Medical Consultation Board (Ärztekonsil)
The Medical Consultation Board of BoCAS is a team of volunteer specialists from different medical disciplines as well as general practitioners to provide expert advice on archaeological human remains. As a citizen science initiative, the board enables practicing physicians and medical experts to contribute their clinical knowledge to archaeological and bioanthropological research on a voluntary basis. By discussing cases and sharing expertise, the board helps ensure accurate diagnoses, assess the impact of pathologies and trauma on past indivuals' lives while fostering collaboration between medicine and archaeology.
Current Board
The Board currently consists of 17 members.
Meetings
The Medical Consultation Board meets three to four times a year for half a day to discuss skeletal cases, ideally in front of the original remains, together with the respective BoCAS colleagues. Meetings take place in Bone Lab rooms 2.020 and 2.021. Coffee breaks in our seminar room 2.019 are a must-have, and an informal get-together over drinks and snacks concludes each session. Several of our Board Members also regularly attend our Debates in ArchaeoSciences and our conferences.
Background
The original idea for the Medical Consultation Board was developed by our collaborator Gerhard Hotz at the Naturhistorisches Museum Basel: the "Hausärzte-Team" within the Bürgerforschung Basel has been active since 2013. Inspired by this concept, BoCAS issued a call for participation in the Rheinisches Ärzteblatt in 2025, which met with great response from the regional medical community. We welcome interested professionals who are willing to dedicate some of their time - please get in contact!