Current Research Directions in Medical GeographyAuthor(s): Graham Bentham and Graham MoonSource: Area, Vol. 19, No. 2 (Jun., 1987), p. 185Published by: The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers)Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20002456 .

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Conference reports 185

For the second part of the session, we turned to Eastern Europe, and had the difficulties of international academic exchange demonstrated by the non-arrival of the first speaker, Jacek

Malczewski (Polish Academy of Science, Warsaw), who apologised for being unable to come. However, Graham Moon made up for this disappointment by his paper on preventative health strategies in Czechoslovakia and Britain. This study contrasted the British system of immunis ation, dependent on voluntary compliance and emphasising individual choice, with the compul sory system operated in Czechoslovakia, on the principle of social duty. As the study was based on the ' official version ' of the Czech service, it was difficult to determine whether it was more or less effective than the British, although uptake rates appeared higher in Czechoslovakia.

All three papers considered not only the substantive results, but also the problems and potential of comparative studies. The latter aspects were only partly taken up in discussion, and I hope that they will receive more attention from geographers in the future.

Sarah Curtis Queen Mary College

Current research directions in medical geography

The research profile of the Medical Geography Study Group has traditionally covered a wide variety of different interests. The session on current research directions in medical geography was designed specifically to illustrate this breadth of interest and to provide an outlet for papers on several different topics linked only by their focus on matters medical. In the event, four general themes emerged: a concern with medical data and its interpretation, the study of mental health care, social-geographic work on health and health care, and reflections on the nature of medical geography.

In the first session a fascinating paper by Tony Gatrell and Andrew Lovett (Lancaster) showed how the incidence of spina bifida was related to screening policies. The message that an extension of screening could reduce the disease was taken up enthusiastically by the representa tives of the media who were present. Suggestions of a link between spina bifida and hazardous

waste warrants further investigation. Using the example of the Nottingham Psychiatric Case Register Sandra Winn (Central Birmingham Health Authority) showed how such data could form the basis for geographical research. Liz Twigg (Birkbeck) and Andrew Clegg (Portsmouth) presented the results of a study of the factors affecting the spread of the whooping cough epidemic of 1982. Rais Akhtar (Kashmir) considered the perception of health hazards in Zambia.

In the second session Chris Philo (Cambridge) showed how data from the Asylum Journal could be used to examine the historical geography of the ' mad business' in nineteenth century England. This was followed by Chris Smith's (SUNY, Albany) thought provoking account of the transfer of care for the mentally ill in New York State. He made a convincing case for the need to analyse this in the context of the structural forces that are leading to a rapid transfer of care from hospitals to the community. Maggie Pearson (Liverpool) reported some results of her research in Liverpool into self-help health groups, a topic that has not received the attention from

medical geographers that it deserves. The results underlined the diversity of functions and geography of such groups. Andrew Sixsmith (Liverpool) finished a successful session with a paper arguing that a humanistic approach could provide insights on personal well-being that are lacking in traditional medical geographical research with its concentration on disease ecology and service delivery. In addition, a small poster exhibition featured a paper on the development of a consensus-based medical geography and a display of the mapping of medical data.

Graham Bentham Graham Moon University of East Anglia Portsmouth Polytechnic

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