Wartime Medical Cooperation across the Pacific: Wilder Penfield and the Anglo-American Medical Missions to the Soviet Union and China, 1943-1944

Abstract

In July 1943, Wilder Penfield, an internationally renowned Canadian neurosurgeon, led a high-profile group of Anglo-American surgeons in a 3-week tour of Soviet medical facilities and battlefield hospitals. This venture paved the way for other medical missions, both Allied and Soviet, and the communication of medical information. This was followed by a mission to China, to provide assistance to the government of Chiang Kai-shek. The most important connection was, however, between Western medical scientists and their counterparts in the Soviet Union, a relationship that lasted until the advent of the Cold War. In this paper the exchange is examined, and it is argued that the surgical mission was a major catalyst in the creation of an extensive system of wartime medical interchange, which inspired hope for future cooperation in the postwar world.