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Dear Sir/Madam I would be grateful if you would post the message below to all the people currently subscribed to the list. Regards Daphne Christie ************************************************************************************ New Wellcome Witnesses to Twentieth Century Medicine "This is oral history at its best--all the volumes make compulsive reading--they are, primarily, important historical records". British Medical Journal (2002) 325: 1119 "These witness seminars fill a gap between published scientific papers and personal accounts, adding a valuable collective oral source to the historical record". Medical History (2006) 50: 257?9 In line with the Wellcome Trust policy of open access to the published output of research, all 27 volumes of Wellcome Witnesses to Twentieth Century Medicine are now freely available to download at www.ucl.ac.uk/histmed. These edited and annotated transcripts of meetings cover major topics in recent bio-medical science, including monoclonal antibodies, NMR and MRI, heart transplant surgery in the UK, haemophilia, postwar medicine in Africa, childhood asthma, leukaemia, several MRC research units, genetic testing, obstetric ultrasound, maternal care, prenatal corticosteroids, pain, platelets and short-course chemotherapy for TB. The two most recent published transcripts are Public health in the 1980s and 1990s: Decline and rise? (vol. 26, ISBN 0854741067) and Cholesterol, Atherosclerosis and Coronary Disease in the UK, 1950?2000 (vol. 27, ISBN 0854741075) and are freely available to download at www.ucl.ac.uk/histmed following the links to Publications/Wellcome Witnesses, and can be ordered from good booksellers. The 1974 reorganization of the National Health Service was largely seen as a disaster for the public health profession. The post of Medical Officer of Health, with its links to local government, was replaced by the community physician, located within health services. The technician?manager rather than the activist role predominated: community medicine doctors carried little weight by comparison with their clinical colleagues. Chaired by Professor Virginia Berridge this Witness Seminar examined the decline and rise of 'public health' both nationally and internationally in the 1980s and 1990s: the impact of the 1988 Acheson Report on public health medicine on a demoralized profession; the role of new ideas about health promotion imported from the international scene; the rise of evidence-based medicine and health services research, and their impact on public health; and the movement for multidisciplinary public health (MDPH) as a new avenue for public health from the 1990s. Contributors include Professor Sir Donald Acheson, Professor John Ashton, Professor Nick Black, Professor David Blane, Dr Tim Carter, Sir Iain Chalmers, Dr Aileen Clarke, Dr June Crown, Dr Jeff French, Professor Alan Glynn, Ms Shirley Goodwin, Professor Rod Griffiths, Professor Walter Holland, Professor Klim McPherson, Dr Ornella Moscucci, Dr Geoffrey Rivett, Professor Alwyn Smith and Professor Ann Taket. Cholesterol began to be accepted after the Second World War as a significant cause of atherosclerosis and associated conditions such as coronary heart disease (CHD). This Witness Seminar, chaired by Professor Michael Oliver, included a discussion of the basic research on cholesterol. Early epidemiological studies demonstrated the relationship between excess saturated fat consumption and elevated levels of cholesterol, although cholesterol alone did not explain all population differences. Work on lipoprotein metabolism pointed to hypercholesterolaemia as one of, if not the major, risk factors for CHD, culminating in the development of cholesterol-lowering drugs, particularly the successful statins, available in the UK from the 1980s, and confirmed by randomized controlled trials. The role of diet in heart disease had always been controversial in the UK, and although extreme diets could reduce cholesterol, patient conformity remains difficult. Later, recommended limits on the composition of dietary fat were agreed, assisted by the food industry?s introduction of functional foods such as cholesterol-lowering margarine. An introduction by Dr Nick Myant and appendices, on the diet?heart hypothesis by Professor Gerry Shaper and the development of lovastatin by Dr Jonathan Tobert, compliment the transcript. Contributors include Professor David Barker, Professor John Betteridge, Professor Gustav Born, Professor Richard Bruckdorfer, Professor George Davey Smith, Professor Paul Durrington, Professor David Galton, Dr Arthur Hollman, Professor Steve Humphries Professor Gordon Lowe, Professor Vincent Marks, Dr Paul Miller, Professor Jerry Morris, Professor Chris Packard, Professor Stuart Pocock, Professor Kalevi Pyörälä, Professor Thomas Sanders, Professor James Scott, Dr Elspeth Smith, Professor Anne Soutar, Professor Gilbert Thompson, Professor Hugh Tunstall-Pedoe, Professor Neville Woolf and Professor John S Yudkin. _______________________________ Berridge V, Christie D A, Tansey E M. (eds) (2006) Public health in the 1980s and 1990s: Decline and rise? Wellcome Witnesses to Twentieth Century Medicine, volume 26. London: The Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL, xxv, 101pp. Introduction by Virginia Berridge. Five figures, biographical notes, references and index. ISBN 0 85484 106 7 [Available from 15 March 2006] Reynolds L A, Tansey E M. (eds) (2006) Cholesterol, Atherosclerosis and Coronary Disease in the UK, 1950?2000. Wellcome Witnesses to Twentieth Century Medicine, volume 27. London: The Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL, xxv, 164pp. Introduction by Nick Myant. Two appendices, 6 figures, 2 tables, biographical notes, references, glossary and index. ISBN 0 85484 107 5 [Available from 15 May 2006] For more information on the Witness Seminar as a form of contemporary history, as well as the freely available transcripts, see www.ucl.ac.uk/histmed following the links to Publications/Wellcome Witnesses. ******************************************************************************************* Dr Daphne Christie History of Twentieth Century Medicine Group Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL 210 Euston Road London NW1 2BE Tel 020 7679 8125 Fax 020 7679 8192 Mobile 07810 541812 E-mail d.christie@ucl.ac.uk www.ucl.ac.uk/histmed For details of our Witness Seminars in recent medical history, follow the links to 'Publications' and 'Wellcome Witnesses' ____________________________________________________________ STHC-L - Science, Technology, and Health Care Archives Forum STHC-L@lists.ucla.edu http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/sthc-l STHC-L@lists.ucla.edu STHC-L Archives -- Main Index STHC-L Archives -- 2006 Message Index |