Of note is an art exhibition created for women with breast cancer, with an intention to help patients to understand their situation, environment and the procedures that await them.

Orlando, FL More than one American art critics has said that one of this countrys finest paintings closely resembles a scene from a horror film. The primary subject of the 1875 painting is a physician from Philadelphia. As one critic describes the scene:

(He is) demonstrating an operation for osteomyelitis of the femur in the surgical amphitheater in 1875 in this highly dramatic, powerful scene. Light glints off his forehead, and his visage is stern, calm, and surrounded by a halo of gray-white hair. The bloody fingers of his right hand hold a blood-tipped scalpel. He appears to have just made an incision and is turning away to demonstrate his work.

The physician represented in the painting is Professor Samuel D. Gross of Jefferson Medical College. His methods werent cutting edge, even for the nineteenth century. He rejected the lessons from Lister regarding an antiseptic operating environment. No revolutionary theory of medical education was taught in his classes. His eternal fame lies with his portrayal in Thomas Eakins The Gross Clinic, now hanging at the renowned Philadelphia medical school.

Unfortunately, many of todays medical school students would not recognize this famous American work nor understand its significance in medicine and art, explained Marek H Dominiczak, MD, PhD, from the Art Science Laboratory, Institute for Art History, University of Glasgow, United Kingdom. For the most part, said Dominiczak, the American medical education system does not teach the links between science and art, or how a painting of a medical scene could play an important role in helping patients cope with an increasingly depersonali
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Contact: Donna J. Krupa
djkrupa1@aol.com
407-685-4215
American Association for Clinical Chemistry
29-Jul-2002