Early innovations in maritime telemedical services: the KDKF Radio Medico Station

Authors

  • Johnathan Thayer Assistant Professor, Graduate School of Library and Information Studies, Queens College, City University of New York, Queens, NY.
  • Stefan Dreisbach-Williams Archivist, Seamen’s Church Institute, New York, NY.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/jmla.2023.1567

Keywords:

Telemedicine, Radiotelegraphy, Seafarers

Abstract

“MAN PUT HIS TONGUE AGAINST REFRIGERATOR PIPE AND GOT IT FROZEN; HAVE THAWED IT OUT AND IT IS NOW BLISTERED AND SWOLLEN BUT NOT PAINFUL. ARRIVING HONOLULU FRIDAY; HOW CAN I HELP HIM MEANWHILE?” Thus read a message relayed via radiogram across the ocean to the physician stationed at the Seamen’s Church Institute’s (SCI) KDKF radio station, established by the Institute in 1920 on top of its thirteen-story seafarer services center at the southern tip of Manhattan. Though radio was in its infancy, radio telegraphy had already proven its revolutionary power, featuring prominently in far more serious maritime emergencies such as the sinking of Titanic. SCI’s KDKF radio station aimed to address a less dramatic but no less important problem in blue water navigation: access to medical care.

Author Biographies

Johnathan Thayer, Assistant Professor, Graduate School of Library and Information Studies, Queens College, City University of New York, Queens, NY.

Assistant Professor at the Graduate School of Library and Information Studies, Queens College, City University of New York. He teaches and conducts research in archival studies, public history, and the intersections of urban and maritime history in U.S. ports.

Stefan Dreisbach-Williams, Archivist, Seamen’s Church Institute, New York, NY.

Archivist at The Seamen’s Church Institute. Previously, Maritime Associate at the Waterfront Alliance, Registration Coordinator at the Center for Wooden Boats (Seattle, WA)

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Published

2023-04-21

Issue

Vol. 111 No. 1/2 (2023): January/April 2023

Section

History Matters

License

Copyright (c) 2023 Johnathan Thayer, Stefan Dreisbach-Williams

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.