The changing face of medicine. Part 1, Victories.

Retrospect of advances in medicine since the first broadcast of "Your life in their Hands" in 1961, forming the first of a three part series on the recent past, present and future prospects of medicine. Presented by Professor Charles Fletcher, the presenter of the first "Your Life in Their Hands series". Topics covered include polio vaccination; exchange transfusion for the treatment of Rhesus-incompatibility in neonates; the introduction of L- Dopa to treat tremors in Parkinson's disease; the introduction of artificial heart valves; the use of fibre-optic endoscopes; kidney dialysis and transplants; body-scanning; health economics; and the "treatment" of depression in general practice. Despite its title, very modest and far from triumphalist in tone, stressing the limits of medicine and the cumbersomeness of much "high-tech" medicine as much as the wonders of medical progress. Of considerable interest to historians of modern medicine.