Commentary: Those Who Do Not Learn From History Are Doomed to Repeat It

Commentary: Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

In this commentary, the author asks, can educators learn from being reminded of moments of poor judgment or inappropriate behavior in the history of medical education, or should these incidents not be revived and revisited? The question is posed in relation to the accompanying article in this issue by Halperin, which examines the publication of a medical textbook that featured pin-up style phot...

Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it.

Those Who Cannot Remember the Past Are Condemned to Repeat It

To the casual observer, the history of medicine seems one of continuous progress. In reality, for every therapeutic accomplishment that has withstood the test of time there have been several ineffective or even harmful treatments that are now forgotten; yet they were based on theories regarded as plausible at the time. Examples abound, also in the archives of the Dutch Journal of Medicine: trea...

How do patients who participate in cancer support groups differ from those who do not?

Research has shown that cancer patients in general benefit from support group participation. However, few patients attend such groups. This study investigated differences between participants of a community cancer support group and a random selection of non-participants from the Cancer Registry. Data were collected through mail survey, and included variables identified through past research and...

To Learn or Not do Learn