News

Cancer Confidential by Charles Hayter

Warmest congratulations to our own Charles Hayter whose new book Cancer Confidential: Backstage Dramas in the Radiation Clinic is just out from University of Toronto Press. Cancer Confidential is a vivid, moving, and beautifully-written memoir that sheds light on the mysterious and often maligned specialty of radiation oncology. Weaving together the stories of his patients, colleagues, and his own father, Hayter deals with some of the most painful experiences in life with great courage, compassion, insight, and honesty.

Order your copy here today or through your favorite bookseller.

“All the [medical] world’s a stage! In elegant prose, with Felliniesque flights into whimsical metaphor, physician-historian-playwright Charles Hayter describes his encounters with cancer, as a doctor and as a son, and how the experience changed him as a person. Sensitive to the arrogance and obfuscation of his clinical colleagues, he advocates for the underappreciated power of radiation therapy in cancer care and for truth in all relationships.”

Jacalyn M. Duffin, Professor Emerita and Hannah Chair of the History of Medicine, Queen’s University
News

Clinical Medicine: the Youngest Science

Friends of the CIHR presents a video series in the history of medicine in Canada featuring video clips from the Friesen Lectures and other sources.

This is the first of a four part series featuring excerpts from Dr. David Naylor’s lecture “Emergence of Health Research as a Data Science” from the 2018 Henry G. Friesen International Prize in Health Research. Dr. Naylor is Professor of Medicine and President Emeritus of the University of Toronto, as well as past Dean of Medicine at the University of Toronto.

News

Mercy Mission

Constance Beattie in the summer of 1949, at Fairway Island (known today as Pitsiulartok) in Hudson Bay. [Photo: courtesy of Beattie's nephew Chuck Beattie]

“When polio struck an Inuit community in the late 1940s, it led to a tragedy that shocked the country. A physiotherapist was urgently needed to help treat Inuit polio victims in the Arctic settlement of Chesterfield Inlet on the west coast of Hudson Bay. Constance “Connie” Beattie was the only real choice to answer a distress call issued by the Department of Indian Affairs in late March 1949.”

Club member Christopher Rutty has an article, “Mercy Mission,” originally published in the Feb-March 2018 issue of Canada’s History Magazine about the fascinating story of Constance Beattie’s medical mission to the Arctic.

News

Dr. Brenda Milner interview

The Friends of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research has published a video celebrating Dr. Brenda Milner’s upcoming 103rd birthday on July 15, 2021. Brenda Milner is a founder of modern Neuropsychology and Distinguished Professor in the Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, McGill University. This is an interview conducted by Michael Bliss, May 13th, 2013. They discuss Dr. Milner’s early interest in science.

For more information about FCIHR, their Video History of Medicine in Canada program, and other programs and projects, please visit their website: http://www.fcihr.ca/