Knowledge Unbound

The AUA's William P. Didusch Center for Urologic History presents Knowledge Unbound: Literature of Medicine, which reveals the legacy of past visionaries to our modern understanding of health and medicine. Where would our understanding of anatomy be without Andreas Vesalius in 1543? What do Leonardo da Vinci, Harvey Cushing and Frank Netter have in common? Read to see how the splendors of the past inform your present experience.

The AUA's William P. Didusch Center for Urologic History presents Knowledge Unbound: Literature of Medicine, which reveals the legacy of past visionaries to our modern understanding of health and medicine. Where would our understanding of anatomy be without Andreas Vesalius in 1543? The authors, urologists and medical historians, begin with the premise that knowledge has value, that it increases over time and there is a lasting legacy from those who added to our understanding of the universe. In medicine there is also a longstanding debt to our forefathers, sworn by many physicians in their professional oaths. The repository of this legacy is often written materials; papyri, manuscripts, books, articles, journals, and now electronic publications. This bequest of past ideas to our modern understanding of health and disease is the subject of this volume that accompanies an annual exhibit on the history of medicine.

Michael E. Moran, MD, is the curator of the William P. Didusch Center for Urologic History at the American Urological Association (AUA). A native of Illinois, Dr. Moran’s love for surgery became evident during his early years in medical school, when he began to do significant research in transplant physiology. A chance encounter with a group of urologists during a rotation during his general surgery residency led him to work under George Drach before moving on to an academic position at the University of California, Davis. Dr. Moran currently practices in South Carolina. He has published and presented on wide variety of historical, urological, philosophical and technological aspects of medicine.