Author information from the last article
E-post: erlend.hem@lefo.no
Erlend Hem er instituttsjef ved Legeforskningsinstituttet og professor ved Universitetet i Oslo.
Articles by Erlend Hem
Vanitas – on borrowed time
- Erlend Hem
19.03.2026:
Skulls in art remind us that nothing lasts forever. The Netherlands' national museum, Rijksmuseum, in Amsterdam (1) is home to several dozen works featuring the skull as a motif (2). For doctors, the skull is primarily an anatomical object: the bony structure that protects the brain and shapes the...
The patient's voice and the writer's role in mental health records
- Petter Aaslestad,
- Marion Cecilie Andrade Bakke,
- Petter Andreas Ringen,
- Erlend Hem
18.03.2026:
'Things are stored, but not remembered. […] You store in order to forget.' Geir Angell Øygarden: Kentauromakhi (1) Patient records have seldom been the subject of scholarly study (2). An important exception is the first author's book Pasienten som tekst (the patient as text), published in 1997 (3)...
When penicillin came to Norway
- Anne Margrethe Aalborg Wiik,
- Erlend Hem,
- Anne Kveim Lie
08.01.2026:
Alexander Fleming's (1881–1955) discovery of penicillin in 1928, and its subsequent testing and mass production by Howard Florey (1898–1968) and Ernst Chain (1906–79) in collaboration with the United States' pharmaceutical industry, represent some of the most important milestones in medical history...
How has pregnancy duration been determined throughout history?
- Per E. Børdahl,
- Erlend Hem
17.12.2025:
The end of pregnancy can be recorded with precision, but determining when it started is more challenging. Should it be calculated from the intercourse that led to fertilisation, from ovulation, from fertilisation itself, or from implantation? In any case, pregnancy does not actually begin on the...
Correction: Ibsen's wallet – an insight into the poet's prescriptions
- Erlend Hem,
- Jan Frich
01.12.2025:
Tidsskr Nor Legeforen 2025; 145. doi: 10.4045/tidsskr.24.0526 The image text for the last image should say: (…) Pictured here at Arbins gate 1 in 1898. Photo: Hulda Szacinski (1845–1922). In public ownership through the National Library of Norway. (Updated 1.12.2025)
Edvard Munch's heartblood
- Erlend Hem
03.10.2025:
The 'Lifeblood' exhibition at the Munch Museum in Oslo was a reflection on the role of medicine in our lives. While the exhibition had much to appreciate, there were also a few puzzling aspects. 'Illness, madness and death were the black angels that watched over my cradle', wrote Edvard Munch (1863...
Vesalius' Fabrica – from medical textbook to cultural treasure in Oslo
- Erlend Hem,
- Magne Nylenna,
- Øivind Larsen
18.08.2025:
Andreas Vesalius (1515–64) is known for his anatomical atlas, De Humani Corporis Fabrica, from 1543. The book marked a turning point in the history of science and laid the foundation for modern anatomy. A single copy of the first edition is held in Norway. How and why did it end up here? If we had...
Sandborg-Vedeler's forceps – an innovation in the golden age of obstetric forceps
- Per E. Børdahl,
- Erlend Hem
25.06.2025:
Few medical disciplines have undergone such a radical transformation due to a single instrument as obstetrics did with the introduction of forceps: they made it possible to save both mother and child (1). In Europe, forceps came into use in the 1730s. Modifications quickly followed, and in the 1740s...