History Page: Leaders in MSK Radiology

Born in 1869, Gaston Contremoulins began his career as a painter. Fascinated by photography and discovery of X-rays by Roentgen in 1895, our ingenious self taught engineer joined the laboratory of microphotography in the faculty of medicine in Paris. He published in 1896 studies in the use of X-rays associated with a compass for research and anatomical localization of foreign bodies in the skull. This work was awarded by the Montyon prize of the French Academy of Sciences in 1897. Appointed chief of radiological laboratories in Paris Hospital in 1898, despite the fact that he was not doctor, he developed his method named metro radiography for localization, then extraction of foreign bodies in all organs mainly during World War 1. He developed with surgeons osteosynthesis and prothesis for wounded soldiers. Early awareness of radiation hazards for physicians, hospital staff and also the neighborhood of the radiological installation, Contremoulins developed ways of protecting source and also promoted the shielding of walls and floors, despite the opposition of some of the radiologists. Retired from the Necker Hospital in 1934, he exercised his talents in the Saint-Germain-en-Laye Hospital for another 16 years. He ended his days in 1950 after he was diagnosed with inoperable cataracts.