New NLM Web Site

MEDLINE Logs Ten Millionth Citation

Betsy Humphreys Heads Library Operations

ELHILL and TOXNET Change

Regents Chart New Course

Honoring Elsie Werth

Native American Youth Visit

Dr. Spann Retires

Public Health Center Named for Dr. Mel Spann

NLM Rolls Out New Booth

Dr. Harold Schoolman Retires

Dead Sea Scrolls

Emerging Health Information Infrastructure

Worthy of Note: BLAST

Partners In Information Access Awards

Bosma and McCutcheon Appointed Section Heads

NLM Director Visits University of Colorado

Training NLM Associate Fellows

"Breath of Life" Exhibit

Dr. Allen Dies

Names in the News

Products and Publications

NLM in Print

On March 22nd, "Breath of Life," a unique interactive exhibition about asthma, opened at the National Library of Medicine. Occupying the lobby and rotunda of Building 38, the exhibit will be open to the public through June 30, 2000. The Library developed "Breath of Life" in collaboration with the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

Dr. Elizabeth Fee, Chief of the History of Medicine Division, is also the NLM's exhibition director.

"This is the first time that we have collaborated with several NIH Institutes in developing an exhibition," said Dr. Fee. "The result is the largest and most complex show we have ever produced."

To take a virtual tour of the "Breath of Life" exhibition using your web browser, go to www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/breath/breathhome.html From there, you can examine images from the exhibition, peruse the accompanying text, learn of historical and contemporary asthma sufferers in the "Faces of Asthma" section, scroll through the latest information on asthma research and resources, educate and entertain yourself by exploring interactives from the exhibition, and note the names of the many people and organizations who worked to make "Breath of Life" a success. Meanwhile, here is a brief introduction to four main themes of the "Breath of Life" exhibition, along with a sampling of images.

Asthma: From Symptom to Disease

"Asthma" refers to a chronic respiratory disease, often arising from allergies and accompanied by labored breathing, chest constriction and coughing. This serious health problem affects an estimated 15 million people in the United States. Although people have recorded asthma-like symptoms since ancient times, physicians and researchers have always debated the exact causes and nature of the disease. During the 17th century, English physicians such as Thomas Willis and Sir John Floyer made the case that asthma was different from other breathing disorders. They maintained that asthma, as a specific form of disordered breathing, must be treated differently from other forms of breathlessness. By the late 19th century, physicians believed that asthma was a disease that had a specific set of causes, clinical consequences, and requirements for treatment, despite the diversity of individual experiences.

Four Perspectives on Asthma

In response to the question, "What is asthma?," four distinct but overlapping answers have endured side by side in Western medicine from the late nineteenth century to the present day: asthma as a primary disorder of the lungs, as an allergic condition, as a disease associated with environmental irritants, and as a disease linked to emotional distress. Each perspective brings with it different insights into the mechanisms of asthma and different clinical approaches to managing the disease.

The Faces of Asthma

Theodore Roosevelt. Liza Minnelli. Jackie Joyner-Kersee. Che Guevara. Bob Hope. Kenny G. The thread linking these seemingly disparate lives is asthma. Each person has had to contend with it.

Asthma has many different faces. Some who suffer from it achieve great honor in their chosen profession. Others are everyday people who have learned to manage their asthma successfully and are leading full, productive lives as a result. The faces of asthma, and the stories of people with asthma, are an important part of "Breath of Life."

Asthma Research and Resources

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) provides funding to scientists throughout the world to conduct research on asthma. The goals of this work are to improve our understanding of the causes and mechanisms of asthma and to identify better ways to treat, manage and ultimately cure or prevent the disease. At NIH, the entities that conduct and support most of this research are: the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

As part of "Breath of Life," both at the exhibition itself and in the online version, you can tap many of the foremost asthma resources around the nation, to learn more about asthma and how to manage it.

Visiting curators for "Breath of Life" were Robert A. Aronowitz, MD, of the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, and Carla C. Keirns, MD-PhD candidate, of the University of Pennsylvania. Sheldon G. Cohen, MD, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, served as a special advisor for the exhibition. Dot Sparer of Athens, GA was an exhibition scriptwriter. Consultants were William H. Helfand of New York, NY, and Esther Sternberg, MD, National Institute of Mental Health. Patricia Tuohy is NLM's Exhibition Program Manager. For a full list of credits, go to www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/breath/credits/credit.html.

Photo: Chinese healers understood that xiao- chuan, literally "wheezy breathing," was, like all disorders, a symptom of imbalance in the life force they called qi (or ch'i). Physicians restored qi by means of acupuncture, diet and exercise, among other methods. Chinese acupuncture mannequin, 18th century. Courtesy Mütter Museum, College of Physicians of Philadelphia.

Photo: Careful work by anatomists since the 1500s, and the spread of anatomical knowledge by improved printing technologies, gave 19thcentury physicians unprecedented information about the internal structure of the lungs. This work is the Atlas of Human Anatomy and Physiology, prepared by Sir William Turner (1832-1916) and John Goodsir (1814-1867), Edinburgh. Collection of the National Library of Medicine.

In the 19th century, many a questionable cure for asthma was sold, often accompanied by stirring testimonials. Here, Himalya the Wonderful Kola Plant Compound, comes with a "sworn affidavit" by its satisfied customers. One thousand dollars was promised "if a Single Testimonial Letter in the following pages is not found in Every Respect Reliable and Truthful just as stated." (1893) Courtesy William H. Helfand Collection, New York.

This early nebulizer is a forerunner of today's asthma inhalers. Courtesy Mütter Museum, College of Physicians of Philadelphia.

"Breath of Life" is NLM's most ambitious exhibit yet, in terms of high-tech wizardry. The first thing one sees of the exhibit, after entering NLM's front door, is a large "plasma screen" -- a thin projection device with a unique, three-dimensional feel. On this screen is an animated illustration based on data from NLM's Visible Human Project, depicting a pair of breathing human lungs. As the lungs contract and expand, quotes from doctors, authors and famous patients, describing what an asthma attack is like, fill the screen. The combined effect is mesmerizing.

Elsewhere in "Breath of Life," there are listening devices that let you hear what a healthy person's breathing sounds like through a stethoscope, and compare that to an asthma sufferer's breathing. There are videos about Olympic gold medal winner Jackie Joyner- Kersee and how she manages her asthma, how the lungs function and what happens to them during an asthma attack, how to use a metered dose inhaler and a peak flow meter, how different asthma medicines work in the lungs, and several featuring Dani, the "Sesame Street" muppet with asthma.

Also, "Breath of Life" features two multimedia educational experiences for visitors. "Winning with Asthma" is an interactive game that integrates concepts and facts about Exercise-Induced Asthma (EIA) into a commercial video game. Children, and the minority of adults who are video game-savvy, have the opportunity to play the popular FIFA99 Soccer game from Electronic Arts, but only after they answer several questions about their own health status. The arcade-styled kiosk is appealing to kids of all ages and particularly to young soccer players with asthma. The Lister Hill Center, the Library's research and development arm, developed and adapted the program and obtained permission from Electronic Arts in Canada to modify the game.

The "Faces of Asthma" kiosk, adjacent to the soccer game, introduces exhibit guests to people from the Washington, DC area who have asthma. Nine individuals with asthma (including a family of five) discuss how the disease has affected their daily lives, how they cope, and how asthma impacts others in their lives. A teenage Olympic hopeful talks about how he controls his asthma before taking part in martial arts matches. A young mother recounts her concerns about taking powerful asthma medicines during her pregnancies. A senior citizen discusses how she has been able to live a fulfilling life, traveling and reaching out to others through various social work activities. Asthma has not slowed her down in the least.

Using a special touch-sensitive monitor interfaced to a digital video disk (DVD) player (donated by Phillips Electronics), exhibit guests can select the life stories of any of the nine persons pictured on the screen. The program is also close-captioned for the hearing impaired. "Breath of Life" is the first application of this new DVD touch screen technology in any public environment.

These unique features of the "Breath of Life" were the result of the happy collaboration between NLM's History of Medicine Division and Lister Hill's Audiovisual Program Development Branch.

Thanks to Thomas Held, Germantown, MD, for invaluable help with this story. Held was a consultant to the Library on the "Winning with Asthma" game and the "Faces of Asthma" kiosk.

Photo: A young visitor to "Breath of Life" sits down at the attraction that most people his age are drawn to first - the "Winning with Asthma" video game.

Select another issue

Cumulative Index