The Story Behind the AGS Annual Meeting Program Cover

I was thrilled when the American Geriatrics Society contacted me seeking images for the program cover of next year’s annual meeting. I spent hours flipping through my portfolio and found several suitable shots. Gradually I realized that to represent aging in America I...

Philippe Pinel and the Lunar Society in New Jersey

Last week I had the opportunity to give a lecture at the Lunar Society – an offshoot of the Medical History Society of New Jersey – on the campus of Rutgers University in New Brunswick. The Lunar Society is named after a British social club in the 18th century which...

The Legacy of Letchworth Village

We often think that medical progress marches in a straight line, but that is not the case.  Some ideas change the field rapidly, while others sit by the sidelines for decades before being accepted.  Others are accepted by the medical profession like a fad only to fall...

Wounds of a Boxer: Medical Secrets from Ancient Rome

Over the past month an ancient sculptural masterpiece has been on temporary display in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Greek and Roman halls. On loan from Rome’s Museo Nazionale Romano, “Boxer at Rest” depicts a battered pugilist immediately after a...

JAMA is Redesigned, Art is Demoted

Beginning in 1964 the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) started publishing full color images of art on its cover accompanied by insightful essays. JAMA’s former editor, George Lundberg, wrote that this was part of an initiative to inform readers about...

Sketching on the Left Bank

In the summer of 1977 I traveled to Europe carrying a sketchpad. These were my last months of freedom before entering medical school, and I had doubts about whether I was making the right decision. My acceptance letter was hard-earned, but I rationalized the decision...