DIAGNOSIS DOCTOR: PLAY NEW VIDEO GAME ONLINE!

We worked with Andrew Round of Paradise Multimedia to create a video game based on our museums’ settings in both a former hospital and current medical education facility. We wanted the game to be a fun way for all visitors to experience the diagnostic process. We bring you Diagnosis Doctor!

Diagnosis Doctor invites you to test your diagnostic skills by examining patients and recording symptoms to make a diagnosis of real medical conditions. The more patients who are successfully diagnosed, the more points you will receive. Learn how doctors investigate and examine patients today. Will you get a high score?

How Droitwich's brine could help combat resisting infections: Guest blog by Matt Davies

GM2002.1.149.1 Bath Thermometer

In September of 2023  Dr. Michael Macey, a member of the Astrobiology OU group, approached Droitwich Spa town counsellor Bob Brookes after he learned of  his involvement in the ‘Save our Brine Baths’ campaign. Macey, who studies extremophiles (bacteria that live in extreme conditions), was keen to get involved and study the qualities of Droitwich’s brine baths. The counsellor, who is also keen on saving the baths, eagerly facilitated Macey’s collection of samples from the brine. Dr Macey’s research usually is in countries such as Iceland or Canada however he was very intrigued by the possibility of the town’s brine harbouring microbes capable of producing new antibiotics.

The discovery of new antibiotics has become crucial to medicine as antibiotic resistance poses severe threats to medical treatments. In October 2023 Dr Macey and his colleagues visited the brine well at tower hill, near Droitwich, to collect further samples. More recently in March 2024 Mara Leite, another researcher involved in the project, isolated three strains of salt-adapted microbes from the brine. Remarkably these strains were able to inhibit the growth of various hospital associated pathogens, including MRSA (which is responsible for many difficult-to-treat infections in humans). Researchers are now focused on identifying the specific chemicals and genes responsible for the antibacterial activity. While much work remains these early results are promising and suggest that Droitwich’s brine could play a key role in developing powerful new antibiotics to combat resistant infections.

Link to recent Droitwich Standard article: https://droitwichstandard.co.uk/news/droitwich-spas-brine-could-be-key-to-combatting-resistant-infections/#:~:text=Droitwich%20Spa's%20brine%20could%20be,resistant%20infections%20%2D%20The%20Droitwich%20Standard

Link to BBC Sounds interview: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0jrs2qr#:~:text=Droitwich%20Spa's%20historic%20brine%20is,treat%20bacteria%20such%20as%20MRSA.

By Matt Davies, 2024

Student at Prince Henry’s High School, Evesham

"Dementia at Powick Hospital: Eliza Davies and Dementia in the 1800s" Guest post by Matt Davies

During the 137 years that Powick Hospital was operating from 1852 to 1989 it treated well over 25000 patients from the Worcestershire area. Many of these patients were diagnosed with dementia. Dementia is a syndrome of brain decline that affects memory, thinking, language, mood and behaviour. One patient treated at the hospital for dementia was Eliza Davies, a fifteen year-old girl.

Eliza Davies’ patient notes

Not much is known about Eliza’s life before her admission to Powick Hospital though by using reliable databases and a census of 1871 we are able to know that she lived in the Police buildings of Priory Street in Dudley and that she was the niece to the Sergeant, George Davies. It is also written that her occupation was a scholar. Eliza was admitted to the mental institute on the nineteenth of April 1876 after a diagnosis of dementia. Eliza, being diagnosed with dementia at fifteen years of age, was an early example of a term later coined dementia praecox which is a case of dementia in the late teens or early adulthood. In her patient notes it is written that Eliza was neither epileptic, suicidal nor dangerous to others. It is stated that she had a vacant expression of countenance and that she refused to answer questions, destroys her clothing and uses very bad language. Eliza’s use of bad language is noteworthy because this language was never seen as bad if a male used it and was only seen this way if used by a female. Additionally it is written that she was ‘in dirty habits’ which meant that she needed help going to the bathroom. She also suffered from rheumatism along with heart, liver and kidney problems.  Her condition of rheumatism is notable as research has shown that because of the reduced blood flow to vital organs it can lead to the development of dementia. To help treat Eliza she was prescribed ether and digitalis. Sadly no more is known about Eliza apart from the fact that she was being transferred to another hospital to be treated for her condition.

During the 19th century individuals with dementia were starting to be recognised as patients, deserving medical care from specialists known as alienists. Subsequently more and more people were admitted to mental institutes with the specific condition of dementia whereas before this dementia was just a term that simply referred to anyone that had lost the ability to reason. Also during the 1800s doctors came to believe that dementia, specifically elderly dementia, was the result of cerebral atherosclerosis which is a medical condition where plaque builds up in the blood vessels of the brain therefore reducing blood flow to the brain and reducing its abilities.

 By Matt Davies, 2024

Student at Prince Henry’s High School, Evesham