A newly funded history of medicine project will examine the introduction of screening for breast and cervical cancer.

Mammography (above) and smear tests are now in widespread use across the UK, as a way of detecting early stages of disease. Elizabeth Toon of the University of Manchester has been awarded a History of Medicine Research Fellowship to study the reasons why such screening came to be seen as a priority and was introduced into the NHS.

Among other history of medicine funding, Katherine Watson (Oxford Brookes University) has received a Research Leave Award to study the development of forensic medical practice from 1700 to World War I, Peregrine Horden (Royal Holloway) will be studying medical manuscripts from the Byzantine Empire, and Richard Smith (University of Cambridge) will look at the descriptions of causes of death used by doctors in 19th-century Scotland.

Image credit: Andrea Motta