Kenneth Ludmerer

Kenneth Ludmerer

Professor of History and Medicine
Mabel Dorn Reeder Distinguished Professor in the History of Medicine
Postdoctoral Fellowship in History of Science, Harvard University
MA, MD, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
AB, Harvard College

contact info:

office hours:

  • By Appointment
Get Directions

mailing address:

  • Washington University
    CB 8066
    One Brookings Drive
    St. Louis, MO 63130-4899

Professor Ludmerer's research interests are in the history of American medicine, with particular reference to the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. His work has focused on understanding medicine in a broad intellectual, social, and cultural context.

 

Books

Time to Heal: American Medical Education from the Turn of the Century to the Era of Managed Care (New York:  Oxford University Press, 1999)

Learning to Heal: The Development of American Medical Education (New York:  Basic Books, 1985)

Genetics and American Society: A Historical Appraisal (Baltimore:  Johns Hopkins Press, 1972)

Work in Progress

With funding assistance from the Macy and Spencer Foundations, Ludmerer have begun a book on the history and present status of graduate medical education (residency training) in the United States. This project was inspired by work he did in 2008 as a member of the Institute of Medicine's Committee on Resident Duty Hours. He anticipates a completed manuscript in late 2011.

Awards

2015 Distinguished Medical Alumnus Award from The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Association of American Physicians, and American Clinical and Climatological Association. 

Past President of the American Association for the History of Medicine and the American Osler Society. 

Recipient of the William Welch Medal of the American Association for the History of Medicine (for best book), the Abraham Flexner Award for Distinguished Service to Medical Education (from Association of American Medical Colleges), the inaugural Daniel Tosteson Award for Leadership in Medical Education (from Harvard Medical School), the Distinguished Alumnus Award of The Johns Hopkins University, the Nicholas Davies Award from the American College of Physicians (for contributions to the medical humanities), and a Mastership from the American College of Physicians. 

Past or present service on the editorial boards of the Bulletin of the History of Medicine, Isis, the Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, the Journal of the History of Biology, and the History of Education Quarterly.