DeBakey and the Education of American Surgeons

"Michael DeBakey came to Houston in 1948 as the new chairman of the Department of Surgery at Baylor College of Medicine." This brief but interesting overview by Dr. Justin Barr in NLM's Circulating Now describes "the state of American surgery in the 1940s and 1950s. In the early 20th century, most surgeons trained by a combination of apprenticeship and post-graduate courses.  This model worked well enough when operations were rare and relatively simple" but as medicine grew more complex, changes were needed. DeBakey began to push residency programs and board certification to improve the training level of Houston surgeons.

Contributor Dr. Barr was a Michael E. DeBakey Fellow in the History of Medicine at the National Library of Medicine in 2017.

Websites Referenced

https://circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov/2017/11/29/michael-debakey-and-the-education-of-american-surgeons/

https://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/get-involved/debakey-fellowship.html

Surgical Stapling Pioneer Dr. Mark M. Ravitch

"His surgical legacy as a founder of pediatric surgery as a specialty, as a surgical innovator, and for introducing the concept of surgical stapling in the U.S. is paralleled by his simultaneous contributions to surgical education and knowledge." The Mark M. Ravitch Papers, 1932-1989, is the latest collection featured in the History of Medicine section of the National Library of Medicine for those interested in the history of surgery, surgical techniques, and pediatrics.

Websites Referenced
https://oculus.nlm.nih.gov/101083015
https://circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov/2016/10/25/mark-m-ravitch-a-surgeons-surgeon/

Slipping Specs in Surgery?

A new article in Acta Orthopaedica proposes a quick and free solution to the problem of eyeglasses slipping when a surgeon is already scrubbed.

“Can you push back my glasses?”–a repeated request while operating. Is there an easy solution? Abhimanyu Ved and Annabel Greenwood. Acta Orthopaedica April 2014, Vol. 85, No. 2, April 2014: 210-210.

Open Access - This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the source is credited.
DOI 10.3109/17453674.2014.893499

Websites Referenced
http://informahealthcare.com/doi/pdfplus/10.3109/17453674.2014.893499
http://informahealthcare.com/toc/ort/85/2
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/

Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus Online

Now, through the National Library of Medicine's "Turning the Pages" system, you can unroll the Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus online and read it in English. Written in Ancient Egypt around 1600 BC, it discusses a number of trauma surgery cases using scientific understanding rather than magic. This amazing 15-foot long scroll is owned by the New York Academy of Medicine.

See the press release for more information. You must have Flash on your computer to view this. http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=6914301612335020061&postID=869660298391262597

The Historical Collection in the Medical Library includes a copy of a book that shows the papyrus and translates it into hieroglypics and English.