Cinema, MD: A History of Medicine on Screen

Cinema, MD follows the intersection of medicine and film and how filmmakers wrote a history of medicine over time. The narrative follows several main story lines: How did the portrayal of physicians, nurses, and medical institutions change over the years? What interested filmmakers, and which topics had priority? What does film's obsession with experiments and monstrosities reveal about medical ethics and malpractice? How could the public's perception of the medical profession change when watching these films on diseases and treatments, including palliative care and medical ethics? Are screenwriters, actors, and film directors channeling a popular view of medicine? Cinema, MD analyzes not only changing practices, changing morals, and changing expectations but also medical stereotypes, medical activism, and violations of patients' integrity and autonomy. Examining over 400 films with medical themes over a century of cinema, this book establishes the cultural, medical, and historical importance of the art form. Film allows us to see our humanity, our frailty, and our dependence when illness strikes. Cinema, MD provides uniquely new and fascinating insight into both film criticism and the history of medicine and has a resonance to the medical world we live in today.

About the Author :
Eelco Wijdicks is Professor of Neurology at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester Minnesota, and Associate Professor of the History of Medicine. He has written on film in Neurology, JAMA Neurology, Neurology Today, The Lancet Neurology and Mayo Clinic Proceedings. His book Neurocinema: When Film Meets Neurology was published in 2015.

Review :
"A big, sweeping survey of the films that throughout the history of the cinema have touched on diseases and afflictions, every imaginable medical trope and theme, from silents to modern times, classic titles as well as forgotten rarities, with fascinating nuggets of research and intelligent commentary sprinkled throughout a text that is never less than lively." -- Patrick McGilligan, author of Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light "How does medicine look through the lens of filmmakers? CINEMA, MD explores the many links between the art of film and the art of medicine in an entertaining and easy-to-grasp way. For an audience of millions, movies have strongly established optical and social images of doctors and diseases, emergencies and epidemics, magical interventions and malpractice. In 13 thematic chapters, this remarkable book reviews more than 400 carefully selected fiction films and documentaries from the silent era up to the present. The reader can expect a unique, well documented and fascinating dialogue between a cinematic view of medical progress and historical interpretation of the healing art. In short: A must-have for health professionals and students interested in medical humanities, media scholars and critics." --Axel Karenberg, MD, PhD, Professor at the Institute for the History of Medicine and Medical Ethics, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany "Clearly a labor of love, Dr. Wijdicks' engaging study of the complex representations of medicine in the cinema both enlightens and entertains. Although doctors generally score well in polls of public trust, film directors do not always agree. This volume tackles the heroic doctor but also more sinister practitioners, including a powerful section on the Nazi period. It invites its readers to view films actively and offers the critical tools to undertake this stimulating exercise." --William F. Bynum, PhD, FRCP, Author and Historian of Medicine and Science "Dr. Wijdicks has produced an incredibly wide ranging and thought-provoking analysis of the ways in which medicine and been used and abused on the silver screen since the dawn of cinema. From the rise and fall of the once God like surgeon, to cinematic treatments of death and dying, movies both inform and reflect contemporary thinking. With the careful selection of films to illustrate each chapter, Wijdicks provides a witty and fascinating insight into the ways in which medicine has shaped society over the past 100 years." --Sallie Baxendale, PhD, FBPS, Consultant Neuropsychologist, Department of Clinical and Experimental Epilepsy, Institute of Neurology, University College London, England