Historical Perspectives

Abstract

This month’s Historical Perspective is written by Osmund Reynolds. When I requested a personal reminiscence of how his research and article on detection of brain damage in preterm infants via cranial ultrasonography originated, I asked that he include the setting in which this advance occurred. His entertaining response provides a perspective on the evolution of neonatal care at University College Hospital (UCH), London. This recollection of the introduction of neonatal care at UCH is included in Part 1; part 2 focuses on the more specific introduction of cranial ultrasound imaging. It should be mentioned that the pace of development of neonatal intensive care in the United Kingdom generally was much slower than in the United States and some other countries. Indeed, in 1980, there were only 12 neonatal consultant posts for the entire UK. It is generally recognized that UCH was one of the leaders in this arena not only for the UK, but also for the world. For a more detailed discussion of the development of intensive care in the UK, the reader is referred to one in a series of “Witness Seminars” developed by the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, for which Professor Reynolds was the major consultant. (1) 1. ↵ Origins of neonatal intensive care in the UK. In: Christie DA, Tansey EM, eds. Wellcome Witnesses to Twentieth Century Medicine. Vol.9 . London, United Kingdom: Wellcome Trust;2001 :1–75. [OpenUrl][1] # {#article-title-2} ### Introduction I first became interested in perinatal medicine in 1955 while undertaking a physiology BSc degree at St. Thomas’ Hospital Medical School in London. The head of the department was Professor Henry Barcroft (son of Sir Joseph), and Maureen Young was a lecturer. She taught me to measure blood gases using the Roughton-Scholander syringe; duplicate samples took about three quarters of an hour. After qualifying in medicine, I became a house physician on Professor Peter Sharpey-Shafer’s adult medical unit, which was an extremely stimulating environment with a very strong group of physiologically orientated investigators. Steve Semple taught … [1]: {openurl}?query=rft.jtitle%253DWellcome%2BWitnesses%2Bto%2BTwentieth%2BCentury%2BMedicine.%2B%26rft.volume%253D9%26rft.spage%253D1%26rft.genre%253Darticle%26rft_val_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Ajournal%26ctx_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ctx_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Actx