China Medical Board Centennial

Health patterns in Southeast Asia have changed profoundly over the past century. In that period, epidemic and chronic diseases, environmental transformations, and international health institutions have created new connections within the region and the increased interdependence of Southeast Asia with China and India. In this volume leading scholars provide a new approach to the history of health in Southeast Asia. Framed by a series of synoptic pieces on the "Landscapes of Health" in Southeast Asia in 1914, 1950, and 2014 the essays interweave local, national, and regional perspectives. They range from studies of long-term processes such as changing epidemics, mortality and aging, and environmental history to detailed accounts of particular episodes: the global cholera epidemic and the hajj, the influenza epidemic of 1918, WWII, and natural disasters. The writers also examine state policy on healthcare and the influence of organizations, from NGOs such as the China Medical Board and the Rockefeller Foundation to grassroots organizations in Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines.

Pivotal to Asia's future will be the robustness of its medical universities. Lessons learned in the past and the challenges facing these schools in the future are outlined in this collection, which offers valuable insights for other medical education systems as well. The populations in these rapidly growing countries rely on healthcare systems that can vigorously respond to the concerns of shifting demographics, disease, and epidemics. The collected works focus on the education of physicians and health professionals, policy debates, cooperative efforts, and medical education reform movements.

This volume examines important aspects of China's century-long search to provide appropriate and effective health care for its people. Four subjects-disease and healing, encounters and accommodations, institutions and professions, and people's health-organize discussions across case studies of schistosomiasis, tuberculosis, mental health, and tobacco and health. Among the book's significant conclusions are the importance of barefoot doctors in disseminating western medicine, the improvements in medical health and services during the long Sino-Japanese war, and the important role of the Chinese consumer. Intended for an audience of health practitioners, historians, and others interested in the history of medicine and health in China, the book is one of three commissioned by the China Medical Board to mark its centennial in 2014.