The Best of Medicine
Thursday 26 June, 19.00–21.00
‘The Best of Medicine’ and ‘The Worst of Medicine’ are two free debates designed to stimulate public debate and argument about the best and worst ideas, phenomena, developments and practices in the history of medicine.
At the first debate, ‘The Best of Medicine’, four speakers will put the case for the top-dog ideas in medical history. The audience will then get a chance to vote for their favourite proposal, or even a mystery people’s choice.
The debate is live already at ‘spiked’. Sign up now to find out the experts’ first thoughts and add your views.
This event will be followed by ‘The Worst of Medicine’ on 17 July.
Speakers
• Raymond Tallis, Emeritus Professor of Geriatric Medicine, University of Manchester, poet and philosopher.
• Michael Worboys, Director, Centre for the History ofScience, Technology and Medicine, University of Manchester
• Zoe Williams, the ‘Guardian’
Facilitator
• Fiona Fox, Director, Science Media Centre
Raymond Tallis
I trained as a doctor at the University of Oxford and St Thomas’s Hospital, qualifying in 1970. Between 1987 and 2006 I was Professor of Geriatric Medicine at the University of Manchester and a consultant physician in Health Care of the Elderly in Salford. In March 2006 I became a full-time writer, though I remain Visiting Professor at St George’s Hospital Medical School, University of London.
Over the last 20 years I have published fiction, three volumes of poetry, and over a dozen books on the philosophy of mind, philosophical anthropology, literary theory, the nature of art and cultural criticism.
Michael Worboys
I trained in biology before moving to the history of science and medicine. My early work was on the history of British colonial science and the history of tropical medicine, but in recent years I have been researching the history of infectious diseases. In this area I have published three books: ‘Spreading Germs: Disease theories and medical practice in Britain, 1865-1900’ (2000); ‘Fractured States: Smallpox, public health and vaccination policy in British India, 1800-1947’ (2005) co-authored with Sanjoy Bhattacharya and Mark Harrison, and ‘Mad Dogs and Englishmen: Rabies in Britain, 1830-2000’ (2007), co-authored with Neil Pemberton.
Fiona Fox
I have a degree in journalism and 20 years of experience in working in media relations for high profile national organisations. My career includes stints working for the Equal Opportunities Committee, National Council for One Parent Families, and The Catholic Agency for Overseas Development, a leading aid agency. Despite having no background in science, I managed to persuade a distinguished panel of eminent scientists to take a risk and appoint me to become the founding Director of the Science Media Centre, which opened in April 2002. The main remit of the Centre is to help restore public trust in science by persuading more scientists to engage more effectively with the big controversial science stories that hit the headlines.
