War, Medicine, and Cultural Diplomacy in the Americas: Frank Wilson and Brazilian cardiology

Abstract

American cultural diplomacy played a key role in the institutionalization of Brazilian cardiology. In 1942, Frank Wilson, an internationally recognized pioneer in electrocardiography, made an extended wartime visit to Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. The visit was sponsored by the United States Department of State as part of Roosevelt's Good Neighbor Policy and brought Wilson together with a group of physicians who would establish the specialty of cardiology in Brazil. This US cultural and diplomatic initiative strengthened an academic network that was already evolving and would eventually prove to be of benefit to both sides. Latin American physicians began in the 1920s to visit Wilson's laboratory at the University of Michigan, where they established the relationships on which Wilson would build. While affiliation with the "Wilson school" advanced the cause of Brazilian cardiologists who sought to establish themselves as specialists, cooperation with Latin American physicians benefitted Wilson in his pursuit of wider recognition for his innovations in the use of electrocardiography (ECG). Wilson's identity as a scientific ambassador to Latin America helped in legitimating his approach to the clinical application of the ECG. A close examination of Wilson's relationship to Brazilian cardiology demonstrates the role played by science and medicine as a part of wartime cultural diplomacy, as well as the dynamics of the transnational circulation of scientific knowledge and practices.

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