Myself
CurrentI am mostly retired but slowly working on a new book that will use a history of science perspective to illuminate two histories: those pharmaceuticals and population health. I begin with the germ theory, diphtheria antitoxin and Salvarsan, and the early 1930s development of the sulfas. The wartime government-coordinated production of penicillin and the post-war explosion of new drugs reshaped the pharmaceutical industry, the NIH, public expectations, and the professions of medicine and… Show more I am mostly retired but slowly working on a new book that will use a history of science perspective to illuminate two histories: those pharmaceuticals and population health. I begin with the germ theory, diphtheria antitoxin and Salvarsan, and the early 1930s development of the sulfas. The wartime government-coordinated production of penicillin and the post-war explosion of new drugs reshaped the pharmaceutical industry, the NIH, public expectations, and the professions of medicine and pharmacy. These changes were accompanied by advances in epidemiology, including an evolving set of tools for assessing population-attributable disease risks and the invention and ascendancy of randomized controlled trials. I began with the idea that this would be a story about the intersection of risk factors (a term coined in the 1960s) and the drugs and public health interventions that affect them. It still is, but it is more complicated than I had anticipated. Show less
