http://media.soundmedicine.org/segments/120813_7.mp3
Paying homage to the father of epidemiology: The Journal of American Medicine and Howard Markel, M.D., Ph.D., paid tribute to the father of epidemiology, John Snow, on what would have been his 200th birthday. Dr. Snow was an innovative physician who was suspicious about how cholera was spread throughout England in the 1800s. Using maps and tracking outbreaks of the disease, Dr. Snow located the water pump that was spreading cholera and removed its handle. Once the pump was disabled, the cases of cholera immediately decreased. Dr. Snow’s disease tracking methods were the start of the field of epidemiology.