Korean Journal of Medical History最新文献

This research examines the expansion and characteristics of the Korean Army's chain of medical evacuation in 1948-1953. The most important goal of the chain of medical evacuation was to conserve fighting strength, which cannot be achieved only by sending the sick and wounded to the rear for treatment. It was more important to maintain as many mission-capable wounded soldiers on the frontline. Therefore, triage for conserving strength was the priority in the evacuation process, and military doctors conducting triage played a significant role. Focusing on military doctors, this article studies the instability of the Korean Army's medical evacuation chain. Although Korea was liberated from Japanese colonial rule in August 1945, Korea had no army or army medical services. With the support of KMAG, the Korean Army was able to build a nationwide evacuation chain during the Korean War. However, the expansion of the medical evacuation chain resulted in instability. At the heart of the instability was manpower, rather than organization and transportation. Koreans had almost no experience with the military medical services before 1948, and during the Korean War, most doctors, who had been conscripted after the outbreak of the war, were not trained as military doctors. Therefore, the Korean Army had no other choice but to conduct medical evacuations using mobilized civilian doctors who were not sufficiently trained as military doctors. The escalating war revealed the problems of civilian doctors in military uniforms. Unlike the goal of the chain of medical evacuation, they easily evacuated patients and were reluctant to release patients to return to their duties. Korean Army doctors who were not sufficiently trained as military doctors struggled between the goals of military medical services and those of medical care. Consequently, the military doctors and the instability of the medical evacuation chain during the Korean War reflect the fundamental tension between war and medicine.

This paper is the first attempt to get a broad view of the history of modern medical history education in Japan, from the origin of medical history education in the Meiji era to its current state in medical schools. By correcting errors related to the first university lectures on medical history in Japan and historically contextualizing the challenges of medical history education and the academic community's responses, this paper aims to examine both the historical significance and practical implications. The history of medical history education in Japan is relatively long. Medical history lectures in a medical school were first planned in 1876, and contrary to popular belief, the actual lecture started in December 1882 under Imamura Ryō's charge and continues to this day. However, despite its relatively long history, the substance of medical history education in Japan is lacking in both quality and quantity. The absence of full-time professors of medical history education and related departments has led to a vicious cycle of failure in producing experts and a decline in medical education. Medical history education in Japan failed to take advantage of the fact that it began early despite the absence of tradition. The status of medical history education greatly increased in the 1930s, but the opportunity to expand its base was not utilized during the postwar reorganization of medical education and the student movement in the late 1960s. Falling into amateurism, evasion of real issues, and a lack of collective academic responses have hindered the understanding of these phenomena and problem-solving. The history of medical history education in Japan provides significant implications for the current reality of medical history education in Korea. The Korean medical history community must also confront and adapt proactively and organizationally within the evolving landscape of medical education. If the community settles for the present, Japan's past will become Korea's future.

In this article, I reviewed the exchange of medicine between the Koryo Dynasty and Japan during the Koryo Dynasty. Compared to the exchange of medicine during the Three Kingdoms or the early Joseon Dynasty, medicine between Korea and Japan was loosely affected each other during the Koryo Dynasty. This characteristic of medical history with Japan during the Koryo Dynasty corresponded to the overall low density of exchanges between the two countries. In this paper, the exchange of medicine during the entire Koryo period was divided into 4 periods, and medical records in Korea and Japan were discussed in terms of medical personnel, medical knowledge, and pharmaceutical materials. During the Koryo Dynasty, Korea was interested in Japan's medical personnel and pharmaceutical materials, and Japan was interested in Korea's medical knowledge and pharmaceutical materials. When limited to the Koryo Dynasty, it is difficult to determine the superiority or inferiority of pharmaceutical materials, medical personnel, and medical knowledge between Korea and Japan. Without frequent contact to compare the level of medical care, each country only accepted the other country's medical care within the necessary range. This means that the exchange of medicine between Koryo and Japan did not flow only in one direction. In addition, I proposed to understand the pre-modern East Asian world, including Korea-Japan relations, by using the concept of political bodies instead of the concept of state. In other words, it is necessary to call the subject of action that independently judges and executes foreign relations while maintaining a high degree of autonomy in decision-making as 'political bodies', and utilizes this concept to interpret the pre-modern East Asian world complexly. The concept of political bodies is also useful for understanding the exchange of medicine among the three East Asian countries.

Medical history education enables the medical students to understand the humanistic aspects of medicine and also help to promote the professionalism of doctors. It makes them understand the disappearing or emerging diseases by recognizing the historical changes and trends to respond appropriately. Therefore, it is helpful to study and understand modern medicine. As of March 2023, 22 (55.0%) out of 40 medical schools in Republic of Korea have medical history course as an independent subject and two schools have integrated courses with medical ethics. Compared to 53.1% in 1995 and 56.2% in 2010, similar percentage of medical schools maintained the subject independently. However, the average credits of 18 schools in 2023(2.0) are higher than those of 1995(1.4) and 2010(1.2). The number of full-time professor who specialized in the history of medicine was 2 in 1995, 6 in 2010, and 11 in 2023. Generally, a full-time professor majoring medical history tend to have other duties besides the education and research of medical history, depending on the role of the department to which he or she belongs since they are assigned to the humanities education other than medical history education. Currently, the curriculums that have been recommended by Korea Association of Medical Colleges(KAMC), Korean Institute of Medical Education and Evaluation(KIMEE), and The Korean Society of Medical Education(KSMED), emphasize medical humanities but do not necessarily include the medical history. As a result, medical history courses have increased slightly, but the other humanities classes have increased significantly since 2000. The knowledge of medical history will help students become a doctor, and a doctor with professionalism adapting to the rapidly changing medical environment. Students will also be able to establish the ideas they must pursue in the present era when they come into contact with numerous historical situations. And if they share a sense of history, they will inspire a sense of unity as a profession and will be more active in solving social problems such as health equity. It is hoped that The Korean Society for the History of Medicine will step forward to set the purpose and goal of the medical history education, and organize the contents of the education. Classes should be prepared so that students are interested in them, and education should be focused on how the contents of education will be able to be used in medicine. To this end, it is necessary to establish the basic learning outcomes of history of medicine, and prepare learning materials based on these learning outcomes. It is also necessary to increase the competencies of educators for the history of medicine, such as performing workshops. With the dedication of the pioneers who devoted their energy to the education of medical history, it is expected that medical history will find out what to do in medical education to foster better doctors and provide better education.

This paper traces how medical technologies to correct vision were introduced and changed in Korean society until the introduction of Orthokeratology called 'Dream Lens' in the late 1990s. First of all, I outlines the historical background of the introduction and spread of the relatively unfamiliar and expensive Orthokeratology, which is said to "cure" myopia and astigmatism by pressing the cornea. 'Dream Lens', a 'lens for correcting corneal refractive error', was a popular vision correction technology in terms of its name, treatment method, and effect. Not only was it introduced with a name similar to contact lens used instead of glasses from decades ago, but the way it was attached to and removed from the cornea was also similar. On the other hand, the public was already familiar with the principle of correcting the refractive index by pressing the cornea and improving visual acuity in the long term, just like LASIK which became popular in the mid-1990s. The use of contact lens which was similar in terms of the name 'lens' and the effect of 'correcting vision', and the trend of LASIK which was similar in principle of controlling corneal refraction, was a historical stage that helped soft landing of orthokeratology. However, from contact lens, vision correction technology did not settle down without any conflict. There was a conflict between medical experts traditionally responsible for optometry and production of spectacles and lens, and opticians who were newly in charge of that area. Ophthalmologists who have been in charge of optometry and prescriptions for a long time had no choice but to hand over some of the inspection areas to opticians due to the rapidly increasing number of opticians and the implementation of the optician system in 1989. And they had no choice but to watch the expansion of the business of opticians who manufactured glasses based on their own vision tests and sold them together with contact lens. Instead, corneal resection, which is not a technique for correcting visual acuity due to corneal refractive error, but a surgical technique for treating the corneal refractive error itself, has become an ophthalmologist's unique task. In addition, Dream Lens, which corrects corneal refractive error using a similar principle, has also become an object of professional medical practice because it required more precise examination and treatment than eyeglasses or contact lenses. By understanding the process by which vision correction technologies, from contact lens to dream lens, have been introduced into Korean society over the past few decades, this paper gives a new understanding how different medical technologies with the same or similar purposes are settling down, and the tension between experts in charge of them.

Through the case of the A. A. Marks Artificial Limb Company, this article explores how the technology and business of prosthetics grew in America up to the First World War. In 1853, Amasa A. Marks established the artificial limb company A. A. Marks in New York. By the time of the First World War, the company had become the largest supplier of artificial limbs in the United States and had gained international recognition, exporting its products all over the world. Focusing on the company's growth before the war, this paper analyzes how American artificial limb makers positioned themselves between art and medicine and between surgeons and disabled customers at a time when their occupation had yet to be established as a specialized profession. From the mid-nineteenth century when the artificial limb business burgeoned to the First World War, American society went through various social and cultural changes that influenced the prosthetics industry and the perception of disability. During the Civil War, numerous soldiers were injured but survived because advancements in amputation techniques enabled surgeons to save more lives despite limb loss. The growing number of maimed veterans required more mechanical and public support for their rehabilitation. As a reconstruction project of the nation and a way to address the sense of damaged masculinity felt by injured war veterans, both Union and Confederate states approved support for providing them with artificial limbs at public expense. In postbellum America, as well as deformity and amputation, industrialization created a need for artificial limbs as the brutality of advanced weapons and unfortunate accidents involving machines and railroads increased the number of amputees. Thus during the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, recognition of maimed bodies in public places went through a legislative and cultural transformation. The growth of artificial limb manufacturer A. A. Marks was in tune with such technological, medical, and sociocultural changes. Along with technological innovations and patents to protect these innovations, Amasa Marks devised various marketing methods and strategies through which the company secured customers and finally expanded the prosthetics market. As its customers increased, the company accumulated quantitative and qualitative data from patients' responses and interviews, and its own observations. In the late nineteenth century, George E. Marks, Amasa Marks's son and a representative of the company, analyzed customers' experiences of disability, gathering information on patterns of disability and mortality rates. Based on the company's rich experience with a large number of patient cases, George Marks advanced criticisms of surgical methods and provided second opinions on amputation surgeries. In doing so, he attempted to promote the limb maker's position from mere artisan to specialist, redefining the relationship between medicine and prosthetics and

In this research, I aimed to recognize the historical meaning of installing the medical education center, 'Uihak', during the Silla dynasty. 'Uihak' was installed in 692, in the first year of King Hyoso 's rule. 'Uihak' was founded by using various Chinese medical classics as its textbooks for medical education, such as the Classic of Plain Questions. The wooden prescriptions excavated from Anapji, which is thought to have been created in the middle of the 8th century, and the Chinese medical book Prescriptions for Universal Benefit, which the envoy of Silla tried to acquire in 803, reflect the idea on medicine during that period in Silla. By this time, the field of medicine began to develop the idea to discern the locations and mechanism of disease patterns by centering on the viscera and bowels while making use of the herbal prescriptions based on various drugs. This means that clinical medicine founded upon the medical education achieved in 'Uihak' was being realized in the medical fields as well. According to the Chronicles of the Three States, for the illness of Queen Sunduk in 636, medicine, praying, and the method of esoteric Buddhism was tried out as a means of her cure. Comparatively, for the treatment of the first rank Chunggong in 822, the Kingdom's representative doctor with professional medical knowledge was sought out to fine a cure. The analyses of the human disease, diagnosis, treatment method, etc., given by the kingdom's representative doctor were identical to those recommended in the medical textbooks used in 'Uihak'. As such, we can posit that his academic background was 'Uihak' and the education given there. The Classic of Materia Medica, which was also used in 'Uihak', was a book professionally centered on the drug branch of medicine. The Classic of Materia Medica is a terminology referring to various books on drugs, including the Shennong's Classic of Materia Medica, the Variorum of the Classic of Materia Medica, the Newly Revised Materia Medica, etc. Thus, we cannot specify what the classic of Materia Medica actually taught, based on only its terminology. However, based on the wooden prescriptions excavated from Anapji, and from the terminology of drugs recorded in the drug trading document Purchase List for Silla goods preserved in Shosoin of Japan, we can hypothesize that in the middle of the 8th century, the Newly Revised Materia Medica was indeed being circulated. Based on these evidences, we can also hypothesize that Silla was part of the network of drug trading that encompassed the entire region of Asia. After unifying the Korean peninsula, the Kingdom of Silla actively adopted the medical educational system of Tang China. By using the obtained medical knowledge, Silla cured illnesses and used the medical knowledge on various drugs recorded in the Newly Revised Materia Medica to pursue trade with China, Japan, and other countries. Through the installation of 'Uihak', the same medicine has now begun to be offici

This study analyzes the annual reports of CMB in order to examine CMB's assistance of Korea. CMB originally assisted medical education in China, and it turned to assist Asia with changes in the international situation. This paper examines three periods spanning from 1953 to 1980 when Korea received CMB assist. The first period was from 1953 to 1962, when Korea received help with material resources that were lacking after the Korean War. The second period was from 1963 to 1972 during which the scale of assistance further expanded. Additionally, Seoul National University began to have human resources with the necessary support for education and research with the assistance from CMB. The third period was from 1973 to 1980, when the CMB newly established the overall direction of aid, the contents of assistance for Korea also changed. Throughout this period, Korean medicine was able to lay the foundation for independence, and public health, including community medicine, came to be considered as an important aspect of society.

This book review examines A Cultural History of Heredity as a historical account of the development of a body of thought that the authors refer to as "biological hereditarian thinking" in Europe and North America during the long 19th and 20th centuries. Rather than a standard history of modern genetics, the book, as the title properly suggests, introduces and connects various ideas about heredity. The aim of this review is to simplify the complex historical time frame and highlight some of the main themes and lines of thinking to make this masterpiece more accessible to life and medical scientists. In other words, this review seeks to provide an epistemological typology of heredity.

This paper explores the historical and contemporary significance of medical humanism and its potential value in medical education. Medical humanities emerged as a response to the issues arising from science-driven modern medicine, most notably the marginalization of the individual in medical practice. Medical humanism has evolved to become a guiding ideology in shaping the theory and practice of medical humanities. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought about significant changes in medical humanities, challenging the foundations of humanism beyond medical humanism. The rise of posthumanism raises fundamental questions about humanism itself. The climate crisis, driven by human greed and capitalism's exploitation of nature, has led to the emergence of viruses that transcend species boundaries. The overflow of severely ill patients has highlighted the classic medical ethics problem of "who should be saved first" in Korea, and medical humanism is facing a crisis. Various marginalized groups have also pointed out the biases inherent in medical humanism. With this rapidly changing environment in mind, this paper examines the past and present of medical humanism in order to identify the underlying ideology of medical humanism and its future potential in medical education. This paper assumes that there are two axes of humanism: human-centeredness and anthropocentrism. Medical humanism has historically developed along the axis of human-centeredness rather than anthropocentrism, emphasizing the academic inquiry into human nature and conditions, as well as the moral element of humanity. Furthermore, this paper discusses the challenges that medical humanism faces from post-human centeredness and post-anthropocentrism, as well as the recent discourse on posthumanism. Finally, the implications of this shift in medical humanism for the education of the history of medicine are briefly explored.