South Australian Medical Heritage Society Inc

Who we are — About the South Australian Medical Heritage Society

• About the Society
• Office bearers, present and past
• Reports of Annual General Meetings
  

About the Society

South Australia has a relatively brief but impressive Medical Heritage, one that is cherished by members of the South Australian Medical Heritage Society (SAMHS). SAMHS is committed to the appreciation of medical history, to identifying and recording artefacts of medical interest, and to making medical heritage information more readily available.

The Society was established in 1984 with the initial aim of establishing a Medical Museum. For various reasons – including financial ones - this goal seemed unlikely to be achieved. Energies were then directed towards establishing a website containing a "Virtual Museum".

In 2003 retired medical practitioners, Bernard Vaughan (radiologist) and Tony Slavotinek (surgeon) began locating, describing, and photographing items of medical interest scattered throughout the State. They were joined by Michael Patkin (surgeon), who contributed his computer skills to establish the SAMHS website including the Virtual Museum. An early interest was in radiology in SA. This equipment is dispersed in collections at Flinders Medical Centre, Glenside Hospital, Women's and Children's Hospital, Queen Elizabeth Hospital and private collections but all items are now all co-located in the Virtual Museum on SAMHS website.

Similarly many items, now over 500, grouped in 6 galleries and 80 folders can be found on the website. The website and the collection continues to grow. In addition SAMHS website now has a Biographical Library. There details of many notable SA health professionals can be found. These include doctors, scientists, nurses, dentists and others, including the States notable Nobel Laureates.

SAMHS currently has 70 registered members from a wide range of professions including historians, doctors, scientists, teachers, business men and others, all having a common interest in Medical Heritage.

Meetings are held on the fourth Thursday of each month at 5.30pm in the Royal Society Rooms Kintore Avenue Adelaide. An invited speaker addresses each meeting on a topic of medical history interest. Guests and new members are always welcome.

The secretary, Millicent Hughes OAM, may be contacted by email at emandcee@bigpond.com

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Office bearers, present and past

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