Inaccurate and misogynistic: Why we need to make the term ‘hysterectomy’ history
Tonsillectomy, appendectomy, lumpectomy make sense. The suffix ‘ectomy‘ denotes surgical removal of the named body part, so these terms give a clear idea of what…
Tag: Medical History
Vascular surgeon’s 18,000km solo motorbike trip to honour Australia’s first female surgeon
A lone rider, an unforgiving landscape and 18,000km of road — Dr Igor Banzic, a vascular surgeon, took on a testing solo challenge: circumnavigating Australia…
My first year of medical school was sudden death — an era of big egos and elitism
Recently, I was given a copy of a paper, published in the Australasian Annals of Medicine in November 1962, entitled ‘The Art of Medicine’. It…
IMGs were once considered ‘alien invaders’: I owe my career to one of them
I’ve been pondering the hurdles that IMG doctors have faced in trying to practise in Australia. There has been a host of bureaucratic hoops to…
Stanford Prison Experiment: Why the lead psychologist defended his infamous study to the end
A world-first shyness clinic, an analysis of sexist Reader’s Digest jokes and perhaps the most infamous study ever all emerged from one man’s mind: Emeritus…
‘A troubled and eccentric GP with a profound vision’: The story that has stayed with me for over 50 years
There are many books that have influenced my life, starting with the Famous Five series and then the New English Bible. But during my time…
Arsenic and picrotoxin: What was on the PBS back in 1951
Modern medicine is a scientific wonder, and one reason why there are now nearly a thousand different medicines available to doctors through the PBS to…
Bloody myth about Vlad the Impaler may be true, scientists say
Romanian warlord Vlad the Impaler may not have drunk human blood as legend suggests, but it turns out he probably did shed bloody tears. Molecular…
The true origin of ‘first, do no harm’: Dr Thomas Sydenham is the father of clinical medicine
A recent essay by M. Bennet Broner, ‘Navigating the complexity of ‘first do no harm’ in modern medicine‘, provided an excellent review of this principle.…
What really killed Beethoven? Centuries-old hair samples shed light on mystery
A new theory on Ludwig van Beethoven’s death blames his heavy drinking, hepatitis B infection and a predisposition to liver disease based on genetic testing…
