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From Hippocrates to COVID-19: sniffing out the disease

The ancient Greek physician, Hippocrates, used the ‘art of smell’ to diagnose diseases around 400BC. He also formulated miasmatic theory, which posited that disease is caused by bad smells. Bad air was strongly believed by many physicians to be the...

Guillotines from Joseph‑Ignace Guillotin to Greenfield Sluder

Joseph‑Ignace Guillotin. The politician and physician Joseph-Ignace Guillotin (1738-1814) was so disgusted by brutal head and shoulder injuries sustained in ‘failed attempts’ by drunken axe-wielding executioners during the French Revolution that he and surgeon Antoine Louis (1723-1792) advocated not only...

Kallmann’s Syndrome

‘A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.’ (Shakespeare) Kallmann’s Syndrome (KS), or hereditary hypogonadal anosmia, is a rare genetic disorder characterised by delayed or absent puberty and anosmia. It is named after Franz Kallmann, but he was...

Where Art meets Science (and earplugs): a tale of acoustics, aesthetics and audiology

For the fifth cover in the Art meets Science series, we celebrate not only the fusion of audiology and art, but also friendship, nature and the kind of collaboration that reaches far beyond the clinic walls. My colleague and dear...

How can we be SMART with virtual consultations?

At the beginning of 2020, video conferencing and phone consultations accounted for less than 1% of all consultations. Now it is probably 70%. Whilst there are many remote consultation solutions available, Tina Marshall describes what the ideal solution should look...

BACO: evolution and modernisation

Chairing the local organising committee is no small task, but it has a personal connection for Tim Woolford, as he tells us. I attended my first BACO in Manchester as a registrar, and have attended every one since. In July,...

Lessons learned from running a national thyroid surgery registry

The UK Registry of Endocrine and Thyroid Surgery is now yielding the rewards of meticulous data collection and years of hard work. David Scott-Coombes discusses the advantages and the unintended consequences of their success. The British Association of Endocrine and...

A soprano’s demise: a cautionary tale for the thyroid surgeon

Prior to the mid-19th century, thyroid surgery was considered excessively dangerous. The emergence of anaesthetic, antisepsis and improved instrumentation, however, increased its feasibility and frequency in Europe. The unhurried, judiciously antiseptic and haemostatic approach, advocated by Kocher, was popularised and...