Wellcome witnesses: the Medical Research Council Applied Psychology Unit.

A Witness Seminar brings together individuals involved in a significant event in the treatment of a medical condition to describe its background and to discuss, debate, or even to disagree with their peers' recollections. A brief description is given of the Witness Seminar, held in June 2001 by the Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at University College London, which considered the history of Medical Research Council's Applied Psychology Unit (ABU) in Cambridge, United Kingdom. The APU was created in 1944 and produced more than 3,000 papers before it was renamed the Cognition and Brain Sciences Unite (CBU) in 1998. Photographs of key figures and purpose-built apparatus illustrate some of its early work as recorded in the published transcript of the meeting.

The Nordic Council for Arctic Medical Research. History, aims and achievements.

The Organization of Nordic Council for Arctic Medical Research (NCAMR, or NoSAMF in Scandinavian languages) was initiated by the governmental Nordic Council in 1966. The new council was charged with the task of promoting arctic medical research in the Nordic countries. It began its duties in 1969. Originally the council covered Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden; Iceland joined as a member in 1977. During the first years the NCAMR held two to three conferences a year, the proceedings of which were communicated in the Nordic Council for Arctic Medical Research Reports series, distributed in about 1500 copies, free of charge. In 1971, 1981, 1987 and 1993, the NCAMR hosted the International Congress on Circumpolar Health and played a pivotal role in the establishment of the International Union for Circumpolar Health (IUCH) in 1986. Thereafter, the activities of the NCAMR developed a much more international character. Accident prevention, cold research, pollution, family health and, in later years, the health of indigenous peoples, became priorities, along with the establishment of international research networks. The NCAMR's report series soon developed into an established international journal under the title Arctic Medical Research. The inter-governmental financial support to the NCAMR was discontinued at the end of 1996. Thereafter, the secretariat operated under the auspices of the University of Oulu. The International Journal for Circumpolar Health, as it was named from 1997, continued to flourish, being published by the IUCH, the Nordic Society for Circumpolar Health and the University of Oulu.

[Centenary of the Health Council of the Netherlands. II 'Public health']. / Honderd jaar Gezondheidsraad. II. 'Public health'.

In its 100-year existence (1902/2002), the Health Council has played an important role in the introduction of effective measures in the area of public health and in doing so has made a significant contribution to improving health in the Netherlands. Successes have been achieved in vaccinations (from before 1900 to about 1985), infectious-diseases control (since about 1900), safety at work (since about 1900), healthier mothers and babies (since about 1900) and safer and healthier food (since 1920). Success factors in implementing an advisory report are the extent to which political support is forthcoming, the evidence on which the advisory report is based, the economic consequences of implementing the advisory report, the ethical implications and the extent to which social and/or scientific developments provide a basis for the advisory report.

[Centenary of the Health Council of the Netherlands. I. Introduction]. / Honderd jaar Gezondheidsraad. I. Inleiding.

The Health Council of the Netherlands [Dutch name: Gezondheidsraad] is an independent, statutory advisory body whose task is to inform the Dutch government on the current level of knowledge with respect to public health issues. Its work covers the entire terrain of curative and preventive healthcare, environmental protection, nutrition, occupational hygiene and environmental hygiene. The Health Council has existed in one form or another since 1 August 1902. Its present form was established by the 1956 Health Act, which was amended in 1997. To perform its task, the Health Council brings together multidisciplinary committees of leading experts--nominated in a personal capacity--on specific topics both at the government's request and on its own initiative. About thirty committees are operative at any one time. The Health Council has published more than 2000 advisory reports during its 100 years of existence.

[Centenary of the Health Council of the Netherlands. III. Hospital care and research]. / Honderd jaar Gezondheidsraad. III. Ziekenhuiszorg en onderzoek.

In 1983 a ministerial decree based on Section 18 of the Hospital Provisions Act came into force, under which a number of top clinical centres could only give certain specialised care if they obtained a permit from the minister of Health, Welfare and Sport. Following the Health Council's report 'The Limits of Care' published in 1986, the government instructed the Health Council in 1989 to develop a policy for regularly reporting the status of certain section-18-activities and to put forward proposals for investigative medical research. This led to the Health Council's so-called annual reports, which have played a pivotal role in the balanced introduction and dissemination of special provisions. In 1995 the Health Council stopped issuing its annual report due to the ambiguity which arose concerning the implementation of a number of proposals it had made. In 1997 all top clinical activities were made subject to section 2 of the Specific Medical Procedures Act. This meant that there was no longer a statutory obligation to advise the government. However, under the Specific Medical Procedures Act, the Health Council has been able to continue its important advisory role. For example, the Health Council's advice was taken into consideration when the practice of in-vitro fertilisation was evaluated and during the drafting of the Embryo Act.

[Centenary of the Health Council of the Netherlands. IV. Infectious diseases]. / Honderd jaar Gezondheidsraad. IV. Infectieziekten.

Many advisory reports of the Health Council of the Netherlands in the past century have dealt, directly or indirectly, with infectious diseases. One example is vaccination against smallpox. At the start of the last century, advice on this subject was important: initially, vaccination was compulsory by law, but people became increasingly aware of the associated side effects. A second example is immunisation against acute anterior poliomyelitis, which became a reality during the fifties. The advice also contained a discussion of which vaccine should be chosen: the inactivated 'dead' (Salk) form or the attenuated 'live' form (Sabin). Due to sound national organisation and associated logistics, a high level of vaccination was (and still is) achieved and the clinical disease known as polio disappeared from the Netherlands. Food-borne infections form the third example. The effect of the advice published by the Council on this subject (from 1960 onwards) has been limited, for a large part due to the significant economic consequences of the proposals for beef farming. The developments in the field of infectious diseases, immunology and vaccinology, together with social developments make it likely that in the coming years the Council will also frequently be asked for advice in the field of infectious diseases and the fight against them.

[Centenary of the Health Council of the Netherlands. V. Ethical-social issues]. / Honderd jaar Gezondheidsraad. V. Ethisch-maatschappelijke vraagstukken.

Since its inception, the Health Council of the Netherlands has included normative aspects in its reports. Over the past decades, ethics and rights have received increasing attention, particularly since the establishment of the Standing Committee on Medical Ethics and Health Law in 1977. In particular, the ethical implications of bio-molecular life sciences (genetic counselling, genetic screening, research with human embryos) have been discussed in the Council's publications. The Council has also been involved from an early stage in the euthanasia discussion. It is accepted that policy advice concerning scientific developments implies normative considerations. However, the extent to which the Council's role is simply to highlight these considerations or to present conclusions remains a recurring question. In the latter case, priority is often given to the principle of respect for autonomy, while underestimating the significance of solidarity.

Un discurso sanitario para un proyecto político. La educación sanitaria en los medios de comunicación de masas durante el primer franquismo

El análisis de los discursos expuestos en un ciclo de conferencias radiadas durante los años 1939-1940 en la ciudad de Málaga sobre higiene materno-infantil, organizado por la Jefatura Provincial de Sanidad, nos permite poner de manifiesto cómo se utiliza un recurso como la divulgación de contenidos sanitarios como parte de un proyecto político, el nacional-sindicalismo, al que sirvió como elemento vehiculizador (AU)

[The Health Boards in New Spain. 18th and 19th Centuries]. / Las Juntas de Sanidad en la Nueva España. Siglos XVIII y XIX.

OBJECTIVE: To describe the function of New Spain's Boards of Health, which were created in times of emergencies as in epidemic diseases or natural catastrophes. MATERIAL: Most of the information comes from primary sources, such as the rules, orders and reports of the Boards of Health. RESULTS: Whenever an epidemic disease appeared in New Spain, there were not enough physicians, hospitals or medical services to fulfill the needs of society. The response was the creation of Boards of Health that functioned as charitable groups. Their purpose was to provide food, clothing and medical support to the sick, by collecting donations and distributing them among the needed, and also by assigning physicians to specific geographical sectors within cities. CONCLUSIONS: The presence of Boards of Health was useful to fight epidemics in New Spain allowing the team work not only among physicians, but also among parish priests and neighborhood to offer assistance and help to sick people as medical, welfare work and soulful support.