MEDICINES, TRANSLATIONS and HISTORIES
University of Manchester
Thursday 11 and Friday 12 June 2015
Deadline for abstracts of a maximum of 300 words: *14 February 2015*
As a widely-circulated article in the Journal of the American Medical Association
argued in 2008, the emerging field of Translational Medicine (TM) can be defined
in two very different ways: first, the study of the specific ‘bench-to-bedside’
enterprise of harnessing knowledge from basic sciences to produce new drugs,
devices and treatment options for patients; and secondly, the more general
business of translating research into clinical practice, ensuring new treatments
and research knowledge actually reach the patients or populations for whom
they are intended.(1) In policy, these two areas are mostly framed in terms of
how new knowledge and practices can be developed and tested faster, and then
how innovations can be disseminated more rapidly into practice. To these two
definitions of the problem of translation in medicine, we would add a third,
unstated issue: what translations the research of historians, ethnographers,
ethicists and other social scientists must undergo in order to engage with clinical
practice, health policy, and more general public concerns about health and the
healthcare system today.
Historians of medicine and medical journal editors alike are concerned about the
paucity of historical perspective in contemporary policymaking and the
communication gap between research, practice, and policy in the field of medical
history.(2) The Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine
(CHSTM), University of Manchester and the Institute of the History of Medicine,
Johns Hopkins University, USA, are holding a meeting in Manchester in June 2015
to bring together historians, social scientists, and the policy community to
explore critically the issues around Translational Medicine set out above. We
hope to attract practitioners and stakeholders to engage in a dialogue on how
History might inform, and contribute to the transformation of, medical education
and practice.
Topics will include, but are not limited to:
– translational research in practice: histories, ethnographies and ethics
– material and conceptual studies of medical innovation
– models of translation in medicine, public health, and health policy
– studying translation between the public and private sector
– translational medicine in the medical curriculum
– cross national, international and transnational accounts of translational
medicine
– interdisciplinarities with history, ethics, social sciences, and the medical
humanities
– the roles of history, social science, and medical humanities in medical
education, biomedical research and clinical practice.
Deadline for abstracts of a maximum of 300 words: *14 February 2015*
We will be applying for conference funding and hope to be able offer support to
speakers.
Please send abstracts to: michael.worboys@manchester.ac.uk
http://www.chstm.manchester.ac.uk/newsandevents/conferences/medicinetranslationshistories/index.aspx
HSTM Network Ireland 