Bibliography of Teaching History in Medical Schools

We welcome updates and contributions to this ongoing list of books and articles. To contribute to our list, please email [email protected].

Our List

Ackerknecht, Erwin H.The Role of Medical History in Medical Education.” Bulletin of the History of Medicine 21 (1947): 135.

Benjamin, Denis R. “Editorial: Physicians as Historians.” Pediatric and Developmental Pathology 3, no. 4 (July 8, 2000): 313–313

Blake, John Ballard. Education in the History of Medicine; Report of a Macy Conference. New York: Hafner Publishing Company, 1968.

Bryan, Charles S., and Lawrence D. Longo. “Perspective: Teaching and Mentoring the History of Medicine.” Academic Medicine 88, no. 1 (January 2013): 97–101. 

Burns, Chester R. “HISTORY IN MEDICAL EDUCATION: THE DEVELOPMENT OF CURRENT TRENDS IN THE UNITED STATES.” Bull. N. Y. Acad. Med. 51, no. 7 (1975): 19.

Caramiciu, Justin, David Arcella, and Manisha S. Desai. “History of Medicine in US Medical School Curricula.” Journal of Anesthesia History 1, no. 4 (October 2015): 111–14. 

Cartwright, F. F. The Place of Medical History in Undergraduate Education. SAGE Publications, 1969.

Cooter, R. “After Death/After-’Life’: The Social History of Medicine in Post-Postmodernity.” Social History of Medicine 20, no. 3 (October 9, 2007): 441–64. 

Cordell, Eugene F. “The Importance of the Study of the History of Medicine.” Medical Library and Historical Journal 2, no. 4 (1904): 268.

Dolan, B. “History, Medical Humanities and Medical Education.” Social History of Medicine 23, no. 2 (August 1, 2010): 393–405. 

Doukas, David J., Laurence B. McCullough, and Stephen Wear. “Perspective: Medical Education in Medical Ethics and Humanities as the Foundation for Developing Medical Professionalism.” Academic Medicine 87, no. 3 (March 2012): 334–41..

Duffin, J. “Lament for the Humanities in Continuing Medical Education.” Canadian Medical Association Journal 183, no. 12 (September 6, 2011): 1452–1452. 

Duffin, Jacalyn. “Infiltrating the Curriculum: An Integrative Approach to History for Medical Students.” Journal of Medical Humanities 16, no. 3 (1995): 155–74.

Elkin, Daniel. “A CASE FOR THE STUDY OF THE HUMANITIES IN THE MAKING OF A DOCTOR.” Ann Surg 136, no. 3 (1952): 337–44.

Enarson C and Burg FD. “An Overview of Reform Initiatives in Medical Education: 1906 through 1992.” JAMA 268, no. 9 (September 2, 1992): 1141–43. 

Fuller, Jonathan, and Margaret M. Olszewski. “Medical History in Canadian Undergraduate Medical Education, 1939-2012.” Canadian Bulletin of Medical History 30, no. 2 (2013): 199–209.

Greene, Jeremy A., and David S. Jones. “The Shared Goals and Distinct Strengths of the Medical Humanities: Can the Sum of the Parts Be Greater Than the Whole?” Academic Medicine 92, no. 12 (December 2017): 1661–64. 

Hafferty, F, and R Franks. “The Hidden Curriculum, Ethics Teaching, and the Structure of Medical Education.” ACADEMIC MEDICINE 69, no. 11 (1994): 861–71.

Howell, Joel D. “An Elective Course in Medical History.” ACADEMIC MEDICINE 66, no. 11 (1991): 668–69.

Hudson, R P. “Medical History–Another Irrelevance?” Annals Of Internal Medicine 72, no. 6 (June 1970): 956–57.

Jarvis-Selinger, Sandra, Daniel D. Pratt, and Glenn Regehr. “Competency Is Not Enough: Integrating Identity Formation Into the Medical Education Discourse.” Academic Medicine 87, no. 9 (September 2012): 1185–90. 

Jones, David S, Greene Jeremy. “Making the Case for History in Medical Education.” J History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 70 (2015): 623–52.

Kent, Lindsey, and Peter J. Ward. “Investigating the Presence of the History of Medicine in North American Medical Education: Can One of the Medical Humanities Concisely Integrate with Biomedical and Clinical Content with Reference to Clinical Competencies?” Medical Science Educator 30, no. 4 (December 2020): 1531–39. 

Kushner, Howard I. “History as a Medical Tool.” The Lancet 371, no. 9612 (2008): 552–53.

Kushner, Howard I.  “Medical Historians and the History of Medicine.” The Lancet 372, no. 9640 (2008): 710–11.

Lederer, Susan E, More Ellen, Howell, Joel. “Medical History in the Undergraduate Medical Curriculum.” Academic Medicine 70, no. 9 (September 1995): 770–76.

Lerner, Barron H. “From Laennec to Lobotomy: Teaching Medical History at Academic Medical Centers.” American Journal of the Medical Sciences 319, no. 5 (May 2000): 279–84.

Ludmerer, Kenneth M. “The History of Medicine in Medical Education.” Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 70, no. 4 (2015): 656–60.

Markowitz, Gerald E., and David Karl Rosner. “Doctors in Crisis: A Study of the Use of Medical Education Reform to Establish Modern Professional Elitism in Medicine.” American Quarterly 25, no. 1 (1973): 83–107. 

Miller, Genevieve. “The Teaching of Medical History in the United States and Canada. Report of a Field Survey.” Bulletin of the History of Medicine 43, no. 3 (May 1, 1969): 259.

Osler, William. “A Note on the Teaching of the History of Medicine.” British Medical Journal 2, no. 2167 (1902): 93.

Partin, Clyde, Howard I. Kushner, and Mary E. Kollmer Horton. “A Tale of Congress, Continuing Medical Education, and the History of Medicine.” Proceedings (Baylor University. Medical Center) 27, no. 2 (2014): 156.

Patel, Parth M., and Sukumar P. Desai. “A Clinician’s Rationale for the Study of History of Medicine.” The Journal of Education in Perioperative Medicine: JEPM 16, no. 4 (2014).

Prioreschi, P. “Physicians, Historians, and the History of Medicine.” Medical Hypotheses 38, no. 2 (1992): 97–101.

Risse, G. “The Role of Medical History in the Education of the ‘Humanist’ Physician: A Reevaluation.” J Med Educ 50, no. 5 (1975): 458–65.

Ritterman, Jeffrey. “To Err Is Human: Can American Medicine Learn from Past Mistakes?” The Permanente Journal, 2017. 

Rosen, George. “The Place of History in Medical Education.” Bulletin of the History of Medicine 22 (1948): 594.

Sheard, Sally. “Developing History of Medicine in the University of Liverpool Medical Curriculum 1995?2005.” Medical Education 40, no. 10 (October 2006): 1045–52. 

Sherwin, J. “Competency-Based Medical Education Takes Shape.” AAMC Reporter, 2011.

Shortt, S E D. “Clinical Practice and the Social History of Medicine: A Theoretical Accord.” Bulletin of the History of Medicine 55, no. 4 (1981): 533.

Sigerist, Henry E. “Medical History in the Medical Schools of the United States.” Bulletin of the History of Medicine 7 (1939): 627.

Sigerist, Henry E. “On the Teaching of Medical History: A Tentative Syllabus for a Course in the History of Medicine.” Bulletin of the Institute of the History of Medicine 2 (1934): 123.

Sokol, Daniel K. “Perspective: Should We Amputate Medical History?” Academic Medicine 83, no. 12 (2008): 1162–64.

Stein, Claudia. “Divining and Knowing:: Karl Sudhoff’s Historical Method.” Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 2013, 198.

Stolz, Donna Beer. “Hana No Hana: Artist’s Statement.” Academic Medicine 84, no. 2 (2009): 198.

Sugand, Kapil, David Metcalfe, Donna Arya, and Kash Akhtar. “History Lessons in Medical Education: A Current Necessity?: History Lessons in Medical Education.” Surgical Practice 17, no. 1 (February 2013): 18–21..

Warner, J. H. “The Humanising Power of Medical History: Responses to Biomedicine in the 20th Century United States.” Medical Humanities 37, no. 2 (December 1, 2011): 91–96. 

Warner, John Harley. “The Fielding H. Garrison Lecture: The Aesthetic Grounding of Modern Medicine.” Bulletin of the History of Medicine 88, no. 1 (2014): 1–47. 

Weisberg, Mark, and Jacalyn Duffin. “Evoking the Moral Imagination: Using Stories to Teach Ethics and Professionalism to Nursing, Medical, and Law Students.” Journal of Medical Humanities 16, no. 4 (December 1, 1995): 247–63.

Our List
Ackerknecht, Erwin H.The Role of Medical History in Medical Education.” Bulletin of the History of Medicine 21 (1947): 135.
Benjamin, Denis R. “Editorial: Physicians as Historians.” Pediatric and Developmental Pathology 3, no. 4 (July 8, 2000): 313–313.
Blake, John Ballard. Education in the History of Medicine; Report of a Macy Conference. New York: Hafner Publishing Company, 1968.
Bryan, Charles S., and Lawrence D. Longo. “Perspective: Teaching and Mentoring the History of Medicine.” Academic Medicine 88, no. 1 (January 2013): 97–101.
Burns, Chester R. “History In Medical Education: The Development Of Current Trends In The United States.” Bull. N. Y. Acad. Med. 51, no. 7 (1975): 19.
Caramiciu, Justin, David Arcella, and Manisha S. Desai. “History of Medicine in US Medical School Curricula.” Journal of Anesthesia History 1, no. 4 (October 2015): 111–14.
Cartwright, Frederick F. “The Place of Medical History in Undergraduate Education.” Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine Volume 62; Oct 1969 1053-1060.
Cooter, Roger. “After Death/After-Life”: The Social History of Medicine in Post-Postmodernity.” Social History of Medicine 20, no. 3 (October 9, 2007): 441–64.
Cordell, Eugene F. “The Importance of the Study of the History of Medicine.” Medical Library and Historical Journal 2, no. 4 (1904): 268.
Dolan, Brian. “History, Medical Humanities and Medical Education.” Social History of Medicine 23, no. 2 (August 1, 2010): 393–405.
Doukas, David J., Laurence B. McCullough, and Stephen Wear. “Perspective: Medical Education in Medical Ethics and Humanities as the Foundation for Developing Medical Professionalism.” Academic Medicine 87, no. 3 (March 2012): 334–41.
Duffin, Jacalyn. History of Medicine: A Scandalously Short Introduction. Third edition. Toronto ; Buffalo ; London: University of Toronto Press, 2021.
Duffin, Jacalyn. “Infiltrating the Curriculum: An Integrative Approach to History for Medical Students.” Journal of Medical Humanities 16, no. 3 (1995): 155–74.
Duffin, Jacalyn “Lament for the Humanities in Continuing Medical Education.” Canadian Medical Association Journal 183, no. 12 (September 6, 2011): 1452–1452.
Duffin, Jacalyn. Lovers and Livers: Disease Concepts in History. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005.
Elkin, Daniel. “The Case for the Study of the Humanities in the Making of a Doctor” Ann Surg 136, no. 3 (1952): 337–44.
Ellaway R, MacLeod A, van Schalkwyk S, Cleland J. “Study the past if you would define the future: Historical methods in medical education scholarship.” Med Educ. 2025 Aug;59(8):823-832.
Enarson, Cam and Burg Frederic D. “An Overview of Reform Initiatives in Medical Education: 1906 through 1992.” JAMA 268, no. 9 (September 2, 1992): 1141–43.
Fuller, Jonathan, and Margaret M. Olszewski. “Medical History in Canadian Undergraduate Medical Education, 1939-2012.” Canadian Bulletin of Medical History 30, no. 2 (2013): 199–209.
Greene, Jeremy A., and David S. Jones. “The Shared Goals and Distinct Strengths of the Medical Humanities: Can the Sum of the Parts Be Greater Than the Whole?” Academic Medicine 92, no. 12 (December 2017): 1661–64.
Hafferty Frederic W and Ronald Franks. “The Hidden Curriculum, Ethics Teaching, and the Structure of Medical Education.” Academic Medicine 69, no. 11 (1994): 861–71.
Hart, Julian Tudor. “Discussion Point: The Teaching of Medical History and Education for Change.” Social History of Medicine 2, no. 3 (1989): 391–98.
Horton, Richard. “A Manifesto for Reading Medicine.” The Lancet 349, no. 9055 (1997): 872–74.
Howell, Joel D. “An Elective Course in Medical History.” Academic Medicine 66, no. 11 (1991): 668–69.
Huisman, Frank, and John Harley Warner. Locating Medical History: The Stories and Their Meanings. Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004.
Jarvis-Selinger, Sandra, Daniel D. Pratt, and Glenn Regehr. “Competency Is Not Enough: Integrating Identity Formation Into the Medical Education Discourse.” Academic Medicine 87, no. 9 (September 2012): 1185–90.
Jones, David S, Greene, Jeremy, Duffin, Jacalyn, Warner, John Harley. “Making the Case for History in Medical Education.” J History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 70 (2015): 623–52.
Kent, Lindsey, and Peter J. Ward. “Investigating the Presence of the History of Medicine in North American Medical Education: Can One of the Medical Humanities Concisely Integrate with Biomedical and Clinical Content with Reference to Clinical Competencies?” Medical Science Educator 30, no. 4 (December 2020): 1531–39.
Kushner, Howard I. “History as a Medical Tool.” The Lancet 371, no. 9612 (2008): 552–53.
Kushner, Howard I. “Medical Historians and the History of Medicine.” The Lancet 372, no. 9640 (2008): 710–11.
Lederer, Susan E, More Ellen, Howell, Joel. “Medical History in the Undergraduate Medical Curriculum.” Academic Medicine 70, no. 9 (September 1995): 770–76.
Lerner, Barron H. “From Laennec to Lobotomy: Teaching Medical History at Academic Medical Centers.” American Journal of the Medical Sciences 319, no. 5 (May 2000): 279–84.
Ludmerer, Kenneth M. “The History of Medicine in Medical Education.” Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 70, no. 4 (2015): 656–60.
Markowitz, Gerald E., and David Karl Rosner. “Doctors in Crisis: A Study of the Use of Medical Education Reform to Establish Modern Professional Elitism in Medicine.” American Quarterly 25, no. 1 (1973): 83–107.
Miller, Genevieve. “The Teaching of Medical History in the United States and Canada. Report of a Field Survey.” Bulletin of the History of Medicine 43, no. 3 (May 1, 1969): 259. Pages 259-267
Nuland, Sherwin B. “The Scientific Method: The Man or the Moment?” The American Scholar, no. 1 (2004): 129.
Numbers, Ronald L. “The History of American Medicine: A Field in Ferment.” Reviews in American History 10, no. 4 (December 1982): 245.
Osler, William. “A Note on the Teaching of the History of Medicine.” British Medical Journal 2, no. 2167 (1902): 93.
Partin, Clyde, Howard I. Kushner, and Mary E. Kollmer Horton. “A Tale of Congress, Continuing Medical Education, and the History of Medicine.” Proceedings (Baylor University. Medical Center) 27, no. 2 (2014): 156-160.
Patel, Parth M., and Sukumar P. Desai. “A Clinician’s Rationale for the Study of History of Medicine.” The Journal of Education in Perioperative Medicine: JEPM 16, no. 4 (2014).
Polianski, Igor J., and Heiner Fangerau. “Toward ‘Harder’ Medical Humanities: Moving Beyond the ‘Two Cultures’ Dichotomy:” Academic Medicine 87, no. 1 (January 2012): 121–26.
Prioreschi Plinio. “Physicians, Historians, and the History of Medicine.” Medical Hypotheses 38, no. 2 (1992): 97–101.
Risse Guenter. “The Role of Medical History in the Education of the ‘Humanist’ Physician: A Reevaluation.” J Med Educ 50, no. 5 (1975): 458–65.
Ritterman, Jeffrey. “To Err Is Human: Can American Medicine Learn from Past Mistakes?” Perm J 2017;21:16-18
Robert P Hudson. “Medical History–Another Irrelevance?” Annals Of Internal Medicine 72, no. 6 (June 1970): 956–57.
Rosen, George. “The Place of History in Medical Education.” Bulletin of the History of Medicine 22 (1948): 594.
Sheard, Sally. “Developing History of Medicine in the University of Liverpool Medical Curriculum 1995-2005.” Medical Education 40, no. 10 (October 2006): 1045–52.
Sherwin, Jane. “Competency-Based Medical Education Takes Shape.” AAMC Reporter, 2011.
Shortt SED Samuel Edward Dole Shortt. “Clinical Practice and the Social History of Medicine: A Theoretical Accord.” Bulletin of the History of Medicine 55, no. 4 (1981): 533.
Sigerist, Henry E. “Medical History in the Medical Schools of the United States.” Bulletin of the History of Medicine 7 (1939): 627.
Sigerist, Henry E. “On the Teaching of Medical History: A Tentative Syllabus for a Course in the History of Medicine.” Bulletin of the Institute of the History of Medicine 2 (1934): 123.
Sokol, Daniel K. “Perspective: Should We Amputate Medical History?” Academic Medicine 83, no. 12 (2008): 1162–64.
Steere-Williams, Jacob, Barr, Justin, Clark, Claire D, and López, Raúl Necochea. “Remaking the Case for History in Medical Education.” Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 78, no. 1 (March 23, 2023): 1–8.
Stein Claudia. “Divining and Knowing : Karl Sudhoff’s Historical Method.” Bulletin of the History of Medicine 87, no. 2 (2013): 198.
Stolz, Donna Beer. “Hana No Hana: Artist’s Statement.” Academic Medicine 84, no. 2 (2009): 198.
Sugand, Kapil, David Metcalfe, Donna Arya, and Kash Akhtar. “History Lessons in Medical Education: A Current Necessity?: History Lessons in Medical Education.” Surgical Practice 17, no. 1 (February 2013): 18–21.
Warner, John Harley. “The Humanising Power of Medical History: Responses to Biomedicine in the 20th Century United States.” Medical Humanities 37, no. 2 (December 1, 2011): 91–96.
Warner, John Harley. “Grand Narrative and Its Discontents: Medical History and the Social Transformation of American Medicine,” 2004.
Warner, John Harley. “The Fielding H. Garrison Lecture: The Aesthetic Grounding of Modern Medicine.” Bulletin of the History of Medicine 88, no. 1 (2014): 1–47.
Weisberg, Mark, and Jacalyn Duffin. “Evoking the Moral Imagination: Using Stories to Teach Ethics and Professionalism to Nursing, Medical, and Law Students.” Journal of Medical Humanities 16, no. 4 (December 1, 1995): 247–63.

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