Annual Review 2004 - Wellcome Trust

MEDICAL HUMANITIES45MEDICAL HUMANITIESThe Medical Humanities stream aims to enhance understanding of the historicaland social context of medicine and biomedical science. It supports researchprogrammes in history of medicine and biomedical ethics, and encouragesuse of research findings, for example to inform public policy making.In the history of medicine, a StrategicAward was made to Dr Mark Harrison(University of Oxford) for his study‘The history of infectious disease, andmedicine in the tropics’. EnhancementAwards were made to ProfessorVirginia Berridge (London Schoolof Hygiene and Tropical Medicine),Professor Anne Crowther (Universityof Glasgow) and Dr Nick Hopwood(University of Cambridge).Two University Awards were made,to Dr Tim McHugh (Oxford BrookesUniversity; Rural medical charity andsociety in Brittany, 1598–1789) andDr Rosemary Elliot (University ofGlasgow; Smoking and health inGermany from occupation toreunification, 1945–1995). Fellowshipand project support covered a widerange of topics, from Unani practicein India to fungal diseases inmodern medicine.PreservationThe Research Resources in MedicalHistory scheme was set up to improveaccess to documentary collections thatare important to historians of medicine,by funding preservation, conservation,cataloguing and digitisation projects.In June 2004, the scheme wasextended for a further two years, withfunds of £500 000 available each year.In its first four years, the scheme hasfunded 58 projects to a total value of£2 million.An evaluation of the scheme carried outin 2004 discovered that institutions thathave received funding for cataloguingnow urgently require second-stagefunding for preservation andconservation. As a result, the newscheme is focusing primarily onpreservation and conservation, althoughproposals for cataloguing projects willstill be accepted.Biomedical ethicsResearch is supported on issuesrelevant to policy and practice in the UKand the conduct of biomedical researchin the developing world. A total of 50awards in biomedical ethics were madein 2003/04, primarily project grantsbut including six fellowships, ninestudentships and 17 symposia.The Wellcome Trust also organiseda workshop, ‘Investigating ethicsand mental disorders’.Among the research projects funded,Dr Sheila McLean (University ofGlasgow) was awarded a project grantto review and evaluate clinical ethicscommittees in the UK. Dr RobinWilliams (University of Durham) receivedproject grant funding for follow-up to hisprevious study on the UK National DNAdatabase, this time reviewing forensicdatabasing in support of criminalinvestigation in the EU states, and howDNA data are being shared acrossnational borders.Dr Mike English, a clinician at theKEMRI/Wellcome Trust Major OverseasProgramme in Kenya, was awardedproject grant support to investigatethe research-to-policy-to-practicepathway in Kenya. He will explorethe environment in which health policydecisions are made, mapping out thelinkages and information flow betweenkey stakeholder groups.The development of novel diagnostics,therapeutics and health services isincreasingly predicated on the searchfor significant biological differenceswithin and between populations.Dr Paul Martin (University of Nottingham)was funded to investigate how thecategories of race/ethnicity are usedin research and what their practicalimpact might be.Wellcome Trust Centre for theHistory of MedicineResearch at the The Wellcome TrustCentre for the History of Medicine atUniversity College London, led byProfessor Hal Cook, spans a widerange of topics, eras and countries.The Centre also organises outreachactivities and teaching at undergraduate,Master’s and PhD levels. The Centrebegan a new MA course in 2004,recruiting 13 students from a varietyof backgrounds.Professor Janet Browne continued toadd to the prizes awarded to her bookCharles Darwin: Volume 2 – The powerof place (Jonathan Cape), including theW H Heinemann prize from The RoyalSociety of Literature. Her book was alsoshort-listed for the British Academy BookPrize 2003.Professor Vivian Nutton’s AncientMedicine was published by Routledgein 2004, while six Wellcome Witnessesto Twentieth Century Medicine, publishedby the Centre, are now available online.The Centre has a varied outreachprogramme. Professor Roger Cooterbegan a column in the Lancet on‘Keywords in the history of medicine’,while members of the Centre appearedin the six-part Radio 4 programme TheOther Medicine presented by Anna Ford.Dr Sanjoy Bhattacharya and Dr AndrewHull advised and appeared on the recentChannel 4 documentary The Great AsianInvasion discussing the role of Asiandoctors in the formation of the NHS.Professor Kan-wen Ma contributedto parliamentary consultations on theregulation of complementary andalternative medicine.www.ucl.ac.uk/histmedL to RBoys in Kenya.Dr Mark Harrisonof the Universityof Oxford.