Learning from Lister: Antisepsis, Safer Surgery, and Global Health


Learning from Lister: Antisepsis, Safer Surgery, and Global Health

22 – 24 March 2012

King’s College London, The Royal Society, The Royal College of Surgeons of England

‘Joseph Lister almost single-handedly revolutionised modern surgery through his development of antisepsis, or so traditional accounts have stated.’ Lindsay Granshaw, 1992.

Joseph Lister (1827 – 1912), Professor of Clinical Surgery at King’s College London from 1877 to 1893 and President of the Royal Society from 1895 to 1900, is regarded as a key figure in the foundation of modern surgical methods and infection control. To mark the centenary of Lister’s death, King’s College London will convene a three-day multidisciplinary conference to reassess his achievements and legacy.

The four strands, of the conference will cover History, Surgical Practice, Infectious Disease and Health Policy. The conference will provide an opportunity for historians, surgeons, nurses, infectious disease experts, health service researchers and those interested in the development of hospital health policy, translational practices, and hospital safety to discuss their respective approaches to understanding Lister’s contribution to improved surgical and health care practice today.

Papers are requested for 15- or 20-minute parallel sessions which could take the form of talks, workshops or seminars, to be followed by 10 minutes of discussion, covering (but not limited to) topics such as:

        Discipleship          Translation of principle into practice
        19th and 20th C surgical craft             Lister's legacy and global health
        Advances in surgical science                Controversy in surgical sciences
        Nursing pedagogy and practice           Identification and control of infection
        Health care innovation              Hospital safety
        Sepsis / antisepsis / asepsis                Dirt / cleanliness

Abstracts should be no more than 400 words, and proposals should state which of the four major strands they would be situated under and sent to julia.howse@kcl.ac.uk . We welcome and encourage papers from scientific, clinical, and health service, history and policy backgrounds, which could cover modern-day bacteriology, asepsis, surgical techniques, and issues in healthcare practice.

The deadline for receipt of papers is Monday 16th January 2012. For a full programme, please visit the Lister website at www.kcl.ac.uk/lister.

Supported by the Wellcome Trust, the Lister Hospital, the Lister Institute, King’s College Hospital Trust and the Society for the Social History of Medicine