Learning from the past in the COVID-19 era: rediscovery of quarantine, previous pandemics, origin of hospitals and national healthcare systems, and ethics in medicine.

After the dramatic coronavirus outbreak at the end of 2019 in Wuhan, Hubei province, China, on 11 March 2020, a pandemic was declared by the WHO. Most countries worldwide imposed a quarantine or lockdown to their citizens, in an attempt to prevent uncontrolled infection from spreading. Historically, quarantine is the 40-day period of forced isolation to prevent the spread of an infectious disease. In this educational paper, a historical overview from the sacred temples of ancient Greece-the cradle of medicine-to modern hospitals, along with the conceive of healthcare systems, is provided. A few foods for thought as to the conflict between ethics in medicine and shortage of personnel and financial resources in the coronavirus disease 2019 era are offered as well.

[Health care in Mesoamerica before and after 1519]. / La atención a la salud en Mesoamérica antes y después de 1519.

This paper discusses the situation of healthcare in Mesoamerica before and immediately after 1519. In the first 50 years after the Conquest, the Spaniards made extensive use of Nahuatl medicine. However, the influence of this medical tradition was limited due to the rapid imposition of a very different medical system which took little advantage of, among other things, the therapeutic wealth of pre-Hispanic healing traditions.

En este ensayo se discute la situación de la atención a la salud en Mesoamérica antes e inmediatamente después de 1519. En los primeros 50 años después de la Conquista, los españoles hicieron un uso muy extensivo de la medicina náhuatl. Sin embargo, con el tiempo, el ámbito de influencia de esta tradición se vio limitado debido a la rápida imposición de un sistema de atención muy diferente que poco aprovechó, entre otras cosas, la riqueza terapéutica de la medicina prehispánica.

Library resource sharing and the Medical Library Center of New York.

The creation of the Medical Library Center of New York (MLCNY) was a significant contribution to the history of health sciences librarianship as a model for cooperative, democratic, and practical solutions to the issues of storage and resource sharing. The MLCNY's founding director, Erich Meyerhoff, was a key figure in the successful start-up and ongoing operations of the center, which operated from 1960-2003 and served the greater New York area and beyond. This essay traces the evolution of the center including the creation of the Union Catalog of Medical Periodicals and the demise of the center occasioned by changes in scholarly publishing, technology, and constituent needs.

A History of the Frenchay Hospital Plastic Surgery Unit, Bristol, United Kingdom.

Frenchay Hospital has long since been established as the center for plastic surgery in Bristol, providing care to the city and its surrounding catchment area. From humble origins in the Second World War when the site took on the role of a large military hospital providing reconstructive surgery for the victims of war to a busy modern-day National Health Service establishment, the plastic surgery unit at Frenchay Hospital has grown and developed through in parallel with the genesis and development of the specialty. Recent centralization of care in Bristol has seen a massive reorganization of services, and with it the closure of Frenchay Hospital. Because the plastic surgery unit establishes a new home at Southmead Hospital, this review documents the foundations of reconstructive surgery in Bristol and the South West United Kingdom.

Origins of Gender Affirmation Surgery: The History of the First Gender Identity Clinic in the United States at Johns Hopkins.

BACKGROUND: Gender-affirming care, including surgery, has gained more attention recently as third-party payers increasingly recognize that care to address gender dysphoria is medically necessary. As more patients are covered by insurance, they become able to access care, and transgender cultural competence is becoming recognized as a consideration for health care providers. A growing number of academic medical institutions are beginning to offer focused gender-affirming medical and surgical care. In 2017, Johns Hopkins Medicine launched its new Center for Transgender Health. In this context, history and its lessons are important to consider. We sought to evaluate the operation of the first multidisciplinary Gender Identity Clinic in the United States at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, which helped pioneer what was then called "sex reassignment surgery." METHODS: We evaluated the records of the medical archives of the Johns Hopkins University. RESULTS: We report data on the beginning, aim, process, outcomes of the clinic, and the reasons behind its closure. This work reveals the function of, and the successes and challenges faced by, this pioneering clinic based on the official records of the hospital and mail correspondence among the founders of the clinic. CONCLUSION: This is the first study that highlights the role of the Gender Identity Clinic in establishing gender affirmation surgery and reveals the reasons of its closure.

[HILLEL YAFFE MEDICAL CENTER - SIXTY YEARS OF ADVANCEMENT].

INTRODUCTION: The Hillel Yaffe Medical Center began its journey sixty years ago. Since its early days, the hospital's dedicated teams have struggled to bridge the gaps between limited resources and their uncompromising desire to meet patients' needs. Today, Hillel Yaffe Medical Center possesses more than five hundred beds in approximately eighty departments and units and dozens of ambulatory clinics. The Medical Center serves a population of half a million residents, with forecasts pointing to unprecedented growth, due to vast construction in the area and the settlement of the new city of Harish. In addition to the devoted care of patients, the other pillars of excellence in medicine, namely research and teaching, are actively developing. Hillel Yaffe is affiliated with the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, and many of its physicians have academic appointments, owing to their dedication to scientific research and academic teaching, in addition to excellence in clinical practice. Research laboratories located in the medical center are operated by physicians and scientists, enabling them to conduct studies in basic science. Academic teaching and research are also practiced by nurses and other practitioners. The Hillel-Yaffe School of Nursing, affiliated with Tel Aviv University, has recently won the Ministry of Health Star Program for its high achievements. This issue is dedicated to articles written by Hillel Yaffe Medical Center's physicians in a variety of fields.

Charité Hospital and infectious diseases.

Films are useful for medical education and introduce Science fiction movies or historic documentaries and pioneering scientists who developed the field of infectious disease research. Between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, expert talents such as von Behring, Koch, and Ehrlich were present at the Charité Hospital. These individuals contributed significantly to the scientific study of infections, their prevention, treatment, and social impact. Here, we compare the relative impact of infectious disease research centers during the study period (late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries) by assuming that the number of publications listed on Wikipedia about the individual scientists working in London, Paris, and Berlin is Poisson distributed. We show that using reference counts that appear after individuals' names on Wikipedia is a useful tool to assess the impact of centers of excellence in the study of infectious diseases. However, the accumulation of talent in Berlin during a relatively short period, even though historically the protagonists did not interact or support each other, lead to greater advances in the treatment and prevention of infections in humans than the work of individuals such as Pasteur in Paris or Lister in London.

British Surgeon Frederick Salmon (1796-1868) and His "Trans-Fixing Pins and Excision" Surgical Procedure for the "Rectum Prolapsus".

Frederick Salmon was born in Bath. From his early career, he was fond of surgery, mostly interested in proctology. He had been specialized in London at St Bartholomew's Hospital. He was the founder of "The Infirmary for the Relief of the Poor Afflicted with Fistula and Other Disease of the Rectum," and the writer of one of the most important surgical treatises, the " Practical Observations on Prolapsus of the Rectum." In this book, Salmon described an innovative operation for procidentia, based on the principle "trans-fixing pins and excision." Although his work was too significant for the era, he was almost completely neglected by historians, most probably due to his clash with his fellow surgeons, who had been considered by him as scientifically inadequate in anorectal diseases.

Sixty years of Neurosurgery at Andhra Medical College and King George Hospital, Visakhapatnam: The (hi) story of the department.

The trials and trepidations of an emerging department, uncertainties of its survival midway through its course, the innovative ideas that initiated its development, a regimental discipline, addition of newer technological advances with changing times, and its blossoming as the one of the best departments in the region, mark the origin and development of the Department of Neurosurgery at Andhra Medical College (AMC) and King George Hospital (KGH) Visakhapatnam. AMC and KGH are getting ready to celebrate their centenary in 2023. This history of the department is derived from the knowledge of the immense effort and academic discipline that was required to bring it to its current stature. Dr. Sunkara Balaparameswara Rao (SBP Rao) established the Neurosurgical Unit at the AMC and the KGH, Visakhapatnam on 2nd April 1956. He has had the unique privilege of witnessing the entire history of the department, from the inception till today, which represents 60 years of continuous progress of the department after its establishment. He also took a very active role in organizing its Diamond Jubilee function held on 23rd September 2016. The first author of this article has also had the privilege of witnessing and being a part of the history of the department during the past half a century. This is a narration of what may be better termed 'the (hi) story of 60 years of Neurosurgery at AMC and KGH', Visakhapatnam, India.

PGIMER, Chandigarh: A temple of holistic Neurology.

History helps us to become better students, judge wisely, understand change, and most importantly, it tells us who we are. It helps us to understand what happened, why it happened and what its ramifications are. Winston Churchill once said: "Study history, study history. In history lie all the secrets of statecraft." Here, we take this opportunity to pay our gratitude to our esteemed teachers who worked relentlessly for uplifting of the department of Neurology, PGIMER, Chandigarh; and, narrate chronicles of all those people who made this department reach the heights where it stands today.

Korean Red Cross Hospital (1905-1907): Focused on its Establishment, Management and Abolition.

The Korean Empire, its state sovereignty threatened by the Empire of Japan, joined the Geneva Conventions in 1903 for the purpose of neutral diplomacy and established the imperial Korean Red Cross Hospital in 1905. This hospital was a result of the effort of the Korean Empire to seek a new medical system based on the Western medicine. However, after the Russo-Japanese War, Japan interfered straightforwardly in the domestic affairs of Korea and eventually abolished the Korean Red Cross Hospital in 1907 to create Daehan Hospital under Japanese colonial rule. With newly-found historical records, this study investigates the whole process of the Korean Red Cross Hospital, which has remained unknown so far, despite its importance. From the very beginning, the Korean Red Cross Hospital was under strong influence of the Empire of Japan. The site for the hospital was chosen by a Japanese army doctor, Junryo Yoshimoto, and the construction was supervised by Rokuro Katsumata, who also later on are involved in the construction of Daehan Hospital. Moreover, all the main positions for medical treatments were held by Japanese practitioners such as Goro Tatami and Kaneko Yano. Nevertheless, the Korean government had to shoulder the all operating costs. The office of the Korean Red Cross was relocated away from the Korean Red Cross Hospital, and the government of the Korean Empire was not willing to burden the expenses of the Hospital. Moreover, the list of employees of the Korean Red Cross and that of the Korean Red Cross Hospital were drawn up separately: the former is left only in Korea and the latter in Japan. These facts suggest that those two institutes were managed dualistically unlike any other nation, implying that this may have been a means to support the Daehan Hospital project. According to the statistics, health care services in the Korean Red Cross Hospital seems to have been carried out successfully. There had been an increase in the number of patients, and the ratio of female patients was relatively high (26.4%). Only Western medications were prescribed and surgical operations with anesthesia were performed routinely. The approach to Western medicine in Korea was changing during that period. The rise and fall of the Korean Red Cross Hospital represent the urgent situation of the Korean Empire as well as the imperialistic methodology of the Empire of Japan to use medicine as a tool for colonization. Although the transition process of medical policy by the Japanese Resident-General of Korea still remains to be fully elucidated, this paper contributes to a better understanding of the history of modern medicine in Korea.

Development of pediatric neurosurgical service at Dr. Soetomo Hospital, Surabaya, Indonesia.

PURPOSE: This review traces the history of pediatric neurosurgery at Dr. Soetomo General Hospital (DSGH) and its role in advancing the field of pediatric neurosurgery. METHODS: The history, the founding fathers, and the next generations of the pediatric neurosurgery in DSGH were traced back from original sources and authors' life stories. RESULT: Pediatric neurosurgical service at DSGH has its own unique perspective being a pediatric service in general hospital setting. It serves second largest city of Indonesia - the fifth most populated country in the world. Historical vignette and future perspectives are narratively presented. CONCLUSION: As a pediatric neurosurgical service at general hospital in developing country, its development deserves a special mention.

Crisis at Guy's Hospital (1880) and the nature of nursing work.

This historical study aims to refine understanding of the nature of nursing work. The study focuses on the 1880 crisis at Guy's Hospital in London to examine the nature and meaning of nursing work, particularly the concept of nursing work as many 'little things.' In this paper, an examination of Margaret Lonsdale's writing offers an original contribution to our understanding of the ways in which nursing work differs from medical practice. In this way, we use the late-nineteenth-century controversy at Guy's Hospital as a prism through which to examine the contested nature of nursing work. Lonsdale's ideas are corroborated by examination of writings by nurse leaders Florence Nightingale and Eva Luckes. Luckes, in particular, elaborated what was meant by nursing as the performance of a thousand little things, which are specific to nursing work. While physicians had been performing much of what was considered to be nursing work, nurses developed some of these and other interventions into a unique body of work characterized by meticulous attention to significant details. Some implications regarding current nursing practice are discussed.

Department of Neurosurgery, Seth Gordhandas Sunderdas Medical College and King Edward VII Memorial (K.E.M.) Hospital, Mumbai.

Seth Gordhandas Sunderdas Medical College and King Edward VII Memorial (K.E.M.) Hospital, Mumbai were inaugurated in 1925. This article traces its illustrious history and of the eminent neurosurgeons who shaped its destiny.

Neurosurgery at Kasturba Medical College: Past, present and future.

Kasturba Medical College (KMC), Manipal, is the oldest and one of the most reputed medical institutes in coastal Karnataka, catering to a population of over 4 million, spanning a stretch of over 350 kms along the southwest coast of India from Mangalore to Goa. The Department of Neurosurgery at KMC, established in 1968, continues to be the leading and most preferred referral center providing high quality neurosurgical services in this region. The article provides an insight into the origin of the department, its infancy and teething troubles, its continuous growth and landmark achievements over the years. This brief review also highlights the current area of focus and describes the plans for its future development.

[The masters of thoracic trauma in the Central Hospital of the Mexican Red Cross. Their story and legacy]. / Los maestros del trauma torácico en el Hospital Central de la Cruz Roja Mexicana. Su historia y legado.

The branches of medicine responsible for the care of victims of different types of injuries were born as a result of the urgent need to save lives during the wars. In Mexico, one of the first hospitals developed for the care of injured patients was the Central Hospital of the Mexican Red Cross. The aim of this article is to pay tribute to the first service for the care of patients with chest trauma, founded in 1954, its founders and those who have continued with their work: Dr. Pedro Garza Alegría, Dr. Octavio Rivas Solís Dr. Jesús Genis Becerra, etc. In 64 years of existence, there have been trained eight specialists in cardiothoracic surgery and three of them have worked in the Central Hospital of the Mexican Red Cross.

The Birth of Hospital, Asclepius cult and Early Christianity.

History of hospital is one of main fields of researches in medical history. Besides writing a history of an individual hospital, considerable efforts have been made to trace the origin of hospital. Those who quest for the origin of hospital are faced with an inevitable problem of defining hospital. As the different definition can lead to a different outcome, it is important to make a clear definition. In this article, the hospital was defined as an institution in which patients are housed and given medical treatments. According to the definition, the Great Basilius is regarded to have created the first hospital in 369 CE. The creation of hospital is considered to be closely related with Christian philantrophy. However, the question is raised against this explanation. As the religious philantrophy does not exclusively belong to the Christianity alone, more comprehensive and persuasive theory should be proposed to explain why the first hospital was created in the Christian World, not in the Buddhistic or other religious world. Furthermore, in spite of sharing the same Christian background, why the first hospital appeared in Byzantine Empire, not in Western Roman Empire, also should be explained. My argument is that Asclepius cult and the favorable attitude toward medicine in Greek world are responsible to the appearance of the first hospital in Byzantine Empire. The evangelic work of Jesus was heavily depended on healing activities. The healing activities of Jesus and his disciples were rivalled by Asclepius cult which had been widely spread and practiced in the Hellenistic world. The temples of Asclepius served as a model for hospital, for the temples were the institution exclusively reserved for the patients. The exclusive housing of patients alone in the temples of Asclepius is clearly contrasted with the other early forms of hospitals in which not only patients but also the poor, foreigners and pilgrims were housed altogether. Toward the healing god Asclepius, the Latin Church fathers and Greek Church fathers showed significant difference of attitudes. The Latin fathers were generally very critical on Asclepius while the Greek fathers were more favorable to the same healing god. This difference is also considered to be an important factor that can explain why the first hospital appeared in the Byzantine Empire.

"Byoin" in Modern Japan: Focusing on the Terminological Introduction of "Hospital" and the Complex Formation of Its Concept.

This paper aims to clarify when the term of Byoin (hospital) was introduced and how its concept was developed in modern Japan. The word "Byoin" was introduced in Japan in 1787 for the first time, but it had not been in use until early 1860s. Instead, various medical institutions performing the functions of modern medical facilities, such as Yojosho (A place for preserving health), Shijuku (private school), called by traditional names as ever. Japanese intellectuals already adopted the word Byoin and the concept of western hospital in early 1860s when their national delegates were dispatched to Europe to revise the treaties forged with western powers. Japanese translations of hospital appeared in English-Japanese/Japanese-English dictionaries published in the 1860s. For instance, the word Byoin (hospital in Japanese) was first published in a dictionary published in 1867 and unclearly connected to the words, hospital, infirmary. This paper will argue that the concept of Byoin was sophisticated through Meiji government's efforts to implement reforms distinguishing medical facilities based on their capacity of inpatients and quality. The first medical law (Isei) proclaimed by the Meiji government in 1874 articulated regulations for a hospital in eight different articles. The government established hospitals in various parts of the country, following its newly established modern medical care policies. However, in this process, Iin (hospital/clinic), another term for "hospital" appeared. Regional differences and financial issues made standardizing the concept of a hospital even more difficult. In response to the widely embedded confusion, the Japanese government made an effort to clarify the concept of a hospital, setting up provisions regarding the size of medical facilities. As a result, the word Byoin finally came to be used for a hospital with more than ten beds, while a clinic with beds below ten was called Shinryojo (clinic). On the other hand, Iin meant a medical facility less qualified than a hospital since 1933 when Japanese government made a harder restriction on the usage of Byoin.