Does History Matter? Commentary on "Making the Case for History in Medical Education" [Comentario bibliográfico]

Abstract

“Making the Case for History in Medical Education” is a welcome contribution to the debate over the fate of history of medicine, not only because the essay concisely summarizes the major arguments mustered over the years in defense of this discipline, but more importantly because the article goes beyond recapitulation to propose the bases for a new program of instruction in the history of medicine for medical students. The article has been written by four distinguished historians of medicine and science—David S. Jones (Harvard University), Jeremy A. Greene (Johns Hopkins University), Jacalyn Duffin (Queen’s University), and John Harley Warner (Yale University); all from North American universities with well-established educational and research programs in the field—as the result of a workshop hosted by the Ackerman Program on Medicine and Culture at Harvard University in April 2013, with the participation of twenty-one authoritative medical historians. Their proposal for a “new synthesis” starts with a list of fourteenth major claims about the plausibility and relevance of history for medical knowledge and practice.