Columbia Holds 20th Annual Allen Hyman History Of Anesthesia Lecture, Looks Back At Medicines Celluloid Heroes

Johns Hopkins University guest speaker explores “Hollywood’s View of the Doctor from the 1930s to the 1990s”

New York, NY – Sept. 5, 2001 – The Department of Anesthesiology at Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons will mark the 20th anniversary of the Allen Hyman History of Anesthesia lecture series with a 60-year retrospective of doctors on film. Peter Dans, M.D., FACP, associate professor of medicine and associate professor of health policy and management at Johns Hopkins University—and author of Doctors in the Movies: Boil the Water and Just Say Aah—will discuss the film industry’s perspectives on the medical profession during the golden age of Hollywood and beyond. Dr. Dans will set Hollywood’s portrayal of physicians against a backdrop of 20th century sociological change and medical progress, will highlight the various medical clichés and archetypes that appear and reappear throughout movie history, and will provide commentary on a number of memorable film clips. The lecture will take place on Thursday, Sept. 6, from 7-8 a.m. in Alumni Auditorium, located in the Black Building on Columbia’s Health Sciences campus, 650 West 168th Street, 1st floor. The Allen Hyman History of Anesthesia Lecture Series was initiated in 1982 by Dr. Allen Hyman, professor of anesthesiology at Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons and a physician at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, when Dr. Hyman delivered a lecture to complement his donation of an extensive book collection on the history of anesthesia. That lecture proved so successful that the Department of Anesthesiology opted to continue the program on an annual basis. The lecture series was designed to provide historical background and context on the field of anesthesiology but has since broadened in scope to include a wide variety of medical-related themes—reflecting the increasingly interdisciplinary nature of medicine. Recent lectures have covered the topics of infant resuscitation, heart transplantation, biomedical ethics, and medicine in the new millennium.

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Allen Hyman, Johns Hopkins University, Peter Dans, Physicians Surgeons