and scientists, who despite their commitm... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4155258 Thu, 11 Nov 2010 10:27:09 +0100 4155258 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4139278&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F11%2F05%2Fperforming-fetal-bodies%2F The challenge of how to display fetal bodies was attacked from very different angles at the September conference. Morten Skydsgaard introduced us to the exhibition The incomplete child, in which the idea was to show the deviant body in its own right. He emphasized the importance, especially in controversial displays, of giving the visitors time and space for reflection afterwards. Read Morten’s full abstract here. The next speaker, Sniff Andersen Nexø, talked about the meeting between research and exhibition making, as a desirable but not unproblematic way of curating an exhibition. She pointed out that it’s a great challenge to translate the theoretically informed academic research process into a display of physical objects and a minimum of words. Read Sniff’s full abstract here. S... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4139278 Fri, 05 Nov 2010 12:55:29 +0100 4139278 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4053390&cid=t_223875_123_f&fid=39036&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpediatricinc.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F10%2F10%2Fis-asking-for-a-payment-guarantee-bad-business%2F I don’t know of any other business where a person buys a product (or service), and walks out the door without giving some sort of financial commitment. So, why do doctors’ offices allow people to get medical care and walkout the door without offering some sort of payment guarantee? If you think about it, only doctor offices and financial institutions allow this. But here is the kicker. Financial institutions asses a person’s creditworthiness before they lend anybody any money. When a doctor provides medical care, they are extending the patient credit just like a financial institution does but without a guarantee. Oh yeah, I forgot; we check the patient’s insurance and some spend hours on the futile task that is insurance eligibility. But let’s be honest. Flashing an insurance ca... Pediatric Inc blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4053390 Sun, 10 Oct 2010 10:00:06 +0100 4053390 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4025647&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F10%2F02%2F5701%2F Last autumn I wrote about Donald Blaufox’s online collection of historical medical artefacts (MoHMA): Nicely and competently curated and beautifully represented in images, the MoHMA website is yet another example of how important private collectors have been, and still are, for the preservation and communication of the material medical heritage. Dr. Blaufox has now reviewed the site, record by record, improved the texts and replaced and added a lot of images. A labour of love. (Source: Biomedicine on Display) Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4025647 Sat, 02 Oct 2010 08:00:30 +0100 4025647 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4013243&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F09%2F29%2Fhuman-remains-in-museums-are-museum-curators-the-principal-campaigners-against-them%2F From Medical Museion's collections Tiffany Jenkins is soon coming out with a book titled Contesting Human Remains in Museum Collections: The Crisis of Cultural Authority in Routledge’s ‘Research in Museum Studies’ series. Drawing on interviews, ethnographic work, and media and policy documents, the book analyzes, says Routledge’s announcement, “the influences at play on the contestation over human remains, and examines the social construction of this problem”. One potentially interesting result of Jenkin’s analysis (which supports my own experience here in Denmark) is that the strongest campaigning activity has been waged, not by social movements external to the institution, as they are frequently characterized, but by actors inside it A... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4013243 Wed, 29 Sep 2010 02:07:32 +0100 4013243 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3965476&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F09%2F14%2Fusing-our-collections-to-put-current-trends-in-microscopy-in-perspective%2F One of our basic aims here at Medical Museion is to put current trends in biomedicine in a longer historical perspective. Last Friday, we got yet another opportunity for doing this, when the new Core Facility for Integrated Microscopy at the Faculty of Health Sciences opened together with an international research symposium on the state-of-the-art of microscopy. In the hallway outside the symposium room, we displayed a selection of six of our most beautiful old microscopes that represent the development from early simple single lenses to end of the 19th century compound microscopes. The aim was to make the symposium participants better appreciate the beauty of early microscopes and the craftsmanship that has gone into constructing them. During the lunch break, I had a chat with Peter Even... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3965476 Tue, 14 Sep 2010 08:00:47 +0100 3965476 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3942826&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F09%2F07%2Fcan-you-love-plastics%2F Is a mass produced plastic chair just as good as an old, handmade wooden one? Yesterday Susan Lambert, Head of the Museum of Design in Plastics in Bournemouth, and professor of art history Marcia Pointon visited us to look through our collection of artifacts made of plastic. They are planning a new research project focusing on our relationship with plastics in a hospital context, and would like to have Medical Museion as one of their research partners.               Ion showed us plastic dentures from the 1860s, a very realistic plastic arm with painted finger nails, and colourful plastic leg pads for children. Even though museums in general look down on plastics as an inauthentic material, we actually found a lot of objects in the collections, which partly or totally consist... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3942826 Tue, 07 Sep 2010 14:11:14 +0100 3942826 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3902935&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F08%2F25%2Fhospital-for-drowned-books%2F Monday morning when the conservator arrived at the Medical Museion, and went down to the basement to continue her work on some damaged bones from the collection, she found herself standing in water up to her ankles. Like in many other parts of Zealand the heavy rains on Saturday had unexpected and unpleasant consequences for the Medical Museion. By far the largest part of the medical machines, historic books on health and hospital curios of the Medical Museion collection is kept in store rooms and basements around the buildings, out of the public eye. There simply isn’t enough room on the exhibitions.            The flood alert sounded around the Medical Museion. Hundred year old black and white photographs looked like autumn leaves, as they lay spread out on tables to dry. Boo... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3902935 Wed, 25 Aug 2010 11:03:48 +0100 3902935 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3816447&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F08%2F04%2Fbiography-of-a-collection-or-a-collector%2F Donna Bilak’s review of Frances Larson’s An Infinity of Things: How Sir Henry Wellcome Collected the World (Oxford UP, 2009) points to an interesting contradiction in Larson’s book — is it a biography of the collection or of the collector? Larson’s explicit intent is to write “a biography of this gargantuan, amorphous, ethnographic collection”, but in practice , Bilak claims, the structure and content of the book puts Wellcome rather than his collection in the center. Oxford University Press tries to solve the problem on the book’s website, when writing that “An Infinity of Things tells the story of the greatest private collection ever made, and the life of the man behind it”. But can you have it both ways? Or do you, as B... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3816447 Wed, 04 Aug 2010 08:00:08 +0100 3816447 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3794944&cid=t_223875_125_f&fid=34820&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dentalblogs.com%2Farchives%2Fadministrator-2%2Fputting-your-money-where-the-mouths-are%2F Transworld Systems White Paper Dental Visit www.web.transworldsystems.com/douggraham/ for more information. View more documents from Doug Graham. (Source: dental blog for dentists about dentistry) dental blog for dentists about dentistry blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3794944 Tue, 20 Jul 2010 18:49:01 +0100 3794944 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3753862&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F07%2F14%2Fcan-you-inhapt-an-object-as-a-haptic-alternative-to-inspect-2%2F Instead of saying that we investigate an object, we often use the verb ‘inspect’. According to my dictionary, the ‘in-’ prefix is an intensifier and the ‘-spect’ suffix is derived from the Latin verb specere, meaning ‘to look at’, ‘to see’. To ‘inspect’ then is more than just seeing or looking at something. It means to look intensely, carefully and closely. This is of course what museum curators do all the time when they get new objects into the collections. They look carefully at the objects and often document the inspection by means of photography (or drawing or painting). But often curators investigate objects through other senses than vision. For example, they touch and smell the objects, sometimes deliberately, or... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3753862 Wed, 14 Jul 2010 14:00:41 +0100 3753862 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3743545&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F07%2F11%2Fwould-european-museums-be-able-to-co-operate-around-the-preservation-of-the-contemporary-medical-heritage%2F In four earlier posts (# 1 here, #2 here, #3 here, and #4 here), I’ve argued for a more proactive practice with respect to the preservation of the contemporary medical scientific and technological heritage. The posts were provoked by Christian Sichau’s negative attitude (quoted here). There is no space for the new acquisitions, he claimed, and the exhibition curators receive all the museum money anyway. So forget about collecting. I don’t agree. In my last post I made an argument for distributed curatorial expertise as a way of solving the space problem. Here I’ll argue for another way to overcome the space and resource problem, namely to strengthen the co-operation between museums across the European borders. Sichau’s pessimistic view is quite understa... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3743545 Sun, 11 Jul 2010 09:50:29 +0100 3743545 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3729904&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F07%2F06%2Fcreating-a-distributed-curatorial-expertise-for-acquisitioning-the-contemporary-medical-heritage-2%2F In three earlier posts (here, here, and here), I’ve argued in favour of a more proactive acquisition practice with respect to the contemporary medical scientific and technological heritage. Against some curators who believe we need to restrict acquisitioning (for economic, space etc. reasons), I suggest that we should rather open up the sluice gates for collecting as much contemporary stuff as possible. Immediately, this sounds like an impossibility. All science, medical and technology museums have limited staff and resources. How could we ever dream of acquiring, keeping and managing the tsunami of images, documents and used artefacts that would arrive from the contemporary world of medicine? The solution, as I see it, is to begin re-thinking museum acquisition and curating practice... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3729904 Tue, 06 Jul 2010 17:54:07 +0100 3729904 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3658987&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F06%2F14%2Fthe-activity-of-looking-what%25e2%2580%2599s-in-a-name%2F Being invited to join a drawing workshop usually elicits one of two reactions. Either enthusiasm because the person likes to draw or they think the idea sounds interesting or different. The other response is to dismiss the idea completely. This reaction seems to be prompted by two main preconceptions about drawing. The first is that it is arty or simplistic, a bit of fun so would have no relevance to other more serious research activities. The other preconception seems to stem surprisingly from fear. ‘But I can’t draw’ or ‘I haven’t drawn for years’ come the plaintiff explanations for foregoing the chance to partake in any workshops. The fear of being seen to be unaccomplished at the seemingly simple yet daunting task of drawing has caused a surprising lack of takers to partici... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3658987 Mon, 14 Jun 2010 14:02:25 +0100 3658987 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3644807&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F06%2F08%2Facquisitioning-is-the-life-blood-of-museums%2F Soraya de Chadarevian (history of science, UCLA) came by this afternoon for a short and informal visit on her way to Lund and Gothenburg. Soraya went on a quick tour around the museum and afterwards we had a short chat in the meeting room — especially about collecting contemporary biomedicine. Which made me think of Robert Anderson’s (former British Museum director) dictum that “acquisitioning is the life-blood of museums“. Not collections, not exhibitions, not research — but acquisitions. The active process of bringing new material stuff into museums is both the prerequisite of new interesting exhibitions and a source of new ideas and questions for research. We used to rely on ‘garbage days’. Maybe it’s time to formulate a more comprehensi... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3644807 Tue, 08 Jun 2010 19:15:53 +0100 3644807 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3599607&cid=t_223875_123_f&fid=39036&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpediatricinc.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F05%2F25%2Fpatient-collection-letters-what-is-your%25c2%25a0approach%2F Most patient collection letters I’ve seen come off very threatening and standoffish. They are written to intimidate. For example, they’ll say, “Final Notice” or “your account will be sent to collections if you don’t respond.” The notion is, “you better pay now or else… ” We used to send out letters with these words and most of them were ignored. My guess is that at best, 1% of parents would respond to them. We probably offended more parents than those that actually sent payment. Clearly, this was the wrong approach. With this process I learned that the harder we push, the more resistance we got. Which is counterproductive.  The way I see it, there are two reasons why someone hasn’t paid their medical bill: They’ve genuinely missed the statement or put it away... Pediatric Inc blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3599607 Tue, 25 May 2010 15:00:33 +0100 3599607 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3569966&cid=t_223875_123_f&fid=39036&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpediatricinc.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F05%2F17%2Fpatient-collection-letters-%25e2%2580%2593-tips-of-the-trade%2F What would you say the number one answer parents give you when you mention they have a balance with the practice? If your practice is anything like our practice, then you’ve heard of this one before: “Oh, I never got a bill.” We’ve implemented three subtle, but effective “actions” that helps our odds in making people aware they owe the practice money. We do these three things for letters we send out to patients that are delinquent. Photo Credit: Massdistraction 1) Color Envelopes When you go through your pile of mail at your office or home, is there anything that really jumps out aside from advertising pieces or does everthing look the same? Probably not. Most, if not all mail is plain white. For delinquent patient letters, we send out different color envelopes that don’t loo... Pediatric Inc blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3569966 Mon, 17 May 2010 14:00:29 +0100 3569966 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3545537&cid=t_223875_123_f&fid=39036&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpediatricinc.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F05%2F08%2Fpediatric-practice-management-conference%2F Discussion How to get Government Funding for EHR How to be Successful in a Tough Economy Top Ten Legal Issues Practices Need to Know Negotiating in the New World of Managed Care Coding 2010: Modifying, Documenting, and Getting Paid Coding Tips and Billing Strategies For Getting Paid What You Deserve The Silents, Boomers, GenXers and GenYers: Managing the Generations and more! To check out the course schedule, click on this link For more information about the conference check out this link I attended last year’s conference and it was completely worth it. What I loved most about the conference, is that it is pediatric specific. There is a big difference in a conference that focuses on multiple medical specialties (like the MGMA for example), and a conference that makes pediatric practic... Pediatric Inc blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3545537 Sat, 08 May 2010 15:00:15 +0100 3545537 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3448892&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F04%2F08%2Freading-artefacts-do-we-really-read-them-2%2F I just got a mail saying that the Canada Science and Technology Museum is organising a summer institute in material culture research on the theme ‘Reading Artefacts’, in Ottawa, 16-20 August. Anyone interested in material research and museum artefacts — grad students, postdocs, faculty “teaching history through artifacts” and historians who are “looking to expand their research methods” — are welcome to attend. Because of the venue, there will probably be a lot of focus on sci, tech and med museum artefacts. Great initative. My only hesitation is the title — Reading Artefacts. What do the organisers actually mean by reading an artefact? In my understanding of reading, there is a text to be read. But an artefact is not a text (unless the... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3448892 Thu, 08 Apr 2010 09:18:35 +0100 3448892 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3436277&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F04%2F04%2Fcongress-for-curious-people%2F Events like the ’Congress for Curious People’ 9-18 April — organised by Joanna Ebenstein (Morbid Anatomy) and some of her Observatory friends and colleagues — makes me think that New York, NY, is sometimes a more rewarding place to live than Copenhagen, DK (at least if you are interested in curiosities and collections).  The Congress (which is done in conjunction with the Coney Island Museum) includes panels examining the collecting of curiosities, the history of ethnographic display and the interface of spectacle and education in 19th and 20th century amusements, and the politics of bodily display in the amusement parks, museums, and fairs of the Western world. It also features nightly lectures on topics as the taxidermy of a Victorian curiosity-collector,... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3436277 Sun, 04 Apr 2010 13:39:50 +0100 3436277 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3411114&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F03%2F27%2Fopen-the-sluice-gates-for-contemporary-collecting%2F A couple of days ago, I argued against Christian Sichau’s restrictive acquisition policy for museums of science, technology and medicine. I suggested, not only to actively promote the acquisition of visual, material, and textual objects from contemporary laboratories and storage rooms, but indeed to open up the sluice gates for collecting as much contemporary stuff as possible. An optimistic ‘‘Yes, please’’ policy is nicer and wiser than a pessimistic ‘‘Nein’’ policy. My argument is based on my experiences from Medical Museion’s integrated research and curatorial program ‘‘Biomedicine on Display’’. The program was launched in 2005 with the explicit intention to lay the research foundation for the acquisition and public outreach of the visual and material cu... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3411114 Sat, 27 Mar 2010 14:38:04 +0100 3411114 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3408415&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F03%2F25%2Fdrawing-medical-museum-artefacts-second-workshop-at-medical-museion%2F On Monday 22nd March we held the second group drawing workshop at Medical Museion. I was joined by five others to draw one of the artefacts from the ‘6 ting og sager’ exhibition. The specimen is the skeleton of a young child who had suffered with Rickets or ’English disease’ as it is known here. What was most noticable about the morning was the intense silence. We are used to sitting for a couple of hours at the cinema or in front of the tv. but it is rare to be amongst a group of people who spent two hours staring at a single, static object. The drawing session allowed those who had already seen the specimen to re-see it in a new way and offered a new experience for those who had never seen it before. All found they saw more and more detail the longer they spent looking ... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3408415 Thu, 25 Mar 2010 20:37:04 +0100 3408415 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3386895&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F03%2F21%2Fnew-acquisitions-no-thank-you-or-yes-please%2F In an article titled ‘Einstein, interaktiv und zum Anfassen. Oder: die drohende Auflösung des Museums?’ in NTM: Zeitschrift für Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften, Technik und Medizin (vol. 17, 85–92, 2009), Christian Sichau has argued for a severely restrictive attitude to new acquisitions. He develops his argument for a next-to-zero collecting policy in opposition to a short appeal made by the historian Klaus Hentschel in Physik Journal in March 2008 (’Bitte nicht wegwerfen! Allzu oft werden Quellen der Physikgeschichte achtlos entsorgt, statt sie zu sichern’). Here Hentschel gave a chilling example of the accidental destruction of some of the important sources for the history of early German solid state physics. Hentschel called on physicists to be more awar... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3386895 Sun, 21 Mar 2010 08:00:07 +0100 3386895 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3385371&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F03%2F20%2Fhow-shall-science-technology-and-medicine-museums-handle-the-problem-of-new-acquisitions%2F The journal NTM: Zeitschrift für Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften, Technik und Medizin is currently running a series of articles about university collections and museums. These articles raise a number of interesting issues, which are otherwise rarely brought up in discussions about the historiography of science, technology, and medicine. In nr 4/2008, Anke te Heesen (Tübingen) pointed to the often forgotten fact that university collections are an integral part of many fields of university research and teaching; this active role of the collections in these primary functions of the university is therefore an important parameter to take into account when developing acquisition and exhibition agendas for university museums. In the following issue (nr 1/2009), Christian Sichau (Deutsches Mu... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3385371 Sat, 20 Mar 2010 11:00:15 +0100 3385371 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3378521&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F03%2F18%2Fdrawing-medical-museum-artefacts%2F We have had our first drawing workshop here at Medical Museion. Three staff members — Anni, Camilla and Nanna — participated in a group drawing workshop. The specimen we drew is an example of bones of the middle ear mounted in a magnifying glass and placed on a small wooden plinth. It comes from the Ibsen-Mackesprangske collection made between 1824 and 1836 and was taken from a collection made of inner ear bones of 55 deaf people at the Danish Deaf Institute. This object forms part of the collection chosen for the ‘6 ting og sager’ exhibition, which opened last Friday (see presentation in Danish here). The object was placed in the centre of the table. Anni and Camilla sat on one side and Nanna and I sat opposite. All three drew more than two or three drawings on o... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3378521 Thu, 18 Mar 2010 13:00:42 +0100 3378521 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3374163&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F03%2F17%2Fis-this-the-death-of-the-sciencemedical-museum-collections-as-we-know-them%2F Nanowerk reports that researchers at the Micro and Nanosystems Department, Instituto de Microelectrónica de Barcelona have recently demonstrated that it is possible to produce and place small silicon chips inside living HeLa cells by means of different techniques, like lipofection, phagocytosis or microinjection. 90% of the cells remained alive and healthy for a week. We’re talking about quite ordinary (but extraordinarily small) silicon chips that are made of a normal semiconductor material and produced by usual manufacturing methods. The chips that can be used as intracellular sensors and the possibilites are endless — for example, characterization, quantification and IRT monitoring of molecular processes at the single cell level. This sounds like a promising route ... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3374163 Wed, 17 Mar 2010 08:00:46 +0100 3374163 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3314644&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F02%2F27%2Fsaving-the-papers-of-21st-century-science-for-future-historians%2F Besides the preservation and display of the contemporary medical heritage, one of my major research interests is the methodology of writing the history of contemporary science (see, e.g., The Historiography of Contemporary Science and Technology (1997) and The Historiography of Contemporary Science, Technology and Medicine: Writing Recent Science (with Ron Doel, 2006)). Now I am beginning to think about a third volume in the ’series’ to catch up with new trends in science historiography. One of the most interesting issues — both from a museological and historiographical point of view — is how historians should deal with the growing avalanche of scientific digital documents. I.e., how to preserve, utilise, and make sense of the enormous output of digital... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3314644 Sat, 27 Feb 2010 08:00:01 +0100 3314644 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3290827&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F02%2F20%2Fusing-the-rete-list-for-collective-curating-online%2F Recently I announced a quiz to get more information about a historical syringe that a couple of friends had bought for me. This quiz was far from easy since we had no information on the syringe whatsoever. Medical Museion’s guest researcher and former chief physician Sven Erik Hansen was the first to make a suggestion on our Danish blog — he thought it might had been be used to treat haemorrhoids. Sven Erik’s was a qualified guess, but it seems like the area of expertise that we are dealing with here is rather odontology. Thomas put a query about the syringe on rete, the mailing list for curators, historians, students, collectors, dealers, etc, interested in the history of scientific instruments, and immediately received some very interesting answers. Fi... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3290827 Sat, 20 Feb 2010 08:00:44 +0100 3290827 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3283562&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F02%2F18%2Fmoulage-moulage%2F As we’ve written about before, we have a small but excellent (and recently restored) collection of moulages here at Medical Museion. Like they have many places in Europe. Which made me quite excited to read Jim Edmonson’s travel report from Paris and the Musée des moulages de l’hôpital Saint-Louis 1 avenue Claude-Vellefaux: Read more here. (Source: Biomedicine on Display) Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3283562 Thu, 18 Feb 2010 13:45:38 +0100 3283562 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3283563&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F02%2F18%2Fcontemporary-bodies-new-technologies-new-collections%2F A few months ago, I advertised the meeting ‘KörperGegenwart, neue Technologien, neue Sammlungen’ to be held at the Deutsches Hygiene-Museum in Dresden, 22-24 April. Now the program has been finalised — and it looks very good! After a plenary discussion on ‘Schauplätze der Schönheit: Klinik, Kunst, Medien und Museen’ on Thursday evening, there follows two days of presentations, most of which seem to be very relevant for the future of medical and science museums: ‘Körperspuren im Deutschen Hygiene-Museum. Strategien und Objekte’ (Susanne Roeßiger, Deutsches Hygiene-Museum, Dresden) ‘Auf Biegen und Brechen. Zur (In)Formierung des Körpers’ (Stefan Rieger, Ruhr-Universität Bochum) ‘Der Körper und seine Teile. Vom Präparat ... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3283563 Thu, 18 Feb 2010 08:00:30 +0100 3283563 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3246908&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F02%2F06%2Finstruments-on-display%2F Medical museums are usually full with old and new medical science instruments. But they tend to be kept in storage because it is difficult to display them in a meaningful way. It’s much easier to put moulages, pickled organs and surgical instruments on show. Medical science instruments usually need truckload of description and contextualisaton to make sense in museum displays. (Probably because they don’t ‘talk’, some people would say :-) Also, few museum curators give much thought to the historicity of their display techniques. How have display practices changed over time and how do these practices reflect museum culture, politics and technologies? Such question wil hopefully be discussed at the 29th symposium of the Scientific Instrument Commission, which will be... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3246908 Sat, 06 Feb 2010 08:00:53 +0100 3246908 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3193754&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F01%2F21%2Fthe-theme-for-the-next-artefacts-meeting-is-knowledge-on-the-move%2F It’s soon time for a new meeting in the ‘Artefacts’ series (for posts on earlier meetings, see here, here, here and here). This is the 15th meeting since the inception of the series in the mid-1990s, and this year’s theme is ‘Knowledge on the Move: Conflict, Displacement and Re-Engineering Society: 1933 to 1989′: The mass movement of people displaced in Europe was a transformative social phenomenon of the period leading up to and following the Second World War. Many of those immigrants were scientists, engineers, designers and others with technical skills and pent up innovative energies. Their institutions and innovative technologies were left behind or unceremoniously stripped away but their knowledge of science and technology, aesthetic theories and co... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3193754 Thu, 21 Jan 2010 08:00:26 +0100 3193754 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3153377&cid=t_223875_90_f&fid=0&url=http%3A%2F%2Fannietv600.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F01%2F07%2Fcmaj_kt%2F This series began in 2009, when CMAJ was still an Open Access journal.  Link to free full text for Parts 1-5 below at http://tiny.cc/CMAJ_KT. Part 1: Straus SE, Tetroe J, Graham I. Defining knowledge translation. CMAJ 2009;181(3-4):165-8. Part 2: Brouwers M, Stacey D, O’Connor A. Knowledge creation: synthesis, tools and products. CMAJ 2009 Nov 2. [Epub ahead of print] Part 3: Kitson A, Straus SE. The knowledge-to-action cycle: Identifying the gaps.  CMAJ 2009 Nov 30. [Epub ahead of print] Part 4: Harrison MB, Légaré F, Graham ID, Fervers B. Adapting clinical practice guidelines to local context and assessing barriers to their use.  CMAJ 2009 Dec 7. [Epub ahead of print] Part 5: Wensing M, Bosch M, Grol R. Developing and selecting interventions for translating knowledge to acti... ANNE T-V's BLOG blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3153377 Thu, 07 Jan 2010 22:03:34 +0100 3153377 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3063280&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F12%2F07%2Fthe-recent-history-of-medical-technology-piecing-it-together-from-memoirs-and-reminiscences%2F One of the challenges for a museum of medicine intent on collecting recent and contemporary medical artefacts is to get an overview of the historical development of medical instruments, medical technological systems and the medical device industry. Trade shows and their catalogues (published or online) are excellent sources. But memoirs and reminiscences of people who have been engaged in the trade show business can also be useful —  they add a more personal perspective to the dry historical data, they are more fun to read than catalogues, and you can probably construct a useful picture of trends by piecing their more or less idiosyncratic stories together. Take for example Wolfgang Albath, a pioneer in laboratory medicine and one of the founding organisers of the world`s larg... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3063280 Mon, 07 Dec 2009 11:00:31 +0100 3063280 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3044781&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F12%2F01%2Fspeaking-of-uncollectables%2F … I just found a blogpost titled: Coffee, Sex, and Other Weird Ways to Not Get Sick. It lists seven weird ways for helping your immune system: 1. Kiss (and while you’re at it, have Sex)! 2. Listen to music. 3. Walk Really Fast, But Don’t Run! 4. Don’t Blow Your Nose. 5. Get Hot! 6. Avoid the Desert (or any hot and dry climate). 7. Drink Coffee! Even if this list of great advices may seem a bit, well … unconventional, it reminded me of the many everyday health practices people perform that never become displayed in medical museums. These practices are (for good reasons) not institutionalized, but are nevertheless integral parts of the lives of thousands of people in the Western world. From a museum point of view, it is not exactly easy to collect such aspects of public he... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3044781 Tue, 01 Dec 2009 09:00:04 +0100 3044781 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3026706&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F11%2F25%2Fa-private-museum-of-historical-medical-artefacts-on-the-web%2F Like most other kinds of historical artefacts, medical objects from the past are scattered all over. Some are safely deposited in museums, small or large; others are in private collections; others again are circulating between private collectors, mediated by eBay and other auction services (and some, especially plastic objects from contemporary medicine, are contributing to landfill). Whereas most public collections are online, most private are not. An inspiring exception from this internet invisibility of private collections is Donald Blaufox’s Museum of Historical Medical Artifacts. Working as a professor in nuclear medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University Dr. Blaufox has spent much of his spare time in the last thirty years building up a collection... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3026706 Wed, 25 Nov 2009 11:30:05 +0100 3026706 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3023152&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F11%2F24%2Fpoem-about-medical-museions-collections%2F I tried Microsoft’s Bing for the first time today and googl… sorry, binged ‘Medical Museion’ — and to my great surprise I found this poem dedicated to our collections written by American editorial consultant Shannon Hunt, titled ‘In the Collection of the Medical Museion’: The plaster busts of aged geniuses adorn the storage room. They look a bit bereft in their current situations, dispersed on shelves and on the floor, turned face to face, no space to best display their cast coiffures and noble Roman noses carved with care. Were the material a match, they might appropriate some miscellaneous components of a nearby skeleton and, fashioning a makeshift catapult, propel themselves to a more comfortable repose. But wary of the brittleness of paupers’... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3023152 Tue, 24 Nov 2009 07:00:27 +0100 3023152 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3015306&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F11%2F20%2Fan-unknown-norwegian-dentistry-collection-celebrates-its-125th-birthday%2F I’m probably not the only person who has a soft spot for unknown collections, especially if they turn out to be rich and reasonably well-curated. Today I became aware of the odontological collection at the University of Oslo, which goes back to the 1880’s when the Norwegian Dentists Association began acquiring objects; it was handed over to the Norwegian State Institute of Dentistry in 1915 and was later taken over by the Odontological Faculty of the Unversity of Oslo. The last 12 years parts of the collection has been registered by a group of retired dentists — so far they have put 2266 objects online. See all the objects here. The search function of the database is not without problems and the quality of the descriptions and images is variable at best — but what a... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3015306 Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:00:43 +0100 3015306 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2981115&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F11%2F11%2Fmeeting-on-university-collections-and-their-integration-into-everyday-uni-life%2F German-speaking medical museum curators should be interested in a symposium on university museums and collections to be held at the Humboldt University, Berlin, 18 – 20 February 2010 , organised by the Hermann von Helmholtz-Zentrum fur Kulturtechnik and the Berliner Medizinhistorischen Museum der Charite: Das Symposium setzt sich u.a. zum Ziel, gemeinsam nach neuen Aufgaben fur Universitätsmuseen und -sammlungen zu suchen, Strategien zu entwickeln, um den Fortbestand der Sammlungen sicherzustellen und Zukunftskonzepte zu erörtern, die traditionelle Universitätssammlungen besser in den Hochschulalltag integrieren und den heutigen Anspruchen von Forschung, Lehre und Wissenschaftskommunikation gerecht werden. Daruber hinaus soll ein Netzwerk fur Universitätsmuseen und -sammlungen i... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2981115 Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:59:08 +0100 2981115 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2977319&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F11%2F09%2Fthe-culture-of-curiosity-or-keep-an-eye-on-observatory%2F We here at Medical Museion are always on the outlook for new and interesting institutional experiments to learn from. This week’s announcement of up-coming events at OBSERVATORY is inspirational: The Culture of Curiosity is everywhere these days. Wunderkammern appear in popular art, cutting-edge fashion, film, books and museum exhibitions. This aesthetic has proved surprisingly durable and popular for over 600 years. From temple to home to museum, the Culture of Curiosity continues to exert an irresistible pull on our collective psyches, and it shows no signs of falling from favor any time soon. I guess our (formerly) own Camilla — who has specialised in how the practice of the Wunderkammer can be transferred to present-day museum practice — couldn’t have said it be... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2977319 Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:57:19 +0100 2977319 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2967319&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F11%2F06%2Fpsychiatric-museums-and-the-history-of-psychiatry%2F Psychiatric museums have come a long way since their early days. Before the 1980s, private collections of aficionados made up the field. Since then, several psychiatric museums have emerged. Today, these institutions have turned into modern museums creating numerous exhibitions and reaching large audiences. The most successful of the psychiatric museums have more than 140.000 visitors a year. In addition, collaboration between various psychiatric museums has become an important issue, especially for the museums in Europe. In June 2009, the joint project “Connecting the European Mind” was approved by the Education, Audiovisual and Cultural Executive Agency (EACEA) This project will lead to a number of multilateral initiatives in the period 2009-2011. Furthermore, international conferenc... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2967319 Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:18:44 +0100 2967319 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2927330&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F10%2F26%2Fmedicine-archives-and-researching-lives%2F Looks immediately like an innovative angle to the study of lives in science — that is, Wellcome Library’s and the British Records Association’s upcoming conference Researching Lives: Medicine, science and archives on the 8th December at Wellcome Collection in London. The one-day meeting will deal with the resources available in medical and scientific archives to build up pictures of individual lives — i.e., manuscripts and personal papers, films and photographs, forensic evidence and physical remains, etc. Speakers include Georgina Ferry (science writer), Julianne Simpson and Helen Wakely (Wellcome Library), Simon Chaplin (Royal College of Surgeons), Tim Boon (Science Museum), Paul Carter and Natalie Whistance (the National Archives) and Allan Jamieson (Fo... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2927330 Mon, 26 Oct 2009 10:17:59 +0100 2927330 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2902869&cid=t_223875_123_f&fid=39036&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpediatricinc.wordpress.com%2F2009%2F10%2F17%2Fcustomer-service-issues-as-a-result-of-the-credit-card-policy%2F In my last blog post, I mentioned a new financial policy we implemented in an effort to curb the growing trend of bad debt write off as a result of the economy and the rising cost of health care benefits. Today, I wanted to continue the same topic and address some of the customer service challenges we’ve had and how we’ve dealt with parent’s concerns. How has it been so far? It has been 3-months since we’ve put our policy in place and I’m happy to report that the vast majority of patients haven’t even blinked at the credit card requirement. The front desk reports occasional issues with parents. Most parents with concerns pout, but they end up handing over the card. Quite frankly, I was prepared to have more families upset and leave the practice.  But I’m ... Pediatric Inc blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2902869 Sat, 17 Oct 2009 17:00:01 +0100 2902869 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2858653&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F10%2F04%2Fnih-stimulus-grant-to-virtual-library-of-cell-images%2F As some of you may have noticed, the online Image & Video Library of The American Society for Cell Biology has been closed since February, and nobody knew whether it would be opened again. Last Thursday the ACSB announced, however, that the site will be re-opened and developed further by means of a $2,5 million ’stimulus grant’ from the NIH (one of the consequences of the new Obama administration). According to ACSB’s press release, the present image and video collection will be turned into “a comprehensive, international digital library” and furthermore, by “developing a systematic protocol for acquiring, reviewing, annotating, and uploading the images”, the ASCB will create “an efficient platform for building the library at a rapid rat... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2858653 Sun, 04 Oct 2009 06:20:32 +0100 2858653 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2823995&cid=t_223875_90_f&fid=0&url=http%3A%2F%2Fannietv600.wordpress.com%2F2009%2F09%2F22%2Fmedical-education-jama%2F  Every September JAMA publishes a theme issue devoted to medical education (available by subscription only). The 2009 issue appears on September 23: 2009 Here are the tables of contents of these issues for the past few years: 2008;  2007; 2006; 2005; 2004; 2003; 2002; 2001; 2000  See also Series or Collections: an index Check out the free JAMA patient pages. (Source: ANNE T-V's BLOG) ANNE T-V's BLOG blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2823995 Wed, 23 Sep 2009 02:28:02 +0100 2823995 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2803949&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F09%2F17%2Fsignificant-medical-objects-ii%2F A couple of weeks ago I proposed a significant-medical-objects game — a sort of crowdsourcing/museum 2.0 procedure for the acquisition of objects for medical museums. Turns out there is a website called, yes, Significant Objects, which has a host of exciting writers attached. The site’s objective is different from my little game. It’s based on the books Buying In (2008) and Taking Things Seriously (2007), in which Rob Walker and Joshua Glenn examined the ways in which we invest inanimate objects with significance. With the Significant Objects site they have set up an curating experiment in which the ’significance’ of objects bought in thrift stores and similar places are ’artificially cooked up under controlled conditions’. Sort of gre... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2803949 Thu, 17 Sep 2009 07:00:52 +0100 2803949 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2774643&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F09%2F08%2Fmedical-steampunk%2F Yesterday, I asked one of our business partners, who attended the opening of our new exhibition, Primary Substances: Treasures from the history of protein research, last Friday what he thought about it. “I thought it was fino”, he replied, and added: I like old instruments and packings — it reminds me of Jules Verne and it’s a pretty big subgenre that you can find on the web under the label Steampunk http://steampunkworkshop.com/lcd.shtml That’s an interesting comment.  I’ve never thought about semi-old scientific instruments in terms of steampunk before (had heard about steampunk, but didn’t really know what it stands for). Our collection of medical and medicotechnical instruments and devices is pretty big. It’s particularly strong... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2774643 Tue, 08 Sep 2009 15:00:13 +0100 2774643 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2584199&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F07%2F09%2Flaboratory-guillotines-rules-and-procedures-for-the-use-of-commercial-small-animal-euthanasia-machines%2F Inspired by Morten’s post on the ‘rat guillotine’ that we collected during our first ’Archaeology of Contemporary Biomedicine Garbage Day’ exercise in 2007, I asked the rete list “if there are other ’rat guillotines’ around or if this is a unique Copenhagen death machine?” — and immediately received some interesting answers: Dartmouth anatomist Frank Manasek responds that these weren’t necessarily rat guillotines, but rather general small-animal guillotines: In the US they were available commercially at least in the 1960s when I used one for several years decapitating hamsters. My commercial model looked just like the one illustrated except it didn’t have constraint tubes. Rich Paselk, who heads the Scientific ... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2584199 Thu, 09 Jul 2009 07:52:30 +0100 2584199 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2553072&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F06%2F29%2Fsomeone-interested-in-medical-archives-and-collections-in-a-design-history-perspective%2F Interesting initiative — I am thinking of the launch of the Archives, Collections and Curatorship section of the Journal of Design History, which could be useful for those of us who work with the history of medical technological artefacts. The journal section wants authors to evaluate the relevance of an archive or collection as a resource for design historical research — for example, by taking more critical perspectives or reflecting on the practice of collecting, archiving and doing research in archives or collections. They include all kinds of archives and collections held by museums, libraries, businesses, educational institutions, etc. (digital or physical), and they expect all sorts of authors: historians, archivists, museum professionals, curators, designers, stud... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2553072 Mon, 29 Jun 2009 11:00:00 +0100 2553072 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2550244&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F06%2F28%2Fvisible-and-invisible-radiation%2F When New York-based artist Joan Linder passed by Medical Museion a late afternoon a few weeks ago, we took a tour around the collections. We came into the X ray collection room right after 5 PM, at the rare moment when a lonely sunray found its way between the adjacent buildings at the exactly right angle and hit one of the displayed delicate x-ray vacuum tubes by the window. The effect was electric — I have never seen these vacuum tubes like this before. It was like a visible radiation coming from the outside commenting on the invisible radiation from within the tube. Joan grabbed her camera and shot an image before the sunray disappeared again: (photo: Joan Linder) (Source: Biomedicine on Display) Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2550244 Sun, 28 Jun 2009 14:20:24 +0100 2550244 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2405344&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F05%2F11%2Fsartoblot-ii-s-the-whereabouts%2F As I told in an earlier post, we are working on an exhibition about the history of proteins, which will open at the faculty of Health Sciences in early September. I visited the medical history museum in Uppsala, Sweden, a few months ago to see their astounding collections of clinical chemical artefacts. Here I found, among other things, an electrophoresis apparatus  made by the laboratory device company Sartorius — a so called Sartoblot II-S — a wonderfully coloured box which seems to have been standard equipment in biomedical laboratories in the 1980’s and 1990’s: you can still buy used specimens on the web from second hand dealers.   The problem is that I don’t know how, when and where this kind of apparatus was used in daily practice. Does anybody ha... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2405344 Mon, 11 May 2009 13:11:10 +0100 2405344 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2382538&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F05%2F01%2Fare-there-any-ethical-reasons-not-to-display-forensic-medical-specimens-on-line%2F Sonia Horn, current Director of Collections at the Medical University of Vienna, has recently announced on different email-lists that the collection of specimens from the university’s Department of Forensic Medicine has now been catalogued and digitised in its entirety. Great initiative! But I also noticed that for “ethical reasons” they will not make the collection available on the web; they only give researchers access. Please, satisfy my curatorial curiosity: In our present forensicomedicalized media world, in which TV channels compete feriously about who can show the most revulsive CSI images (like in BBC’s excellent drama series ‘Waking the Dead‘)— what are the ethical reasons for not showing historical forensic science specimens ... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2382538 Fri, 01 May 2009 19:27:17 +0100 2382538 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2348410&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F04%2F10%2Frevulsive-abortion-instrument-website%2F My good friend and colleague Jim Edmonson (who is Head of the great Dittrick Medical History Center and Museum at Case Western University in Cleveland, Ohio) sent me and some of his other colleagues an email the other day. Jim tells the story about how one of his friends, an obstetrician and collector of obstetric and gynaecological instruments, has recently been in an auction bidding war against another collector, named Randi Joe Grantham. It turned out that Grantham was bidding on destructive instruments (cranioclasts, basiotribes, curettes, &c, &c), and paying ridiculous sums for this category of instrumentation. Turns out, it was all acquired to be featured on his anti-abortion website — beware, it is not for the faint of heart: http://www.abortioninstruments.co... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2348410 Sat, 11 Apr 2009 06:46:26 +0100 2348410 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2312709&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F04%2F01%2Fmedical-museion-puts-all-its-collections-on-twitter%2F The Director’s office of Medical Museion at the University of Copenhagen announced today that the museum will put all its collections on Twitter. Hundreds of thousands of material artefacts (from electron microscopes to conjoined twins in pickles), tens of thousands of medical historical images, and hundreds of shelf meters of archival documents will be compressed, catalogued and publicly communicated in the Twitter format. “This is a revolution in museum collection management”, says the Director of Medical Museion, Thomas Söderqvist. “We have considered a number of systems for putting our rich medical historical collections online — but they were either too complicated, or too expensive. Twitter solves all our problems”.  Putting collections... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2312709 Wed, 01 Apr 2009 11:00:10 +0100 2312709 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2257952&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F03%2F11%2Fviruses-and-their-visualizations%2F Anyone with the slightest interest in the history of virology and visualizations of viruses will enjoy Frederick Murphy’s powerpoint slide set ‘The Foundations of Medical and Veterinary Virology: Discoverers and Discoveries, Inventors and Inventions, Developers and Technology’ (downloadabe here). The set contains a large number of images of viruses and virologists taken from his own and his colleagues’ image collections, other internet sites, and library collections (I hope he hasn’t breached too many copyrights :-). The slideshow is a chronologically organized catalogue of names, portraits, major inventions and scientific objects and not a history of virology as such — but the image material is very interesting and sometimes stunning (the ima... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2257952 Wed, 11 Mar 2009 20:45:34 +0100 2257952 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2249121&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F03%2F08%2Fcollecting-and-gathering-as-world-making-and-claim-staking%2F Collecting in museums runs the risk of becoming a rather pedestrian and academically uninteresting activity unless informed by and contributing to some wider theoretical perspectives. The one-day interdisciplinary conference on ‘Collecting and Gathering: Making Worlds and Staking Claims’ at Columbia University, 23 May, might be helpful to develop the discourse around museum collecting and acquisitioning. As the organizers (graduate students at the Dept of Archeology) say: Practices, institutions and ideas centered around collections and collecting offer a fruitful area for interdisciplinary enquiry in the humanities and social sciences. Whether in the processes through which collections come to be formed, or the ways in which existing collections are experienced by a var... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2249121 Sun, 08 Mar 2009 15:48:25 +0100 2249121 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2249122&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F03%2F07%2Fopen-source-object-management%2F Haidy Geismar (Material World) draws attention to Collective Access, an open source collections management program that can be modified and made to fit any kind of collection. Geismar thinks Collective Access is ”a great resource for democratizing the process of making collections digital, moving away from proprietary software packages, and is great for rethinking and making flexible ways of organising knowledge around material/visual/digital objects”. Has anybody else tried it? (Source: Biomedicine on Display) Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2249122 Sat, 07 Mar 2009 22:07:51 +0100 2249122 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2210502&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F02%2F24%2Fwellcome-medical-history-films%2F Wellcome Film (which is part of the Wellcome Library in London) announces the launch of their own YouTube channel (see more here), Very nice initiative — but how do you get access to the movies??? Added 9pm: Aha, here they are: http://www.youtube.com/user/WellcomeFilm (couldn’t find the link on their website, but found it via YouTube) (Source: Biomedicine on Display) Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2210502 Tue, 24 Feb 2009 19:58:12 +0100 2210502 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2205036&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F02%2F22%2Frete%2F For some reason I have until recently been unaware of rete, a mailing list for curators, historians, students, collectors, dealers, etc, interested in the history of scientific instruments. The archives (from June 2003 onwards) are available online. The list owner (the Museum of the History of Science in Oxford) will not accept messages for commercial purposes like announcing instruments for sale, etc., but otherwise all messages for academic and museum purposes are welcome. To join, send a blank message to rete-subscribe@maillist.ox.ac.uk. (thanks to Gustav for the tip) (Source: Biomedicine on Display) Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2205036 Sun, 22 Feb 2009 13:02:01 +0100 2205036 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2194906&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F02%2F18%2Fnew-digitalizing-signals-from-the-smithsonian%2F Wayne Clough, the new head of the Smithsonian Institution, wants to change the venerable museum institution: “We need to make our collections, talented scholars and other resources accessible worldwide by providing additional platforms and vehicles for educating and inspiring large audiences,” he said to yesterday’s Los Angeles Times, and added: Our job is to authenticate and inform the significance of the collections, not to control access to them. It is no longer acceptable for us to share only 1% of our 137 million specimens and artifacts in an age when the Internet has made it possible to share it all. In doing this, the relevance of the Smithsonian to education can be magnified many times over. Museums all over the world are facing a similar challenge. Most of us ... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2194906 Wed, 18 Feb 2009 17:30:12 +0100 2194906 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2152934&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F02%2F03%2Fdigital-lives-not-yet-20-but-maybe-soon%2F One of my longheld convictions is that the individual life trajectory is both one of the most neglected and most exciting aspects of biomedicine, not least when it comes to collecting and displaying biomedicine in museum exhibitions. Documents, images and objects from individual scientists, doctors, engineers and patients is a rich resource for museum curators — the individual and personal perspective in exhibitions adds a dimension of engagement similar to how biographical writing engages readers in a way that other forms of historical writing don’t.   Therefore I was quite curious when I read about The Digital Lives Research Conference that will be held at the British Library, London, next week (9-11 February). The aim of the meeting is to bring archivists and ... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2152934 Tue, 03 Feb 2009 06:00:14 +0100 2152934 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2144573&cid=t_223875_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F01%2F29%2Fthe-blurred-distinction-between-research-objects-and-museum-artefacts-in-a-university-collection-context%2F As a university museum, we are constantly thinking about how to use our huge collection of medical artefacts (est. 150.000-200.00 items) for research and teaching purposes. I mean, using artefacts in exhibitions is not that problematic. Find them on the shelves, dust them off, and put them in some kind of orderly display, that’s it. Well, it’s a little more complicated (especially the orderly display part :-), but that’s the essence of it. This is what museums usually do. Using collections for teaching and research purposes doesn’t come easily, however. Most museums don’t have to think about it because they are not involved in much regular teaching, and (sorry to say this) because most museums don’t do much research at all (despite their occasiona... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2144573 Thu, 29 Jan 2009 21:12:37 +0100 2144573 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2052501&cid=t_223875_90_f&fid=0&url=http%3A%2F%2Fannietv600.wordpress.com%2F2008%2F12%2F18%2Fevidence-informed-health-policy%2F Conclusions: This synthesis of findings from a multi-method study, along with the more detailed findings from each of the three phases of the study (which are reported in the three following articles in the series), provide a strong basis on which researchers, policymakers, international organizations (and networks) like WHO can respond to the growing chorus of voices calling for efforts to support the use of research evidence in developing health policy. John N Lavis, Elizabeth J Paulsen, Andrew D Oxman, Ray Moynihan. Evidence-informed health policy 2 - Survey of organizations that support the use of research evidence. Implementation Science 2008, 3:54 (17 December 2008) Conclusions: The findings from our survey, the most broadly based of its kind, both extend or clarify the applicability... ANNE T-V's BLOG blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2052501 Thu, 18 Dec 2008 19:45:35 +0100 2052501 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1960449&cid=t_223875_90_f&fid=0&url=http%3A%2F%2Fannietv600.wordpress.com%2F2008%2F11%2F13%2Fresearch-methods-and-reporting%2F On October 22, 2008, the BMJ launched a new series entitled Research methods and reporting. From the editorial: Groves T. Research methods and reporting: A new section of the BMJ about how to do and write up research [editorial] BMJ 2008;337:a2201. Nearly 15 years ago Doug Altman, the BMJ’s senior statistical adviser and professor of medical statistics, asked in this journal, “What should we think about researchers who use the wrong techniques (either wilfully or in ignorance), use the right techniques wrongly, misinterpret their results, report their results selectively, cite the literature selectively, and draw unjustified conclusions? We should be appalled. Yet numerous studies of the medical literature, in both general and specialist journals, have shown that all of the above p... ANNE T-V's BLOG blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1960449 Thu, 13 Nov 2008 17:13:03 +0100 1960449 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1763810&cid=t_223875_90_f&fid=0&url=http%3A%2F%2Fannietv600.wordpress.com%2F2008%2F09%2F04%2Fqualitative-research_bmj%2F This article explores the difference between qualitative and quantitative research and the need for doctors to be able to interpret and appraise qualitative research. Reeves S, Albert M, Kuper A, Hodges BD. Why use theories in qualitative research? BMJ 2008; 337:a949. Theories such as interactionism, phenomenology, and critical theory can be used to help design a research question, guide the selection of relevant data, interpret the data, and propose explanations of causes or influences. Hodges BD, Kuper A, Reeves S. Discourse analysis. BMJ 2008; 337:a879. This articles explores how discourse analysis is useful for a wide range of research questions in health care and the health professions. Kuper A, Lingard L, Levinson W. Critically appraising qualitative research. BMJ 2008; 337:a1035.. S... ANNE T-V's BLOG blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1763810 Thu, 04 Sep 2008 21:02:09 +0100 1763810 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1363634&cid=t_223875_90_f&fid=0&url=http%3A%2F%2Fannietv600.wordpress.com%2F2008%2F04%2F10%2Froar-doar%2F   I started to look for open access repositories and was getting absolutely overwhelmed until I discovered ROAR and DOAR. See also eScholarship Respository (California Digital Library) Directory of Open Access Repositories - OpenDOAR OpenDOAR is an authoritative directory of academic open access repositories. Each OpenDOAR repository has been visited by project staff to check the information that is recorded here. This in-depth approach does not rely on automated analysis and gives a quality-controlled list of repositories. United States    Canada    Search or Browse for Repositories     FAQ    Example: Health and Medicine/English/Multimedia Registry of Open Access Repositories (ROAR) We are promoting open access to the research literature pre- and post-peer-review through a... ANNE T-V's BLOG blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1363634 Thu, 10 Apr 2008 11:53:03 +0100 1363634 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1355945&cid=t_223875_90_f&fid=0&url=http%3A%2F%2Fannietv600.wordpress.com%2F2008%2F04%2F07%2Fescholarship-respository%2F    Here is an Open Access resource I just discovered, from the California Digital Library (CDL). The repository is a service of the eScholarship initiative of the California Digital Library, and is an open-access publishing platform that offers UC [Universiy of California] departments, centers, and research units direct control over the creation and dissemination of the full range of their scholarship, including pre-publication materials, journals and peer-reviewed series, postprints, and seminar papers. These materials are freely available to the public online. As of today there are  21,040 papers in the repository.  Advanced search    Sample paper: Kravitz RL, Duan N, Braslow J. Evidence-based medicine, heterogeneity of treatment effects, and the trouble with averages. Milbank Q. ... ANNE T-V's BLOG blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1355945 Tue, 08 Apr 2008 18:53:07 +0100 1355945 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1303113&cid=t_223875_90_f&fid=0&url=http%3A%2F%2Fannietv600.wordpress.com%2F2008%2F03%2F14%2Fmedical_education_2007downloads%2F   Here are the articles most downloaded from Medical Education in 2007. For now, free full text is available. Learning styles: do they really exist? [letter] Kieran Walsh Volume 41, Issue 6, Pages 618-620. Experience-based learning: a model linking the processes and outcomes of medical students’ workplace learning [by] Tim Dornan, Henny Boshuizen, Nigel King, Albert Scherpbier Volume 41, Issue 1, Pages 84-91. Defining medical professionalism: a qualitative study [by] Peggy Wagner, Julia Hendrich, Ginger Moseley, Valera Hudson Volume 41, Issue 3, Pages 288-294. Medical students’ learning of anatomy: memorisation, understanding and visualisation [by] Priti Pandey, Craig Zimitat Volume 41, Issue 1, Pages 7-14. Women in medicine − is there a problem? A literature revie... ANNE T-V's BLOG blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1303113 Fri, 14 Mar 2008 13:48:09 +0100 1303113 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1196639&cid=t_223875_90_f&fid=0&url=http%3A%2F%2Fannietv600.wordpress.com%2F2008%2F02%2F02%2Fpew_internet%2F Here are some of the latest reports from PEW/Internet under the topic Online Activities & Pursuits: PEW/Internet: Increased Use of Video-sharing Sites 48% of internet users have been to video-sharing sites such as YouTube and the daily traffic to such sites on a typical day has doubled in the past year. Information Searches That Solve Problems There are several major findings in this report. One is this: For help with a variety of common problems, more people turn to the internet than consult experts or family members to provide information and resources. Teens and Social Media More teens are creating and sharing material on the internet. And 28% of online teens have blogs, up from 2004. Blogging growth is almost entirely fueled by girls. A subset of teens — super communica... ANNE T-V's BLOG blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1196639 Sat, 02 Feb 2008 16:27:13 +0100 1196639 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1087503&cid=t_223875_90_f&fid=0&url=http%3A%2F%2Fannietv600.wordpress.com%2F2007%2F12%2F11%2Femja-christmas%2F   For many years, the editors of the Medical Journal of Australia have held a Christmas Competition, and published the winning entries in the December issue.  See also: Holiday Review from the CMAJ; BMJ Christmas issues  (I wonder why the Canadians are reluctant to use the word Christmas.) This is from the December 2007 issue of eMJA: [read the whole article] It is the editors’ unenviable task to make a final decision on the fate of each submitted manuscript and, as much as we enjoy the Christmas Competition, every year we find ourselves in the equally unenviable position of having to choose the winners. In order to share the burden, the entire AMPCo staff is invited to participate in a secret ballot. In the category of “Story”, this year the prize goes to David Isaacs, Stephen ... ANNE T-V's BLOG blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1087503 Tue, 11 Dec 2007 21:28:12 +0100 1087503 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1003492&cid=t_223875_90_f&fid=0&url=http%3A%2F%2Fannietv600.wordpress.com%2F2007%2F11%2F05%2Fadvancing-medical-education%2F A new series of AMEE guides launches with the current issue of Medical Teacher: Gibbs T. Advancing Medical Education: the new series of AMEE guides in medical education. Medical Teacher 2007; 29(6):525-526.  See also AMEE Medical Education Guides, 1-29 Excerpt: To capture an ever increasing body of interested parties, from various healthcare educators from around the world, the new AMEE guides will be for: the practising teacher who wants information about teaching methods, assessment, curriculum planning and other issues in medical education; the reflective teacher who wishes to review his/her contribution to medical education and compare it with that of others in the field; the teacher/researcher who wishes to learn more about a topic as a stimulus to further studies, research and eval... ANNE T-V's BLOG blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1003492 Mon, 05 Nov 2007 12:48:41 +0100 1003492 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=955982&cid=t_223875_90_f&fid=0&url=http%3A%2F%2Fannietv600.wordpress.com%2F2007%2F10%2F16%2Fobligations%2F    The five short articles in this series are based on discussions held in this UK author’s surgical unit. He writes, While our unit dealt with these issues from a surgical perspective, the obligations of clinical practice apply to all practitioners and the series could be easily modified for other clinical specialties. Even though these articles are a few years old, it seems to me that they are still relevant and may be of interest to some of you. Free full text is available. Click on this  PubMed  link to retrieve the series. Click on the PubMed links after each article to view the MeSH terms used to index the articles. There are also links to specific MeSH terms under each article listed below. Gore DM. Ethical, professional, and legal obligations in clinical practice: a serie... ANNE T-V's BLOG blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=955982 Tue, 16 Oct 2007 20:27:46 +0100 955982 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=867187&cid=t_223875_90_f&fid=0&url=http%3A%2F%2Fannietv600.wordpress.com%2F2007%2F09%2F12%2Ftensimplerules%2F   From Philip E. Bourne, Editor-in-Chief of PLoS Computational Biology, here is a collection of editorials intended to provide a quick, concentrated guide for mastering some of the professional challenges research scientists face in their careers. All PLoS (Public Library of Science) journals are Open Access journals. Erren TC, Bourne PE.  Ten simple rules for a good poster presentation. PLoS Comput Biol. 2007 May 25;3(5):e102.  in PubMed See also A field guide to biomedical meeting creatures, part 2: Poster time! Hilarious! Bourne PE. Ten simple rules for making good oral presentations. PLoS Comput Biol. 2007 Apr 27;3(4):e77.  in PubMed Vicens Q, Bourne PE. Ten simple rules for a successful collaboration. PLoS Comput Biol. 2007 Mar 30;3(3):e44.  in PubMed Bourne PE, Friedberg I. ... ANNE T-V's BLOG blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=867187 Wed, 12 Sep 2007 14:08:50 +0100 867187 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=840419&cid=t_223875_90_f&fid=0&url=http%3A%2F%2Fannietv600.wordpress.com%2F2007%2F09%2F04%2Fjamameded%2F   Every September the first issue of JAMA is a theme issue devoted to medical education. Here are the tables of contents of these issues for the past few years. 2007;  2006;  2005;  2004;  2003;  2002;  2001;  2000 See also the JAMA Collections; Series or Collections: An Index (Source: ANNE T-V's BLOG) ANNE T-V's BLOG blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=840419 Tue, 04 Sep 2007 23:19:35 +0100 840419 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=733417&cid=t_223875_90_f&fid=0&url=http%3A%2F%2Fannietv600.wordpress.com%2F2007%2F07%2F13%2Famee%2F We describe in this article the reasons why we developed the new curriculum, how we planned and structured it, and the significance we anticipate the curricular innovation will have on medical education.  Summary Ben DM. AMEE Medical Education Guide # 14 Part 3: Outcome-based education: Assessment in outcome-based education. Med Teach 1999; 21(1):23-25. Abstract: The role of performance assessment in outcomebased education is discussed emphasizing the relationship and interplay between these two related paradigms. Issues of the relevancy of assessment to student learning are highlighted in the context of outcome-based education.The importance of defining assessment premises and the role of institutions in defining their educational philosophy as it pertains to student learning and assessm... ANNE T-V's BLOG blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=733417 Fri, 13 Jul 2007 13:43:28 +0100 733417