Table Of Contentmedical visions
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Medical Visions
PRODUCING THE PATIENT THROUGH FILM, TELEVISION,
AND IMAGING TECHNOLOGIES
Kirsten Ostherr
oxford university press
1
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ostherr, Kirsten, 1970–Medical visions / Kirsten Ostherr.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-0-19-973724-6 (hardback) ISBN 978-0-19-973725-3 (alk. paper)
1. Title.
[DNLM: 1. History of Medicine. 2. Mass Media. 3. Education, Medical—history.
4. History, 20th Century. WZ 64]
610—dc23
2012024726
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
Table of Contents
Introduction: Medical Ways of Seeing 3
1. Visual Education, Health Communication, and Scientific Filmmaking
in the Early Twentieth Century 28
2. “The Entire Medical Profession Is Becoming ‘Film Conscious’”:
How Cinema Became Part of Medical Education 48
3. “The Disruption of Medical Education throughout the World”: Global
Networks for Medical Media in the Postwar Era 81
4. From the Avant-Garde to Experimental Television:
Mid-Century Technologies of Medical Perception 113
5. Medical Relevance and Public Relations: How Cinéma Vérité
Became the Video News Release 152
6. Medical Reality TV, Social Media, and the Networked Patient 190
Conclusion: Ten Lessons for the Future of Medical Media 215
Notes 225
Bibliography 267
Index 285
v
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Acknowledgments
This book has taken shape over many years, growing out of conversations with an
ever-expanding range of colleagues in a wide variety of fields. Talking, thinking, and
researching across traditional disciplinary boundaries have been essential to the
creation of this work, and the rewards of these translational efforts have far exceeded
their considerable challenges. Of course, bridging differences in terminologies,
methods, and materials requires collaborators of good will, and I have been fortu-
nate to have many. It is time to thank them.
Many long hours in dusty archives are tucked within the pages of Medical Visions,
and I am eternally grateful to the archivists and curators whose assistance, wisdom,
and encyclopedic mastery of their holdings enabled me to discover the gems in their
collections along the way. Susan Rishworth was indispensible to my exploration of
the American College of Surgeons archive in Chicago. In the History of Medicine
Division of the National Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health,
I wish to thank Elizabeth Fee, Stephen Greenberg, Paul Theerman, David Cantor,
Michael Sappol, Manon Parry, and Nancy Dosch. I was privileged to hold lengthy
conversations with archivist Thomas Rose during my visit as a researcher-in-res-
idence at the Rockefeller Archive Center in Sleepy Hollow, NY. My work at the
World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, was made possible by the gen-
erosity of Donna Kynaston, Thomson Prentice, Yvonne Grandbois, Jean-Marc
Stephane Glinz, and Avril Reid. Extra special thanks for assistance at the WHO go
to Marie Villemin Partow, who rescued extensive paper holdings related to postwar
film production at the WHO because I happened to contact her about a research
visit mere days before those materials were slated for destruction. And although they
are film producers, not archivists, the generous folks at UT-TV (University of Texas-
Television) in Houston—especially Elaine Mays and Greg West—kindly set me up
in a back room and dusted off the 3/4-inch and BETA video cassette decks so I could
review scores of master tapes of the “Red” Duke Health Report that they had produced
vii
viii Acknowledgments
many years earlier. Mark Carlton generously allowed me to interview him about the
early years of the Health Report. My sincere admiration and gratitude go to Dr. James
“Red” Duke, who astounded me during our interview by being even more engaging
and informative in person than he is on TV. David Wexler generously escorted me
on a behind-the-scenes tour of the Churchill-Wexler film studio and archival vault
in Hollywood, California. Robert Bazell of NBC News provided some essential
details from his firsthand knowledge of early health reporting on TV.
I am deeply grateful to all of the generous individuals and institutions who
provided funding and time for me to research and write this book. At Rice
University I received support from the English Department (particularly under
Helena Michie and Cary Wolfe), the Humanities Research Center (especially
under the inspired leadership of Caroline Levander and associate director Melissa
Bailar), the Office of the Provost (through the Faculty Initiatives Fund), Jon and
Paula Mosle, and the Office of the Dean of Humanities. Nothing would ever get
done in the English Department without the brilliant behind-the-scenes machina-
tions of Marcia Carter, Anne Smith, and Linda Evans, and I thank them for their
cheerful, efficient administrative assistance. I also thank my excellent graduate
research assistants Lilian Crutchfield, Paul Case, Sophie Weeks, Kattie Basnett,
Joanna O’Leary, Joanna Fax, Karen Rosenthall, Kristen Ray, and Derek Woods.
Among my many wonderful colleagues at Rice who have helped foster a
community of intellectual engagement and friendship, I wish to thank Nicole
Waligora-Davis, Sarah Ellenzweig, Scott McGill, Julie Fette, Marcia Brennan, Cyrus
Mody, Elaine Howard Ecklund, Olivia Banner, and Christian Emden. For enabling
me to work with peace of mind, I am profoundly indebted to the Rice Children’s
Campus community of caregivers and parents, especially Carla Sharp, my comrade-
in-arms whose warmth and wit often help put the challenging path of academic par-
enthood into perspective.
I developed lasting friendships with colleagues at the Dartmouth College
Humanities Institute, when I was a Visiting Fellow for the “Visual Culture and
Pedagogy in the Life Sciences” symposium led by Michael Dietrich and Nancy
Anderson. Medical Visions benefitted from lively and productive conversations dur-
ing my semester as a visiting scholar at the Institute for Medical Humanities at the
University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, and I especially thank Bill
Winslade, Howard Brody, Jerome Crowder, Anne Hudson Jones, and Donna
Vickers. For invitations to present my work, and for the creative sustenance that
comes from intellectual friendships, I thank Scott Curtis, Oliver Gaycken, David
Serlin, Lisa Cartwright, Barry Saunders, Priscilla Wald, Jonathan Metzl, Hannah
Landecker, Chris Kelty, Joshua Malitsky, Charles Acland, Haidee Wasson, Zoë
Druick, Jonathan Kahana, Marsha Orgeron, Devin Orgeron, Dan Streible, Dwight
Acknowledgments ix
Swanson, Snowden Becker, Janna Jones, Mark Neumann and the folks at Northeast
Historic Film, Heather Norris Nicholson, Jennifer Peterson, Nancy Tomes, Les
Friedman, David Cantor, Anja Laukötter, and Christian Bonah. An encore round of
thanks go to Scott Curtis and Oliver Gaycken, whose work inspires me, and whose
feedback on countless papers and presentations has shaped my thinking on medical
media through and through. My incredible collaborators at the Medical Futures Lab
have recently provided the cross-fertilization of ideas that helped me put the finishing
touches on this book, especially as I pondered the intersections of historical and
future medical visualizations. Thanks to Bryan Vartabedian, Tom Cole, Dave
Thompson and the folks at ttweak, Carlos Monroy, Olivia Banner, Peter Killoran,
and our extended network of supporters.
Finally, and nearest to my heart, I thank the little ones, Benjamin and Theo, who
get me up good and early every day to make new discoveries and take note of the
small pleasures in life. On trips to the zoo, train rides, and over many late-night din-
ners, Peter Killoran has been my sounding board, my cheering section, and my inspi-
ration. As an “inside informant,” he has given me a unique view of the culture of
medicine and new insights into the “machine that goes ping!” His brilliant thinking
about the visual display of medical data is sprinkled throughout this book. In every
way, he is my most cherished collaborator. I must also thank all of the other doctors
Killoran who provide their expert opinions with good cheer whenever a specialized
or amusing medical question arises. For helping me stay grounded while inspiring
me with their own courageous personal transformations, I am eternally grateful to
my mother and sister, whose unflagging support, interest, and affection keep me
going, especially when the going gets rough.
Finally, I wish to thank the helpful folks at Oxford University Press, especially my
former and current editors, Shannon McLachlan and Brendan O’Neill, and my
anonymous reviewers. Extra thanks go to Bradley Lewis and Oliver Gaycken for
their incisive critiques and willingness to forego anonymity in the service of schol-
arly exchange. For her brilliant copyediting, I thank Terry Munisteri. Portions of
this book have been previously published and are extensively revised and expanded
here. Several paragraphs in the Introduction were published as “Narrative Medicine,
Biocultures, and the Visualization of Health and Disease,” in Caroline F. Levander
and Robert S. Levine, eds., A Companion to American Literary Studies (Wiley-
Blackwell Press, 2011), and are reprinted by permission of Wiley-Blackwell. An
earlier and abbreviated form of Chapter 1 appeared as “Cinema as Universal
Language of Health Education: Translating Science in Unhooking the Hookworm
(1920),” in Nancy Anderson and Michael Dietrich, eds., The Educated Eye: Visual
Culture and Pedagogy in the Life Sciences (University Press of New England, 2012);
parts of Chapter 2 were published as “Medical Education Through Film: Animating
