logo
episode-header-image
Jan 2024
42m 10s

A History of Mammography

iHeartPodcasts
About this episode

The history of mammography begins with the discovery of X-rays in 1895. But it took a very long time for breast imaging to advance, in part because it wasn't prioritized. 

Research:

  • “The St George’s Four: Meet the women that shaped St George’s.” St. George’s University of London. 3/8/2019. https://www.sgul.ac.uk/news/the-st-george-s-four-meet-the-women-that-shaped-st-george-s
  • American Physical Society. “This Month in Physics History.” November 2001 (Volume 10, Number 10). https://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/200111/history.cfm
  • Bassett, Lawrence W. and Richard H. Gold. “The Evolution of Mammography.” AJR 150:493-498, March 1988.
  • Bhidé, Amar et al. “Case Histories of Significant Medical Advances: Mammography.” Harvard Business School Working Paper 20-002. 2021.
  • CROWTHER, J. Röntgen Centenary and Fifty Years of X-Rays. Nature 155, 351–353 (1945). https://doi.org/10.1038/155351a0
  • Davis, Devra. “The Secret History Of Mammography.” HuffPost. 11/17/2011. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-secret-history-of-mam_b_364733
  • Haus, Arthur G. “Historical Technical Developments in Mammography. Technology in Cancer Research & Treatment. ISSN 1533-0346. Volume 1, Number 2, April (2002)
  • Kalaf, José Michael. “Mammography: a history of success and scientific enthusiasm.” Radiol Bras. 2014 Jul/Ago;47(4):VII–VIII. http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/0100-3984.2014.47.4e2
  • Lerner, Barron H. “’To See Today With the Eyes of Tomorrow: A History of Screening Mammography.’” CBMH/BCMH I Volume 20:2 2003 / p. 299-321.
  • Lerner, Barron H. “Why Was the US Preventive Services Task Force’s 2009 Breast Cancer Screening Recommendation So Objectionable? A Historical Analysis.” The Milbank Quarterly, September 2022, Vol. 100, No. 3 (September 2022). https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/48713998
  • Lienhard, Dina A., "Mammography". Embryo Project Encyclopedia ( 2018-03-25 ). ISSN: 1940-5030 https://hdl.handle.net/10776/13056
  • Mao X, He W, Humphreys K, et al. Breast Cancer Incidence After a False-Positive Mammography Result. JAMA Oncol. Published online November 02, 2023. doi:10.1001/jamaoncol.2023.4519
  • Mekasut, Nitida. “Mammography: From Past to Present.” The Bangkok Medical Journal. February 2011. https://www.bangkokmedjournal.com/sites/default/files/fullpapers/2010-1-Mekasut.pdf
  • Nicosia, Luca et al. “History of Mammography: Analysis of Breast Imaging Diagnostic Achievements over the Last Century.” Healthcare 2023, 11, 1596. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare11111596
  • Ritvo, Max. "The Role of Diagnostic Roentgenology in Medicine." New England Journal of Medicine 262, no. 24 (1960): 1201-09.
  • Skloot, Rebecca. “Taboo Organ: How a Pitt Alum Refused to Let Mammography Be Ignored.” Pittmed. April 2001. https://www.pittmed.health.pitt.edu/apr_2001/taboo_organ.pdf
  • Warren, Stafford L. “A Roentgenologic Study of the Breast.” The American Journal of Roentgenology and Radium Therapy 1930-08: Vol 24 Iss 2.
  • Zenger, Ingo. “The history of mammography.” Siemens. https://www.medmuseum.siemens-healthineers.com/en/stories-from-the-museum/history-mammography 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Up next
Yesterday
Edwin Howard Armstrong
Edwin Howard Armstrong isn’t exactly a well-known inventor, but his work in radio literally changed communications around the globe. But his most famous invention – FM radio – became a source of constant frustration after he developed it. Research: Armstrong, Edwin H. “Frequency ... Show More
33m 22s
Jul 7
The Humble Ballpoint Pen
Before the ballpoint pen, people used their hands, reeds, bamboo, brushes, quills, and eventually nibs to write or draw. But how did things evolve from there to get to things like the fountain pen, and eventually, a ballpoint? Research: "pen." Britannica Library, Encyclopædia Bri ... Show More
35m 35s
Jul 5
SYMHC Classics: Lettuce, Slavery, and the Bibb Legacy
This 2022 episode starts with the story of John Bibb, credited with cultivating Bibb lettuce. But his family’s legacy, good and bad, is all tied to having enslaved people build their familial wealth. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. 
33m 51s
Recommended Episodes
May 2018
34 - The Physical
The physical exam has become a ritual of the modern doctor’s appointment, with pokes, prods, and strange tools. How did this become a normal thing to do? In this episode, I’ll discuss how the physical exam went from the medieval examination of a flask of urine to basically what w ... Show More
33m 52s
Nov 2020
59 - Cry of the Suffering Organs
Diagnosis is arguably the most important job of a physician. But what does it actually mean to make a diagnosis? In this episode, we’ll explore this question by tracking the development of the “classical” model of diagnosis and pathological anatomy and discussing three cases over ... Show More
43m 21s
Jul 2022
68 - The History
Internal medicine physicians like to pride ourselves on our clinical reasoning – the ability to talk to any patient, pluck out seemingly random bits of information, and make a mystery diagnosis. But how does this actually work? In this episode, called The History, I’ll be joined ... Show More
39m 52s
Dec 2022
Neurasthenia
In this episode of High Theory, Kim talks with Saronik about neurasthenia. A disease that no longer exists, neurasthenia was a nineteenth century American epidemic of energy depletion. Thinking about this diagnosis can help us understand the social functions of medical knowledge, ... Show More
18m 8s
Nov 2019
Kathleen Sheppard, "The Life of Margaret Alice Murray: A Woman’s Work in Archaeology" (Lexington, 2017)
After Napoleon occupied Egypt, Europeans became obsessed with the ancient cultures of the Nile. In Britain, the center of Egyptology research was University College London (UCL). At the heart of the UCL program was the Egyptologist, Margaret Alice Murray. During this golden age o ... Show More
33m 47s
Aug 2023
D. J. Taylor, "Orwell: The New Life" (Pegasus Books, 2023)
A fascinating exploration of George Orwell--and his body of work--by an award-winning Orwellian biographer and scholar, presenting the author anew to twenty-first-century readers.We find ourselves in an era when the moment is ripe for a reevaluation of the life and the works of o ... Show More
46m 29s
Oct 2023
Disease killers: the black nurses who conquered TB
Tuberculosis – otherwise known as the ‘Great White Plague’ – was a scourge on society and killed countless sufferers. Rhiannon Davies spoke to Maria Smilios to find out about the little-known story of the black nurses of New York’s Seaview Hospital who helped fight the disease – ... Show More
35m 14s
Jul 2021
After Hours: Boobs: News You Can Use Whether You Have Some-- or Know Someone Who Does
Information that's not easy to come by on breast health, cancer and myths from Megan Smith, maker of the documentary "bOObs: The War on Women’s Breasts." The documentary "investigates the controversy swirling around the breast cancer screening test mammography. Over a 30-year per ... Show More
37m 49s
Jun 2021
The Archaeology of Human Bones and the Iberian Copper Age: Interview with Dr. Jess Beck
Human bones are one of our most valuable and illuminating sources of information about the past, but how do we use them, and what can they tell us about prehistory? I talked to Dr. Jess Beck, a bioarchaeologist and expert on later European prehistory, about the incredible insight ... Show More
59m 29s
Jul 2018
36 - Filth Parties
The southern United States was hit by a dramatic epidemic of a mysterious disease called pellagra in the early twentieth century. This episode discusses the cultural and scientific sources of the outbreak -- from the cotton fields of the south, to the cow pastures of rural German ... Show More
51m 45s
Listen to millions of songs and podcasts on Anghami