Sloane Wesloh

@swesloh.bsky.social

PhD student @ Pitt HPS. History and philosophy of medicine. I study the history of electronic medical record systems and like thinking about diagnosis, disease, and diabetes. Fan of birds, bugs, and bogs.

Join us (virtually) on September 14 for a day-long workshop on the Philosophy of Diagnosis! What is diagnosis, who is it for, and what will become of it in the age of AI? We have an incredible line up of speakers who plan to tackle these questions. Registration is free and open at the link.

Workshop: The Philosophy of Diagnosis - The Center for Philosophy of Science

Workshop: The Philosophy of Diagnosis September 14, 2026 9a-5p (EDT = UTC-4) Virtual (on Zoom) Hosted by the University of Pittsburgh Diagnosis is central to the practice of medicine, yet it …

centerphilsci.pitt.edu

The fifth edition of Dr. Elliott Joslin’s Manual for Diabetics (1934) includes a new final paragraph, where Joslin says: hey, remember that it doesn’t matter how you die - but it does lower my statistics for the life span of diabetics if you do.

Bild

Watching my glucose while reading the 1919 edition of Joslin’s Diabetic Manual, with instructions for the starvation therapy which kept some patients with type 1 diabetes alive prior to insulin. Joslin: fasting must be “rigidly enforced with children, because with them disobedience means death.”

Bild

I can’t help but take it as a bad sign when the drug company feels like it’s not enough to just send you the drug, so they also start including inspirational messages (which assume that you must be sad).

Bild

My perspective “Into the Valley of the Sick” is out today! I’ve spent a lot of time immersed in philosophical questions about disease while I have enjoyed a reprieve from my own, but the work I do about medicine will always be shaped by my own experience with it, like I share here.

NEJM.org@nejm.org · last yr.

Weekend Briefing for July 26, 2025: New Images in Clinical Medicine: Neovascularization in Retinopathy of Prematurity nej.md/44MTZOY Two New Perspectives: 1️⃣ Public Policies, Social Narratives, and Health nej.md/412RDck 2️⃣ Into the Valley of the Sick nej.md/3GHb1Vz #MedSky