Amongst the anthropologists

Anna’s research paper, spanning a decade of ethnography in various medical schools, explored the crafting of learning materials in healthcare education, emphasizing improvisation, embodied knowledge, and sustainability. This work contributes to critical medical anthropology by addressing the ethical dimensions of object circulation in clinical learning sites. Anna proposed in her paper that focusing on the making of learning materials offers a unique perspective on medical bodies.

This evening offered an exciting and an in-depth exploration of the recent developments in anesthesiology, emergency and intensive care, with special attention for big data and artificial intelligence.

More information on 4S’s Making and Doing here.

You can read the abstract of the exhibition here: 

“Seeing ‘Normal’ was an exhibition concerning the materiality of medical training, especially biomedical notions of normality concerning the eye. The exhibition took place in a café in Maastricht, Netherlands early 2023. Working with the process and products of a 6-year ethnographic and historical project, ‘Making Clinical Sense’, this exhibition combined notions of display and interactivity in art and science museum history to make social science research public. We partnered with clinical teachers and scientific illustration educators, crafting introductions to their ways of thinking into interactive engagements for the public. This led to spaces for visitors to add their own contributions, such as close eye drawings, alongside medical objects and imagery. Collection was also a public endeavor in Stories of Sight in which personal anecdotes of visual correction and Proposal Text: impairment were collected and displayed as public footnotes. The research itself was present in both published and draft forms, giving insight into its making. The exhibition also served as a classroom; with a workshop table thrown in, it became a site for inspiring and making DIY medical education tools as led by a clinical educator. Handwritten thoughts-in-formation served as alternative exhibition labels which framed the topic for the biomedical novice, inviting inquiry into how someone outside of biomedicine could find their entry point into the conversation. Lastly, happening outside of the university, we experimented with bringing science into the social sphere and practicing the hospitality of sharing food, drink, and good conversation in a place where people could linger about science.”

Max Perry reviewed Making Sense of Medicine for the Polyphony, an online platform for medical humanities. He starts his review by sharing a personal story about his grandfather, a sailing instructor that used skillful and tactile teaching methods to teach him how to sail. Perry uses this anecdote as an analogy between his personal experience and the central theme of Making Sense of Medicine of tactile learning. 

Perry points out the novelty of the collection, as it invites new audiences outside of STS to think about the materialities of knowledge production in the medical world. He writes: “Doctors, artists and educators all feature as authors and participants in the essays, and often essays find experimental ways to explore the terrains of medical education. Uniting these various interlocutors is the consideration of how materials shape knowing. Such preoccupations are what made me think of my grandpa and that rudder.”

Read Max Perry’s review here.

Perry further discusses the wide range of materials covered in the book, from water-filled balloons that demonstrate bodily fluid dynamics to the enduring role of chalkboards in medical education and highlights the insights the book gives us on the educational value of these materials.

Another review on Making Sense of Medicine, written by Rory du Plessis, has been published in the Journal: Social History of Medicine. Du Plessis, highlights that the editors, Anna and John are able to show the “vibrancy and liveliness” of the materials, and that they achieve a masterful presentation of interdisciplinary research by adopting several editorial approaches.

He concludes that: “the collection is meticulously researched and well-written. It is a rewarding book as it is creative and experimental in its approach, and engages with new and familiar topics from interdisciplinary perspectives. The collection will certainly be a key text in inviting and guiding researchers to study the material culture of medicine’s objects of teaching.”

Read the review here.

Find the book Making Sense of Medicine here. 

The reviewer, Richard Reinhart, praises Anna and Tom for having written a comprehensive cultural analysis of the stethoscope, and writes that they “present an engaging, well-researched tale that will appeal to academic historians as well as to a broader spectrum of readership.”. 

Reinhart gives a comprehensive summary of the book, and eventually argues that the book shows the significance of stethoscopic listening in medicine and concludes that: “Stethoscope: The Making of the Medical Icon is a worthy and thoughtful contribution to the literature.”

Read the full review here.

In the Limburger, the provincial newspaper of Limburg, an article was written by Vickie Bartholomeus. In her article she shows that the stethoscope is explored from various angles, starting with its history. She highlights an example written in the book, namely that evidence suggests that Egyptians and African tribes used a tube to listen to the body centuries ago, but the invention is credited to the Frenchman René Laennec. In 1816, inspired by children listening to sounds with their ears against a hollow tree trunk, he had a eureka moment. He began with rolled-up paper, followed by a wooden tube. Bartholomeus shows in her article that the book highlights the use of the instrument in different cultures and different times, revealing it to be more than a mere tool that, despite technological advancement, will stay important. 

Read the full review here: https://www.limburger.nl/cnt/dmf20230727_95279753

In Medisch Contact, a Dutch medical professional magazine, Lennart de Vries wrote a review of the book Stethoscope and calls it “a wonderful account of one of the most iconic and widely used medical devices in health care.” The reviewer mentions the surprising facts mentioned in the book about the stethoscope, for example that there are very few places on the body that the stethoscope hasn’t reached. In this review it is also highlighted that the authors reflect on the important recurring debate regarding the future of an analog diagnostic tool in an era of increasingly accessible imaging techniques and other competitive technologies.

Read the full review here: https://www.medischcontact.nl/actueel/boeken-en-films/media-en-cultuur/stethoscope-the-making-of-a-medical-icon-1

In Arts & Auto, another magazine for Dutch medical professionals, Adri van Beelen has written a review about the book. The review offers insights into the authors’ interest in the stethoscope and the art of listening in the medical realm. In the article the importance of the stethoscope, which has always retained a central place in everyday diagnostics and among all medical instruments, is highlighted. 

Read the full review here: https://www.artsenauto.nl/luisteren-naar-het-lichaam/ 

Read the full article here.