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Theme - Health

Media headlines proclaim that the North-South health divide is widening. Find out more about the divide, its history, why it exists, and how it can be improved, both within the UK and across the world.

Past events

Tuberculosis - A short history

21-22 June, 9.30am-5.30pm, York Medical Society

Tuberculosis (TB) is endemic across the world but the disease has now developed new strains that threaten to explode in epidemic proportions. This exhibition presents a rich collection of images, drawn from the World Health Organisation’s photographic archives and from the Wellcome Library, London, to illustrate and illuminate the history of a disease which has always been regarded as a major danger to public health.

Admission: Free

The longest and most dangerous of all chronic diseases

21 June, 7:30pm, York Medical Society

Which disease did French clinician Gaspard-Laurant Bayle refer to in his lectures to the Paris Medical Faculty in 1809/10 as “the longest and most dangerous of all chronic diseases"? Surprisingly for us, Bayle was describing pulmonary tuberculosis. In this talk, author Helen Bynum uses the experiences of three tuberculous patients Tobias Smollett (1721-71), John Keats (1795-1821) and George Orwell (1903-1950) to explore pulmonary tuberculosis as a chronic disease of the past and reflect on its modern face. Get ready for tales of travel and confinement to bed, bloodletting and bloody sputum, and not enough happy endings.

Admission: Free, ticketed

21st-century diet: Healthy fast food?

21 June, 6pm, Berrick Saul Building, University of York

Nutritionist, Mike Lean, and Technical Director for Quorn Foods, Tim Finnegan, discuss different approaches to good health through healthy eating. Find out more about the nutritionally balanced pizza and how it came about, and the role that Quorn has to play in health, the environment and protein security.

Admission: Free, ticketed

Science out of the lab

22 June, 10am-3pm, St Sampson's Square

Come along to this hands-on interactive event which explores the treatment and prevention of a range of chronic diseases and disorders that affect people of all ages. This is an opportunity to talk face-to-face with scientists who work to prevent and cure disease to develop an understanding about the various dimensions of chronic diseases and disorders – scientifically and historically.

Admission: Free, unticketed

Stratified medicine in diabetes - the Scotland experience

24 June, 7.30pm, Ron Cooke Hub, University of York

Healthcare is arguably the last major industry to be transformed by the information age.  Deployments of information technology have only scratched the surface of possibilities for the potential influence of information and computer science on the quality and cost-effectiveness of healthcare.

Admission: Free, ticketed

North v South: England’s Health Divide

26 June, 6pm, Ron Cooke Hub, University of York

The North-South divide is one of England’s most powerful and enduring myths: an ancient and indelible line separating the country politically and culturally into beautiful South and grim North. Tim Doran of the University of York discusses the reality of the divide and its effect on peoples’ lives and health.

Admission: Free, ticketed