Category: History of Current Healthcare Issues

2023 Margaret Angus Research Fellowship (MARF) Competition Open

March 15, 2023

The Museum of Health Care is accepting proposals for a resident 16-week summer research fellowship (May – September), which will investigate a topic relevant to the history of health and health care. The fellow will communicate the results of their research by posting updates via the Museum’s blog, producing a scholarly manuscript that will become … More 2023 Margaret Angus Research Fellowship (MARF) Competition Open

MARF 2022 Lecture recording and manuscript now available

December 15, 2022

If you missed the live presentation of this lecture, a recording is now available at the link below. You can also access a digital version of Anna’s manuscript below. Anna’s project examines the lived experience of cystic fibrosis (CF) in the latter half of the 20th century as expressed through the healthcare objects associated with … More MARF 2022 Lecture recording and manuscript now available

Museum of Health Care marks moment in time with COVID-19 update

December 12, 2022

The Museum of Health Care at Kingston has updated its popular Vaccines and Immunization gallery to reflect the latest innovations in vaccination technology. Vaccines and Immunization: Epidemics, Prevention, and Canadian Innovation was first installed in 2013. Developed with Guest Curator Dr. Christopher Rutty, and funded in part by the Kingston and United Way Community Fund, … More Museum of Health Care marks moment in time with COVID-19 update

“You wake up soaked”: Mist Tents and Cystic Fibrosis

November 18, 2022

For those living with cystic fibrosis (CF) from the 1960s to mid-1970s, nights called for fog. People with CF would tuck into bed under a plastic canopy filled with a medicated mist, accompanied by one or more whirring compressors nebulizing solution all night long. These “mist tents,” as the devices were known, were considered a mainstay of CF treatment—until, abruptly (and perhaps mercifully), they weren’t. … More “You wake up soaked”: Mist Tents and Cystic Fibrosis

2022 Margaret Angus Research Lecture

November 12, 2022

Anna’s project examines the lived experience of cystic fibrosis (CF) in the latter half of the 20th century as expressed through the healthcare objects associated with its treatment. By tracing the material histories of two fundamental categories of CF-related objects, inhalation therapies and parenteral antibiotics, she evokes the changing routines of everyday life with the illness from the 1940s to 1990s. … More 2022 Margaret Angus Research Lecture

Globe and Mail: How lessons from the past can help shape future health outcomes

October 17, 2022

That’s where the Museum of Health Care aims to make a contribution. “Our objects can tell a million stories, not just about vaccines but also about vaccine hesitancy,” says Ms. McGowan. “A lot of the discussion that was the backlash against the smallpox vaccine, for example, is not that different from what you hear today. It is really interesting to see this continuity.” The question then becomes what lessons we are willing to learn, and Ms. McGowan believes that seeing an iron lung, a smallpox vaccination certificate or a poster about wearing a mask during the 1918-19 influenza epidemic can provide an extra incentive for seeking out valid evidence. … More Globe and Mail: How lessons from the past can help shape future health outcomes

(IV) Hook-ups: Cystic fibrosis and intravenous antibiotics

September 4, 2022

Antibiotics have been a mainstay of CF treatment throughout the decades. This simple statement, however, obscures their various manifestations in the lives of people with CF. The principles may have been similar in 1950 and 1990, but the experiences were vastly different. Material culture illuminates the changes that textual references can obscure, as exemplified here by the objects of intravenous (IV) antibiotic treatment for CF lung infections. … More (IV) Hook-ups: Cystic fibrosis and intravenous antibiotics

The “Stuff” of Cystic Fibrosis

August 6, 2022

Since cystic fibrosis (CF) was identified in 1938, tens of thousands have lived with the severe genetic disease. Each experience has been individual, yet common threads run through, most notably experiences of healthcare. People with CF become well-acquainted with the clinic, the hospital, the pharmacy; the need to accommodate at home piles of pill bottles, physio devices, nebulizer set-ups, perhaps home IVs, feeding tubes, oxygen compressors, insulin. The lived experience of everyday life with CF in a large part resides in these objects and their environments. … More The “Stuff” of Cystic Fibrosis

Welcome MARF 2022: Anna Krentz

June 29, 2022

The Museum of Health Care is pleased to welcome Anna Krentz, this year’s Margaret Angus Research Fellow!⁠ ⁠ Anna Krentz is an archivist, historical researcher, and writer with cystic fibrosis. Her interdisciplinary background includes an MA from Toronto Metropolitan University and Honours BA from St. Francis Xavier University, as well as, graduate coursework in the … More Welcome MARF 2022: Anna Krentz