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Scott Harris Podolsky, MD

Professor of Global Health and Social Medicine
Director, Center for the History of Medicine, Countway Medical Library
Primary Care Physician at Massachusetts General Hospital

Dr. Podolsky is Professor of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School and a primary care physician at Massachusetts General Hospital. Since 2006, he has served as the director of the Center for the History of Medicine based at the Countway Medical Library.

Dr. Podolsky graduated summa cum laude from Harvard College with a bachelor's degree in history and science. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Medical School.

Affiliation:

Center for the History of Medicine, Countway Medical Library

History of 19th- and 20th-century therapeutics and medical evolution, with a focus on the history of antibiotics, the evolving authority of the controlled clinical trial, and relationships among physicians, medical journals, the pharmaceutical industry, and governmental agencies.

Dr. Podolsky has co-authored Generation of Diversity: Clonal Selection Theory and the Rise of Molecular Immunology (1997), authored Pneumonia before Antibiotics: Therapeutic Evolution and Evaluation in Twentieth-Century America (2006), co-edited Oliver Wendell Holmes: Physician and Man of Letters (2009), and most recently authored The Antibiotic Era: Reform, Resistance, and the Pursuit of a Rational Therapeutics (2015).

Commentary: The evolution of methods to assess the effects of treatments, illustrated by the development of treatments for diphtheria, 1825-1918.
Authors: Authors: Opinel A, Tröhler U, Gluud C, Gachelin G, Smith GD, Podolsky SH, Chalmers I.
Int J Epidemiol
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Metchnikoff and the microbiome.
Authors: Authors: Podolsky SH.
Lancet
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Moneyball and medicine.
Authors: Authors: Phillips CJ, Greene JA, Podolsky SH.
N Engl J Med
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Reform, regulation, and pharmaceuticals--the Kefauver-Harris Amendments at 50.
Authors: Authors: Greene JA, Podolsky SH.
N Engl J Med
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Therapeutic evolution and the challenge of rational medicine.
Authors: Authors: Greene JA, Jones DS, Podolsky SH.
N Engl J Med
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The burden of disease and the changing task of medicine.
Authors: Authors: Jones DS, Podolsky SH, Greene JA.
N Engl J Med
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The advent of fair treatment allocation schedules in clinical trials during the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Authors: Authors: Chalmers I, Dukan E, Podolsky S, Davey Smith G.
J R Soc Med
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The evolving roles of the medical journal.
Authors: Authors: Podolsky SH, Greene JA, Jones DS.
N Engl J Med
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Prescribed: Writing, Filling, Using, and Abusing the Prescription in Modern America, eds
Authors: Authors: "Pharmacological Restraints": Antibiotic Prescribing and the Limits of Physician Autonomy
Greene JA, Watkins, ES
Combination drugs--hype, harm, and hope.
Authors: Authors: Podolsky SH, Greene JA.
N Engl J Med
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