Surgeons, Manufacturers and Patients: A Transatlantic History of Total Hip Replacement [Hardcover]

The Total Hip Replacement was invented by British surgeons after World War Two. It became the basis of a multi-billion global industry in joint replacement. This pioneering study ranges from inventive surgeons to multi-national manufacturers and explores total hip replacement in the very different health economies of the UK and the US.Introduction: Total Hip Replacement: Introduction, Sources and Outline Surgeons and Engineers in Post War Britain: Medical Technology in Local Contexts The Industrial Development of British Hip Replacements and the Charnley/Thackray Relationship Medical Technologies and Industrial Dynamics: The United States and the Global market Change and Stability in Technical Systems: Materials and Environments Hips, Health Services and Quality The Changing Nature of Patients: Expectations and Information What is Past is Present

'John Charnley, a Lancashire surgeon pioneered the artificial hip in the early years of the NHS. Today it is a multibillion dollar business largely based in the USA. Tracing what happened in between, this book has much to say about the way we think about new health care technology, and how we came to think that way. Historians will read it with pleasure. Policy makers should read it with concern.' - Stuart Blume, University of Amsterdam

'This important, original and timely book deals in an exemplary way with a central, but neglected aspect of modern medicine - its material side. It is literally a history of materials, but also of designs, markets and patients, of surgeons, engineers and entrepreneurs. It helps open a new agenda, showing that the history of medicine and industry is much wider than just pharmaceuticals.' - Thomas Schlich, McGill University, Montreal

'Elegant, informative and thought-provoking. The authors show how THR (standing in here for all bodily replacements) has influenced and been influenced by changing cultural, socioeconomic and political concepts about meclsK