The first Heberden Society Lecture of the 2007-2008 academic year will be delivered by David J. Rothman, Ph.D., on Thursday, Nov. 29, at 5:00 p.m., in the Uris Faculty Room (A-126) of Weill Cornell Medical College at 1300 York Ave. The title of the lecture will be "Their Drug Problem and Ours: Pharmaceutical Company/Physician Relationships, Then and Now."
Since joining the faculty at Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1983, Dr. Rothman has researched the history of health-care practices and policy. His published works include "Strangers at the Bedside: A History of How Law and Bioethics Transformed Medical Decision-Making" (1991), "Beginnings Count: The Technological Imperative in American Health Care" (1997), and "The Pursuit of Perfection: The Promise and Perils of Medical Enhancement" (2003, co-authored with Sheila Rothman).
In recent years, Dr. Rothman, who also serves as president of the Institute on Medicine as a Profession, has achieved recognition as a leading expert on medical conflicts of interest. In his lecture, he will examine the prevailing conflicts that arise from interactions between physicians and representatives of drug companies, past and present.
The Heberden Society, founded at the medical center in 1975 by a group of interns and residents who were interested in promoting the history of medicine, sponsors three lectures during each academic year. Future lecturers will include Dr. Gerald Grob (Rutgers University) on the changing patterns of morbidity and mortality in 20th-century America (Feb. 9, 2008) and Dr. Michael Bliss (University of Ontario) on the life and practice of the famous surgeon Dr. Harvey Cushing (May 8, 2008).