Should doctors stop using the names of dead white men?
Too many women have seen their scientific achievements credited to men, two specialists write in the MJA.
It’s a man’s world — at least when it comes to the eponyms for 3500 body parts, diseases and surgical techniques.
Used by doctors every day, eponyms are handy verbal shortcuts, as well as tributes to leading — usually male, white and dead — medical figures.
But now Australian doctors say it could be time to adopt medical nomenclature that ideally describes pathological processes rather than historical names, some of which have become tarnished over time.
Gastroenterologist Dr Diana Lewis and hepatology fellow Dr Leya Nedumannil from Northern Health in Melbourne say the practice has come under scrutiny for “glorifying” unethical figures, as well as for failing to acknowledge the contributions of women and other groups.
