For more than forty years, Brian Abel-Smith, a health economist and political adviser, was closely involved with the development of health and social welfare policies worldwide. From his seminal research with Claude Guillebaud on the cost of the British National Health Service in the 1950s, he quickly developed an international reputation as a consultant who could be relied upon to produce useful reports with speed and efficiency. His research centred on the determinants of health, health service planning and financing, population control and poverty. He pioneered international comparisons on health services finance for the World Health Organisation in 1958, and completed numerous assignments in over 80 countries - ranging from short reports to (in the case of Mauritius) the creation of a fully-fledged social welfare system. From 1983-86 he was senior adviser to the WHO Director-General Halfdan Mahler on the economic strategy for the Health For All (by the year 2000) programme. This talk will use Abel-Smith’s…
Elizabeth Hurren, Senior Lecturer in History of Medicine and Jeya Henry, Professor of Human Nutrition examine the history of body fat, body image and nutrition and trace developments contributing to obesity today. Interviewed by Lizz Pearson, well known by her work for BBC Radio 4, the programmme includes the responses of 13 year old girls from Bristol, to the question, is it possible to be both Fat and Fit? Produced by Apercu Media. The first in a series of History of Medicine podcasts from the Centre for Health, Medicine and Society: Past and Present.
Sickle-Cell is a condition affecting more than 15,000 people in the UK - twice the number of cystic-fibrosis. However, some campaigners fear that the ethnic background of sufferers is a major factor in the relatively low level of funding and poor awareness of the condition. In Moments in Medicine Nick Baker talks to Professor Elizabeth Anionwu at Thames Valley University, Iyamide Thomas at the Sickle Cell Society and sufferer Anne Welsh to discover whether race really does play a role in medical research. Produced by Apercu Media. The fourth in a series of History of Medicine podcasts from the Centre for Health, Medicine and Society: Past and Present.
The Open Air School Movement was a major public health initiative created within the Western World in the first half of the 20th century. Open air nursery and primary schools were introduced in the first decade of the century throughout Europe and North America and over the next 20-30 years became numerous and widespread. This paper examines the influences behind the Open Air school movement predating the influential School opened in Charlottenberg, Germany in 1904 and the working philosophy of these schools both in relation to health and more generally. It also documents the day to day working practices of the schools, their changing role as they were affected by changes in treatment and prevention of infectious disease and their subsequent decline and closure after the 2nd world war. The School movement is examined in the context of a more general social health agenda with particular emphasis on the ideas of “fresh air “ providing a desirable and healthy environment as a method of ( particularly ) control a…
Adhesive bonding is well established as one the most successful means of joining advanced composite materials, which are increasingly employed to reduce weight and extend service life. It is also well known that adhesives used to sustain structural loads tend to be permanent, cross-linked and irreversible, which raises particular challenges when equipment becomes obsolete or when there is a need for upgrade or repair. This paper reviews the latest published work on dismantlable adhesive technologies, and highlights the criteria needed to evaluate potential disbondable systems. Whilst tailored formulations, originally developed as selfhealing polymers, demonstrate considerable promise for self-repair, re-adjustment and disbonding, it concludes that additives, in the form of expandable reactive agents, offer demonstrable performance and relatively simple adaptation to bonding technology currently employed. These, in conjunction with appropriate design strategies in order to aid design for disassembly, should of…
In this seminar Lesley Hall investigates the relationship between feminism and eugenics through the fascinating lens of Naomi Mitchison’s fiction. JBS Haldane’s sister, and very much situated at the centre of the eugenic and literary movements of her time, Naomi Mitchison was a prolific author writing path braking historical fiction amongst other works before turning to Science Fiction. Scrutinizing her personal and political lives, this seminar focuses on three of Mitchison’s postwar works in relation to perceptions of breeding and reproduction, namely Memoirs of a Spacewomen (1962), Solution 3 (1975), and Not by Bread Alone (1983). This seminar took place at Oxford Brookes University on 13 November 2012.
In the larger context of arguing for recasting the twentieth century as ‘the century of woman’, this seminar seeks to highlight the role eugenics played in relationship to maternalism as an example of women’s integration in state making and modernization policies. This seminar took place at Oxford Brookes University on 16 October 2012
Eugenics is a term we associate with atrocities, but today gene therapy and fertility treatments are preventing disease and alleviating suffering. Where should we draw the line? Paul Weindling, Research Professor of History of Medicine, Roger Griffin, Professor of Modern History from Oxford Brookes, Dr. Marcus Pembrey, clinical geneticist from the Institute of Child Health, London and Emma Lake, Expert Patient Advisor for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust and CF sufferer talk to Lizz Pearson about the link between today's genetic technologies and the eugenics of the past. Produced by Apercu Media. The fifth in a series of History of Medicine podcasts from the Centre for Health, Medicine and Society: Past and Present.
Professor Michael Worboys, University of Manchester; Dr. Helen Bedford, Institute of Child Health UCL and Dr. Richard Halvorsen, a GP working in central London discuss the rights of the individual vs the greater good of the community in the history of vaccination.