Speakers Bureau Speaker
Robert E. Kravetz, Phoenix
Dr. Kravetz is a retired gastroenterologist and a nationally recognized medical historian. He has edited and authored three books on Arizona medical history. He has been a guest curator and contributed to exhibits at museums throughout the state, including the Arizona Historical Society Museum, the Heard Museum, the State Capitol Museum, the Maricopa Medical Society, and the Phoenix Museum of History. He has written extensively on Arizona medical history, spoken statewide and appeared on television. The Maricopa Medical Society has twice honored Dr. Kravetz for his role in preserving and recording Arizona medical history.
Arizona Territorial Medicine: Healers, Hucksters and Heroes
Territorial medical history is traced from the pre-Civil War period to statehood in 1914, when "bleed, blister and purge" was the slogan of Arizona Territorial physicians. Medicine of that period was vastly different from what we know today. Military surgeons, charlatans and quacks, adventurous licensed physicians, and health seekers were all involved in the saga of Arizona medicine. Learn about arrow wounds, amputations for lead shot shattered bones, herbs and patent medicines, what the doctor on horseback carried in his saddlebags, and much more. Examine instruments used by Territorial physicians first-hand. Join Dr. Kravetz on a tour of the Arizona Territory, when the risks of the hospital often superseded the risk of the injury or the disease.
Healthseekers in Arizona
Arizona’s unique climate was the main attraction for the influx of new residents in the late 19th century. Nineteenth century medicine had little to offer the disease-ridden population, and therapeutic travel and climate of the area provided an attractive alternative. Arizona, with its pure dry air, had been called "nature’s sanitarium." Tent cities sprang up to accommodate these individuals. There were sanitariums and spas with their curative waters in both the desert and pine-scented mountains. The legend died in early 20th century because of new medical knowledge, as well as resentment and hostility toward the "healthseekers." This important group made significant contributions to the territory and the state.
Literature, Art, and Medicine
This presentation examines the power of literature and art to heighten our sensitivity to personal issues of disease, pain, suffering, and the physician-patient relationship. By examining literature and art, we can explore these issues and gain a deeper understanding of what sickness and healing is all about. Quotes and brief readings from familiar literary sources will be presented. Representative slides depicting medicine in art, and our visual interpretation of these works will also be part of the presentation as well as how literature and art have played a role in Dr. Kravetz’s fifty-year medical.
Medicine’s Greatest Discoveries
This is a slide presentation of medicine’s greatest discoveries, including anesthesia, the X-ray, germ theory, antibiotics, precise anatomic dissection, DNA sequencing, and organ transplantation.
