Preliminary Programme

Wed 12 April
    08.30 - 10.30
    11.00 - 13.00
    14.00 - 16.00
    16.30 - 18.30

Thu 13 April
    08.30 - 10.30
    11.00 - 13.00
    14.00 - 16.00
    16.30 - 18.30

Fri 14 April
    08.30 - 10.30
    11.00 - 13.00
    14.00 - 16.00
    16.30 - 18.30

Sat 15 April
    08.30 - 10.30
    11.00 - 13.00
    14.00 - 16.00

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Friday 14 April 2023 14.00 - 16.00
R-11 HEA11 Therapy Crossing Borders
E45
Network: Health and Environment Chair: Ian Miller
Organizer: Daniela Koleva Discussants: -
Alexandra Geisthoevel : Match-making across Borders. European Organ Exchange in Kidney Transplantation, 1970-1990
In the case of treating end stage renal disease, a lot of border-crossing took place, after kidney transplantation evolved as the most effective therapy since the end of the 1960s. As tissue compatibility was shown to be a key factor in successful transplanting, creating pools of donor organs and potential ... (Show more)
In the case of treating end stage renal disease, a lot of border-crossing took place, after kidney transplantation evolved as the most effective therapy since the end of the 1960s. As tissue compatibility was shown to be a key factor in successful transplanting, creating pools of donor organs and potential recipients to enable “good matches” became a major task. So more than other medical areas, transplantation medicine relied on exchange. Transnational exchange organizations were established, the two most important ones in Europe being Eurotransplant (for some Western countries) and Intertransplant (for most of the socialist countries). Their members exchanged organs, to be sure, but what is less well-known and will be highlighted in the proposed paper, are the data networks and information management processes that were critical preconditions of transplantation becoming a routine. Focusing on the communicative side of transplantation will also allow to investigate possibilities and limits of trans-bloc cooperation in Cold War Europe. (Show less)

Daniela Koleva : ‘We cannot Travel Abroad, but at Least our Body Organs can’: Pituitary Gland Export from Communist Bulgaria
The paper addresses an unresearched aspect of transborder exchange in the field of medicine: the trade with pituitary glands, which supplied precious foreign currency to fund medical research in communist countries.

Kristina Popova : Luminal. the 'Pavlovian' Session in 1950 and the Campaign to Treat Hypertension and Rheumatism with Sleep Therapy
Following the decisions of the scientific session "For the further flourishing of the Pavlov’s doctrine" of the Academy of Sciences and the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR in 1950 important reforms were introduced under political control in USSR as well in the Eastern block countries. The research plans ... (Show more)
Following the decisions of the scientific session "For the further flourishing of the Pavlov’s doctrine" of the Academy of Sciences and the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR in 1950 important reforms were introduced under political control in USSR as well in the Eastern block countries. The research plans of science institutions, medical and pedagogical university curricula were changed according to these decisions. Scientists and university professors were forced to absolve a course in Pavlovian doctrine. The reforms after the ‘Pavlovian session’ affected also the practical work of educational institutions and hospitals, sanatoriums, and other health institutions, where the staff was also instructed to reform their everyday practice. Regarding the clinical work, the session had two main consequences - the introduction of the so-called “Curative - Protective Hospital Regime” and the introduction of sleep therapy for the treatment of psychiatric diseases as well as hypertension, ulcers, rheumatism, skin, and other diseases. As a widespread therapeutic method, it was established in the 1950es in the USSR and in the countries of the Eastern bloc as a general reform of health politics. Political (Soviet influence), ideological (dialectical materialism), theoretical (Pavlovian teaching), and practical medical considerations intersected in the implementation of the therapeutical methods which made patients objects of this treatment. The study aims to present the process of dissemination, establishment, control, and practical use of sleep therapy in Bulgarian hospital practice. The research is based on hospital documentation about the prescriptions and use of phenobarbital and other medications in sleep therapy to treat rheumatism in the Pediatrics Clinic at the Medical Academy in Sofia and hypertension in the Clinic of Cardiac Diseases in 1952 – 1953. A collection of more than 100 cases is used for the analyses in order to reveal how political decisions were used, reinterpreted, or avoided by doctors and nurses in their practical hospital work. (Show less)

Dora Vargha : Making Political and Medical Subjects: Treatment in the Hungarian Hospital in North Korea 1950-57
With the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950, several Eastern European countries sent medical missions to support the North Korean side in a unique moment of socialist international health, which united the Soviet Union, China, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Hungary and later East Germany in medical assistance. The Hungarian medical ... (Show more)
With the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950, several Eastern European countries sent medical missions to support the North Korean side in a unique moment of socialist international health, which united the Soviet Union, China, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Hungary and later East Germany in medical assistance. The Hungarian medical team, many of whose members actively provided medical care in field hospitals in WWII across Europe, arrived almost immediately after the war started and in annual rotations, was present until 1957, leaving a fully equipped hospital and trained personnel behind. With their journey to East Asia, the medical professionals physically connected elements of a new emerging world, traveling from a newly established communist regime through the Soviet Union and China, to arrive in a war zone. The collaboration was withdrawn and then almost completely severed with the 1956 revolution in Hungary, the thaw and destalinisation in Eastern Europe, and the turn in North Korea to an increasingly restrictive and oppressive regime.
In the course of seven years of the Hungarian medical teams’ presence in North Korea, what started as part of a military assistance became a project that also provided medical care and treatment to civilians, and in the reconstruction contributed to medical training and the establishment of healthcare in the new country. In this paper, based on memoirs, reports, governmental documents, medical publications and personal papers, I examine the interactions between Hungarian doctors and nurses and their Korean colleagues and patients. I argue that the Hungarian intervention was part of broader projects of creating at once biomedical citizens and citizens of a new political system. In turn, the opportunity enabled Hungarian doctors to enact on their own political and humanitarian beliefs (which may or may not have coincided with the party line), and to develop their medical expertise through encounters with hitherto unseen medical conditions and traditional Korean medicine. (Show less)

Markus Wahl : Treating Addiction that could not Exist: Addiction, East German Doctors, and Western Methods in the German Democratic Republic
Addictions were “alien to Socialism.” At least, this was the narrative of the socialist East German state, following the traditional argumentation of socialist and social democrat movements from the turn of the century. While the state remained clinging to this ideological claim that due to the socialist transformation, no person ... (Show more)
Addictions were “alien to Socialism.” At least, this was the narrative of the socialist East German state, following the traditional argumentation of socialist and social democrat movements from the turn of the century. While the state remained clinging to this ideological claim that due to the socialist transformation, no person needs the intoxicating effects of alcohol or drugs anymore, consumption and abuse of beer, schnapps, and benzodiazepines continuously grew. It was a dangerous development for people’s health but also one that undermined the narrative and the state’s legitimacy. However, the state could not publicly admit this social issue, and despite lengthy discussions among the ministries, a central strategy for treating and preventing addiction never existed in the GDR. This hesitation and ignorance of state officials created a vacuum filled with local initiatives and expert discourses on how to improve the situation and therapy of people with addictions. In my paper, I analyze the development and introduction of new treatment methods in the psychiatric hospital of the GDR. It might surprise that doctors, psychologists, patients, and local officials had some leeway in testing out new approaches that often originated from the West. Even if they had to adapt the concept, like “therapeutic communities” for the particular socialist and East German context to avoid restrictions by state authorities, the Berlin Wall was highly permeable also for this case. For example, doctors introduced the classifications and concepts of E. Morton Jellinek (US) and Wilhelm Feuerlein (West Germany) while importing the system of therapeutic clubs from the CSSR and adapting ideas from church organizations. Therefore, my paper shows a nuanced picture of the therapeutic methods for treating people with addictions in the GDR. From the condemnation of the individual as being outside of the socialist society due to exceeding normative drinking, the sole reliance on aversion therapy, deterrence, and moral accusations, the shift went towards a mixture of treatments that became more specialized and individualized, particularly during the 1970s and 1980s, and was comparable to the Western standard. (Show less)



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