Rheumatology Practice at Mayo Clinic: The First 40 Years–1920 to 1960

Hunder, Gene G.; Matteson, Eric L.

doi:10.4065/mcp.2009.0701

Cited by 12 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 44 publications

(38 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Philip Hench was already a celebrity rheumatologist when he announced ‘compound E’ in April 1949. He had been appointed head of the Mayo Clinic’s rheumatology service in 1928 and was a founding member of the American Association for the Study and Control of Rheumatology (Stecher et al 2010). From 1937 to 1948 he wrote the most influential annual literature review of the field, published in Annals of Internal Medicine (Stecher 1985).…”

Section: Cortisonementioning

confidence: 99%

Special issue—before translational medicine: laboratory clinic relations lost in translation? Cortisone and the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis in Britain, 1950–1960

Worboys

Toon

2019

HPLS

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Cortisone, initially known as ‘compound E’ was the medical sensation of the late 1940s and early 1950s. As early as April 1949, only a week after Philip Hench and colleagues first described the potential of ‘compound E’ at a Mayo Clinic seminar, the New York Times reported the drug’s promise as a ‘modern miracle’ in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Given its high profile, it is unsurprising that historians of medicine have been attracted to study the innovation of cortisone. It arrived at the end of a decade of ‘therapeutic revolutions’, kicked off by penicillin transforming the treatment of bacterial infections and ending with hopes of a revolution in the treatment of non-infectious, chronic inflammatory diseases. Despite these studies of cortisone’s introduction, few historians have taken the story forward and considered how cortisone was adopted and adapted into clinical practice. This article tells the longer of how the drug and its derivatives were taken from research laboratories and integrated into clinical practice; what has in recent decades become known as translational medicine (TM). In exploring cortisone’s first decade in Britain, we focus specifically on its role in the treatment of RA. Our approach is always to consider cortisone’s use in the context of other treatments available to clinicians, and at local and national institutional settings. We do not discuss the many other therapeutic uses of cortisone, which ranged for topical applications for skin diseases to the management of cancers, especially childhood leukaemia, nor do we discuss its close analogue ACTH—AdenoCorticoTropic Hormone. We think there are lessons in our study for TM policies today.

show abstract