Name: F5. Historian-Clinician Engagement
Start: 2026-06-06T13:00:00-0400
End: 2026-06-06T14:30:00-0400

Saturday June 6, 2026 1:00pm - 2:30pm EDT

While their perspectives may differ, both clinicians and medical historians share a common interest in the history of health care. The premise, therefore, of this roundtable is that historians and clinicians have much to offer each other in both theory and practice. This is particularly true at a time when medical history is occupying an ever more precarious place in the medical school curriculum. Further, while dated stereotypes about Whiggism and presentism persist, the clinician population is changing as are its historical interests. The possibilities for new areas of collaboration are expanding.

Growing out of an ad hoc committee on clinician engagement, this roundtable will explore practical strategies for expanding historian-clinician engagement. This roundtable will facilitate discussion between clinicians and historians, and generate additional ideas that can be applied at the institutional and local level.

Shelley McKellar PhD will draw on her experience teaching medical students and residents, who are seeking venues and communities for avocational clinicians interested in the history of medicine
Mindy Schwartz MD will discuss the Clio Project and the development of an online community to support medical history
Justin Barr MD, PhD will provide insights into publishing history in medical journals from his perspective as both an author and the history editor for Annals of Surgery Open
Peter Kernahan MD, PhD will discuss historical initiatives at the American College of Surgeons
Julie Lemmon MD will comment on historian-clinician interaction from the perspective of a clinician completing a master’s degree in the history of medicine
David Korostyshevsky PhD will discuss his experience researching, writing, and producing a departmental history while a graduate student

Chair emails:
[email protected]
[email protected]

Learning Outcomes

To understand historical activities in the clinician community
To recognize the mutual benefits of collaboration between historians and clinicians
To develop initiatives for integrating history into the medical curriculum

Moderators

Walton O. Schalick, III

University of Wisconsin - Madison

Speakers

Justin Barr

Ochsner Clinic

Peter Kernahan

University of Minnesota

Shelley McKellar

Western University

David Korostyshevsky

Faculty, Colorado State University

I am an interdisciplinary historian studying addiction, gender, and the family at the nexus of medicine and law. My research interests also include life insurance medicine and the formation of enduring disparities in modern healthcare systems. I am an Instructor in the Department... Read More →