Headache research and medical practice in Brazil: an historical overview.

Since the creation of the Brazilian Headache Society in 1978, substantial developments have taken place in both research and clinical practice in the field of headache medicine in Brazil. The Society now has almost 300 members throughout the country, actively working to improve the health of the general population and, in particular, diagnose and treat headache disorders. In addition, in a few large cities, such as São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Recife, Ribeirão Preto, Curitiba, and Porto Alegre, headache specialists have come together to promote research projects and increase knowledge in the field through MSc, PhD, and postdoctoral programs. Furthermore, scientific journals have emerged and books have been published to record and disseminate Brazilian scientific production in headache medicine. In this narrative review, we will briefly describe some important aspects of headache medicine in Brazil from prehistoric times to the present day, discuss the origin of headache medicine as a specialty in Brazil, the principal publications dealing with headache disorders, the use of plants and other unconventional forms of treatment used by faith healers, the main training centers, and the research produced to date by Brazilians. In conclusion, in recent years enormous progress has been made in headache medicine in Brazil stimulating us to review and expand our role in an increasingly international scenario.

The mutual shaping of life insurance and medicine in Finland.

This article examines the mutual shaping of medicine and private life insurance in Finland before the Second World War. Based on historical texts and archival material, it shows the important effects that the involvement of medicine in client selection for life insurance companies had on medical knowledge and practice. The analysis focuses on the tensions between the main actors in life insurance underwriting--candidates, insurance agents, examining physicians and the central office--as well as the medical examination as the key site of these tensions. The article shows how the introduction of a set of procedural and technical innovations reshaped the medical examination and helped to stabilize the fraught network of life insurance underwriting. These innovations re-scripted medical work. They stressed objective measurable knowledge over the personal skill and clinical acumen of the examining physician, propagated the physical examination and the use of diagnostic technologies and vital standards, multiplied medicine's administrative tasks, and contributed to the introduction of a risk factor approach to medicine. Moreover, the social organization of life insurance promoted the spread of these objects, practices and tasks to other fields of medicine. The case displays how medical innovations are developed through the situated interplay of multiple actors that cuts across the science-society boundary.

Marketing and medicine: a questionable mix.

Historically, medicine has been an evolving art and science. It never remains the same. Only in the past few decades has it been acceptable for doctors to market and promote their practices. This article will review the history of medical marketing and provide ethical examples of marketing that might be available to any physician, in any practice, and in any geographic location.

Toward the new pattern of medical practice.

As this article is being written, in the fall of 1993, we are waiting for the details of the President's plan for extending health insurance coverage of some kind to all members of the population while also containing costs. All observers, including practicing members of the medical profession itself, believe that a sharp break with the past is developing, most particularly a break with the old pattern of practice that flourished during the golden years between the end of World War II and the end of the 1960s, when the federal government made its first effort to control costs. In this article, I will discusses changes in the conditions of American medical practice that most observers can agree on. Then, I will summarize the major conceptions of the future shape of medical practice. I will conclude with my own view of critical issues in the constitution of practice, issues whose resolution depends not only on broad public policy initiatives, but also on the activities of physician executives within the medical community.

[My practice in 1891]. / Meine Praxis anno 1891.

A short visit to a medical consulting room as it may have looked one hundred years ago, illustrates some aspects of medical practice of this time, outlines in scraps and fragments an idea of this medicine and tries to encourage reflexions about contemporary and timeless problems of medical practice.

Making a medical living: the economics of medical practice in the Cape c.1860-1910.

The economics of colonial medicine have been largely neglected. This chapter shall seek first to give an overview of the medical market in the Cape during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, before turning to a fuller exploration of the nature of private and public practice, and their inter-relationship. The chapter will end with a case study of Dr William Darley-Hartley whose life exemplified some typical features of life in the Cape medical profession at this time.

[Evolution of Patient's Rights in Polish legislation in the years 1918-1998 in comparison to the European Community Norms]. / Ewolucja Praw Chorego w ustawodawstwie polskim 1918-1998 na tle standardów Unii Europejskiej.

The evolution of patient's rights covering the years of 1918-1998 in Polish legislation is presented. These rights have been discussed within the group of law acts pertaining to medical practice and to health care institutions. The patient's rights included in the European Council's documents have also been considered.