AN ARCHIVE of interviews with leading figures in the world of medical and clinical science has been launched at Oxford Brookes University.
The newly digitised Medical Sciences Video Archive is a collection of more than 130 interviews created between 1985 and 2002.
The videos provide a rich picture of the history of modern medicine spanning the 1930s to the end of the 20th century.
During the interviews, the pioneering scientists talk about their lives, early influences, schooling, university education and medical training, as well as giving a personal view of the role they played in the development of clinical medicine and science in the period.
They include Sir Richard Doll, a pioneer in linking smoking and lung cancer, Dr Denis Burkitt, the first to describe a form of cancer common in children in Africa, now named Burkitt’s Lymphoma, and Nobel prize winner Professor Maurice Wilkins who worked on DNA structure.
Dr Viviane Quirke, Senior Lecturer in Modern History and History of Medicine at Oxford Brookes University said: “The Medical Sciences Video Archive is a precious resource for anyone interested in the history of modern medicine or in oral history. As well as covering a variety of topics, the collection provides special insights into the culture and practice of British biomedical science in the second half of the 20th century."
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