Freedom House Ambulance Service: A Conversation

Tuesday, April 4, 2023

6-7:15pm Eastern Time (US and Canada)

~ Ravitch Lecture ~

Click here for the recording

Phil Hallen

President Emeritus, Maurice Falk Foundation

Matthew L. Edwards, MD

Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Stanford University School of Medicine

In 1968, the Freedom House Ambulance Service began offering pre-hospital care to the Hill District and other neighborhoods in Pittsburgh where the police wouldn't even do a "scoop and run" to take patients to the hospital. These first paramedics not only provided transportation but also expert pre-hospital medical care that became a model for the nation. After we watch WQED's documentary Freedom House Ambulance: The FIRST Responders, Mr. Hallen and clinician-historian Dr. Edwards will discuss this seminal contribution of Black Americans to modern healthcare.

Emblem from http://freedomhousedoc.com/

See Dr. Edwards' website for a Curriculum Vitae and current work.

This lecture is free and open to public. Please email cfreynoldsmhs@gmail.com to receive the Zoom link. Donations toward the speakers' honoraria are gratefully appreciated.

The C.F. Reynolds Medical History Society thanks the University of Pittsburgh Center for Bioethics and Health Law for its generous support of the continuing relevance of medical history in our world. 

Rachel Carson: A Pioneer for Science-based Policy Connecting Environment and Health

Tuesday, September 20, 2022

6-7:15pm Eastern Time (US and Canada)

~ University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health Lecture ~

CLICK HERE FOR THE RECORDING

Patricia DeMarco, PhD

Senior Scholar and Adjunct Faculty, Chatham University

AND Vice President of the Forest Hills Borough Council

In one of the last public speeches of her life, Rachel Carson addressed the Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and Permanente Medical Group in San Francisco. Her thoughts on that occasion resonate today with even more clarity, as much that she feared in 1963 has become our reality. In that speech “On the Pollution of Our Environment” she said, “In spite of the truly marvelous inventiveness of the human brain, we are beginning to wonder whether our power to change the face of nature should not have been tempered with wisdom, for our own good, and with a greater sense of responsibility for the welfare of generations to come.” Carson used her knowledge of science and her early understanding of the interconnectedness of all living things to advocate for policy based on science. The challenges we are facing today can be addressed by recognizing that the laws of Nature are not negotiable. We must adjust our laws and our ways of interacting with the living earth and each other to align more closely to accommodate the laws of chemistry, physics, physiology, and ecology. 

Dr. Demarco is the author of Pathways to Our Sustainable Future – A Global Perspective from Pittsburgh (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2017). See her website for a Curriculum Vitae and current work.

Donations toward the speaker's honorarium are gratefully appreciated.

The C.F. Reynolds Medical History Society thanks the University of Pittsburgh Center for Bioethics and Health Law for its generous support of the continuing relevance of medical history in our world.