200 years ago today, January 17th 1812, the New England Journal of Medicine and Surgery and the Collateral Branches of Science was born. The oldest continuously published medical journal in the world adopted its current name, the New England Journal of Medicine, in 1928 and has remained one of the most authoritative medical journals with one of the highest impact factors rivaling the Journal of the American Medical Association and The Lancet.
Over the past several decades, it has been the place to publish ground-breaking medical discoveries such as the earliest description of AIDS and the cardiovascular benefits of aspirin.
I will admit that I do not read it weekly. But I still have my stack of landmark articles tucked away in folders collected through medical school and a thumb-drive of pdf formatted articles collected since. And now with NEJM’s presence on Facebook and on Twitter, I can easily take part in interactive quizzes and the Clinical Image Challenge which are so much fun.
The Case Records of the Massachusetts General Hospital were instrumental in teaching me how to present cases while providing an overview of the basic science and pathology behind each case. Each is a perfect example of the art and science of medicine. Meanwhile, the Clinical Practice and Review sections helped translate what I read in textbooks to what I was seeing on the wards. I daresay that the journal is more useful to medical students now as its website and smartphone app also include procedure videos for performing a lumbar puncture (spinal tap) for example and images of physical exam or radiographic findings.
And now to celebrate its 200th anniversary, there is a special website NEJM200 which includes a timeline of the history of medical discoveries. Reports which are so humbling, so awesome, and make me so proud to be a modern physician. We have come such a long way in such a short time. Can you imagine that aspirin was just synthesized in 1897, that penicillin discovered by serendipity in 1928, that it was just in 1979 that polio was eradicated from the United States and smallpox from the world in 1980? Sobering.
On the other hand, it borders on ridiculous that Semmelweis described the importance of hand hygiene in 1847 while Lister introduced the concept of antisepsis in 1867 yet medical professionals of today still have trouble with washing their hands before and after patient contact. Let’s not even talk about those who question the need or importance of vaccinations and the science behind this groundbreaking concept. Nor those who claim to rally against animal cruelty yet refuse to acknowledge the role work on dogs, cats, mice, monkeys etc. has contributed to our medical and surgical knowledge of today.
In either case, the nerd in me is going to enjoy the historical image challenges and historical case reports of classic illnesses, physical exam findings of advanced disease (which we tend not to see today because patients present sooner for care and technology is able to pick up earlier stages of disease); and autopsy reports (which sadly we do not do enough of these days leading to false sense of security in our diagnoses).
What we take for granted today? Sigh.
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