Image of  Scott Harris Podolsky

Scott Harris Podolsky, M.D.

Professor of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Director of Center for the History of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Affiliate of the Department of History of Science, Faculty of Arts & Sciences

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).

2006.
Authors: Authors: Pneumonia before Antibiotics: Therapeutic Evolution and Evaluation in Twentieth-Century America

Review of "Drug Wars: How Big Pharma Raises Prices and Keeps Generics off the Market."
Authors: Authors: Pharmacy in History
2018; 60:97-98.
Nature Medicine
Authors: Authors: "Review of Our Daily Meds: How the Pharmceutical Companies Transformed Themselves into Slick Marketing Machines and Hooked the Nation on Prescription Drugs"
2009.
Review of "Pills, Power, and Policy: The Struggle for Drug Reform in Cold War America and its Consequences."
Authors: Authors: Bulletin of the History of Medicine
2012; 86:486-7.
2009.
Authors: Authors: Oliver Wendell Holmes: Physician and Man of Letters

1997.
Authors: Authors: Generation of Diversity: Clonal Selection Theory and the Rise of Molecular Immunology

Journal of the History of Medicine and the Allied Sciences
Authors: Authors: "Review of Biomedical Platforms: Realigning the Normal and the Pathological in Late Twentieth-Century Medicine."
2004; 59:602-604.
Review of "Lifesavers for Millions"
Authors: Authors: Gesnerus
2012; 69:362-4.
Journal of the American Medical Association
Authors: Authors: "A Historical Perspective of Pharmaceutical Promotion and Physician Education"
2008; 300(7):831-833.
Bulletin of the History of Medicine
Authors: Authors: "Review of Heredity and Infection: The History of Disease Transmission."
2003; 77:970-971.