Technology's increasingly vital role in medicine

MY MOST enjoyable training post as a young surgeon was as an anatomy demonstrator at Guy's Hospital (established 1721) in London. It was a welcome escape from busy Accident & Emergency shifts and maladies. It was a genteel academic world where my fellow demonstrators and I could advance our knowledge of human anatomy, through dissection of cadavers and teaching medical students. The venison pies of nearby Borough Market (established 1014) and ales of the George Inn (1677) certainly helped a great deal.

Our tutors at the time were Professor Harold Ellis, the world's "greatest living human anatomist", and John Older, a sexagenarian Orthopaedic surgeon who had learnt at the feet of Sir John Charnley, inventor of the modern hip replacement.

One quiet Monday afternoon, my fellow demonstrators and I were busily dissecting corpses and discovering the wonders of the hyoid bone, when Mr Older burst into the Anatomy lab with an Archimedean expression on his face (as you know Archimedes, in his time, made several seminal discoveries).