Kate Hurd Meade Lecture: "ELAM Program at 15 Years - Advancing Women Academic Health Leaders and Beyond!"

Lecture by Dr. Page Morahan, a Drexel faculty member who pioneered a program (ELAM) to prepare women in medicine for management roles. The event accompanies the Grand Opening of Drexel's Archives. Reception follows program.

NOTE: Program will be held at Drexel University College of Medicine Queen Lane Campus. 

Co-sponsored by the College’s Section on Medical History and Drexel's Institute for Women's Health and Leadership.

Register for this event here.

The 2010 Annual Mütter Ball

364 days a year, The College of Physicians of Philadelphia is dedicated to educating the public and maintaining our standing as the world’s preeminent medical museum.  However, on the night of the Mütter Ball we dedicate ourselves to the cause of fun.

Come to the College as the 19th and 21st centuries collide for a night you'll never forget...

The evening will feature the sounds of one of Philadelphia's hottest DJs, Maria V.

NOTE: Doors open for VIP Lounge at 7:30PM; Standard tickets at 8:30PM. Individuals who register online MUST bring a print-out of their ticket reciept to the Ball.

Sponsored by Pennsylvania Hospital, Vieux Carré Absinthe, Philadelphia Weekly, Cephalon, American Exhibitions, GIANTmicrobes, and Bone Clones, Inc.

Register for this event here.

Philadelphia Area Colloquium in the History of Science, Technology and Medicine: From Fish to Man: MACOS and Animal Objectivity

Discussion of a paper by Erika Lorraine Milam, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of History, University of Maryland, College Park. Read about Dr. Milam here. 

Abstract.  Following the successful Soviet launch of the Sputnik satellite in 1957, it seemed clear to U.S. legislators that Americans had fallen behind in the race for space. One way to ensure a democratic tomorrow for the next generation was to improve the quality of science education in public school classrooms. Beginning with the physical and mathematical sciences, curriculum reform efforts quickly extended to the biological and social sciences. By the early 1960s, a group of anthropologists and educators were collaborating on a new pedagogical program called Man: A Course of Study, or MACOS. The authors of MACOS looked for a way to transport elementary school students virtually to the far reaches of the world so that they could discover what it was to be human through the careful study of a different human culture. MACOS, however, turned into a political battleground over the appropriate use of other cultures as a pedagogical model for teaching American children. Some people objected to claims that all cultural solutions to biological problems were morally equivalent. Biology came to vie with anthropology in the classroom, and for a time, the use of primates as models of human society was far less controversial than examining other cultures.

Sponsored by the F.C. Wood Institute for the History of Medicine and the Philadelphia Area Center for the History of Science.

NOTE: This colloquium involves discussion of an academic paper that will be posted at www.pachs.net in early March.  Please register online, here, or contact info@pachs.net for further information.

Developing a Focus for Managing Chronic Disease: Principles, Perspectives, and Directions

Speaker: Noreen M. Clark, PhD, Myron E. Wegman Distinguished University Professor of Public Health, Professor of Health Behavior & Health Education,Professor of Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases, Director, Director of the Center for Managing Chronic Disease at the University of Michigan

Dr. Clark directs the Center for Managing Chronic Disease at the University of Michigan, a unique research and demonstration effort that involves a network of researchers and interventionists worldwide who study the social, behavioral, and clinical aspects of disease management. The Center's aim is to build the capacity for effective chronic disease prevention and management. The focus of this work is people at risk and those who can help them: family, clinicians, communities, and systems.

Co-sponsored by the College's Section of Public Health and Preventive Medicine and the Department of Family and Community Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University.

Register for this event here.

Exhibit Grand Opening for Corporeal Manifestations

Corporeal Manifestations is a unique collaboration between the Mütter Museum and curator Sasha K. Reibstein, Assistant Professor of Art, Director of Ceramics Palomar College, which highlights artists who create traditional ceramic figurative work by exploring the psychology of our biological existence. The multidisciplinary exhibition interprets the documentation and display of medical specimens and their conditions in three-dimensional objects from clay, one of the most natural materials available to artists. Medical research and ceramic arts reflect on how we understand our physical selves and construct how perceptions of the human body. The work exhibited ranges from the strong realism of Tip Toland’s and Christina West’s life-size figures to Jason Briggs and Jessica Kruetter's abstract forms which resemble body parts and organs, focusing on the sensual and visceral. Artists Roxanne Jackson’s and Kate MacDowell's sculptures depict realistic anatomical parts that blend with elements from nature, exploring our relationship and dominance over the natural world.

Sponsored by the Mütter Museum of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia.

NOTE: Registration is not required for this event.

Discussion of Corporeal Manifestations, the Mütter Museum's newest exhibit

Guest curator Sasha Reibstein, Assistant Professor of Art, Director of Ceramics Palomar College, will present and discuss Corporeal Manifestations in the Cadwalader Gallery. The presentation coincides with the Philadelphia meeting of the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts.

NOTE: This presentation is free with museum admission, or a $10 student discounted rate for convention attendees with an NCECA identification badge.

Sponsored by the Mütter Museum of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia.

The Groff Family Memorial Trust Lecture: "Torture and the History of Truth"

Speaker: Malek Moazzam-Doulat, PhD.

Register for this event here.

Demon Possession and Excorcism: Medical Explanations?

Although modern people often dismiss demon possession and exorcism as fantasy or superstition, these two phenomena actually exist. They transcend time and culture, with documented cases appearing in virtually every part of the world, in every religion, and in every century of recorded history. Explanations for their occurrence are offered by theologians and anthropologists, but what about physicians? What medical explanations exist to account for the suffering of people who think they are possessed by demons and the success of exorcism in relieving these same sufferers? Join Kathleen Sands, PhD for an illustrated lecture exploring the medical history of demon possession and exorcism.

Speaker: Kathleen Sands, PhD, is a humanities professor at the University of Maryland and Thomas Edison State College. She is also the author of Demon Possession in Elizabethan England and An Elizabethan Lawyer’s Possession by the Devil: The Story of Robert Brigges. Her work has been anthologized in a popular university textbook, The Witchcraft Reader (second edition), edited by Darren Oldridge.

Sponsored by the F.C. Wood Institute for the History of Medicine.

Register for this event here.

Grand opening of the New Garden Tour, Benjamin Rush Medicinal Plant Center

When the College was founded in 1787, Dr. Benjamin Rush suggested that the College create “a garden of simples [herbs] to physic the citizens of Philadelphia.”  In 1937, the Philadelphia Section of the American Herb Society designed and planted the garden that, with a few improvements, appears today. Long an oasis in the middle of the city, the garden has been open for years and maintained by the Women’s Committee of the College. With a generous grant from the Groff Family Memorial Trust, the College has revamped the presentation of the garden’s history and the importance of medicinal herbs. During spring, 2010, the College debuts new signage, a new brochure on the garden, and an audio tour to enhance the experience of visitors who visit the Mütter Museum.
               
Sponsored by the F.C. Wood Institute for the History of Medicine.

NOTE: Registration is not required for this event.

Public Health and Preventive Medicine Section Poster Session

Regional public health activities and research will be showcased using posters by professionals and students from public health and related disciplines. The Section will also recognize specific individuals and organizations for their distinguished leadership in the field of Public Health. This event serves to increase the awareness of the public health work in the Philadelphia region. Open to the public, interested individuals will have an opportunity to meet and discuss important public health issues with public health and medical professionals, community organizations, faculty and students.

Sponsored by the College's Section of Public Health and Preventive Medicine.

Register for this event here.

What Mark Twain Might Tell Us (And Ask Us) If He Could Join Us Tonight

Mark Twain, one of America's premier spokesmen, had a lot to say about the medical profession. Twain's works are rich in medical imagery and medical themes. He experimented with many of the alternative care systems available in his day― partly because of his frustration with traditional medicine and partly because he hoped to find the "perfect" system that would bring health to his family. Twain's medical commentary provides a unique perspective on American medicine, as fresh and relevant today as it was over a century ago.

K. Patrick Ober, MD, Professor of Internal Medicine and Associate Dean for Education at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC and author of Mark Twain and Medicine: Any Mummery Will Cure will explore Twain's personal perspectives on the complex interactions between doctors, patients, and medicine, with an emphasis on the humanistic viewpoint.

Sponsored by the Wood Institute for the History of Medicine and the Sections on Medicine and the Arts and Medical History.

Register for this event here.

Pennsylvania Medical Humanities Symposium: Through the Lens of Time: Perspectives on Medicine and Health Care

May 19 (Evening) and May 20 (8AM - 5PM)

The Eighth Annual Pennsylvania Medical Humanities Consortium meeting will be held at The College of Physicians of Philadelphia on Wednesday evening, May 19 through Thursday afternoon, May 20, 2010. This year’s theme, Through the Lens of Time: Perspectives on Medicine and Health Care, will present papers, panels, workshops, readings or performances that examine a topic relevant to medicine and health care from a historical perspective. All presentations will represent the orientation of at least one of the medical humanities, including history, literature and the arts, bioethics, philosophy, religious studies, and social sciences.

For further information contact Rhonda L. Soricelli, MD, Chair, Planning Committee, at RLSoricelli@comcast.net.

To download the registration form for this event click here.

What's Eating You? People and Parasites

Eugene H. Kaplan is the Donald E. Axinn Endowed Distinguished Professor of Ecology and Conservation (emeritus) at Hofstra University. His many books include Sensuous Seas: Tales of a Marine Biologist (Princeton) and A Field Guide to Southeastern and Caribbean Seashores (Peterson Field Guides). His latest book, What’s Eating You? will be published by Princeton University Press in May 2010. In What’s Eating You?, Dr. Kaplan recounts the true and harrowing tales of his adventures with parasites, and in the process introduces readers to the intimately interwoven lives of host and parasite.

A book signing will follow the talk.

Sponsored by the Mütter Museum of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia.

Register for this event here.