History of Modern Biomedicine Research Group

The History of Modern Biomedicine Research Group (HoMBRG) is an academic organisation specialising in recording and publishing the oral history of twentieth and twenty-first century biomedicine. It was established in 1990 as the Wellcome Trust's History of Twentieth Century Medicine Group,^[1] and reconstituted in October 2010 as part of the School of History ^[2] at Queen Mary University of London.^[3][4][5]

History

The project originated as The Wellcome Trust's History of Twentieth Century Medicine Group, and later functioned as the Academic Unit of the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine. It was originally established at the Royal College of Physicians in 1990 and comprised Sir Christopher Booth (the Harveian Librarian) and Professor Tilli Tansey.^[6] Its purpose was to devise ways of stimulating historians, scientists & clinicians to discuss, preserve and write the history of recent biomedicine. The Group's activities were originally overseen by a Programme Committee, which included professional historians of medicine, practising scientists and clinicians.^[7] From 2000 to 2010 it was a constituent part of the Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at University College London. In October 2010 it moved to the School of History, Queen Mary's University, London. In 2011 the Group received a Strategic Award from the Wellcome Trust to embark upon a new project, "Makers of Modern Biomedicine".^{[8][9][10][11][12]}

Outputs

An archive of oral and written history, plus videoed interviews, has been compiled by the HoMBRG and consists of three projects: Witness Seminars, Today's Neuroscience, Tomorrow's History and SAD at 30. All material and documentation related to the project is deposited with the Wellcome Library. The resultant publications are open access,^[13] and made freely available online via the HoMBRG website, a partnership with the Medical Heritage Library,^[14] and iTunes.^[15]

The topics covered by the archive fall broadly into five themes:

Resources from the archive are online at The History of Modern Biomedicine Archive^[17] and the internet archive^[18]

Today's Neuroscience, Tomorrow's History

The Group's 'Today's Neuroscience, Tomorrow's History' initiative (2006–2008) was funded by a Wellcome Trust Public Engagement grant. It recorded interviews on three themes, neuropharmacology, psychiatry/neuropsychology, and neuroimaging, with twelve neuroscientists, including Geoffrey Burnstock, Salvador Moncada, Michael Rutter and Uta Frith.^[19]

The Witness Seminars

A series of witness seminars began in 1993, with regular meetings being held, about four per year. These recorded the voices of those who have contributed, in diverse ways, to the development of modern biomedicine, using oral history methodology. The aim is to make the series widely available for education, research and outreach purposes.^{[20][21][22][23][24]} The results are published online,^[25] with most edited transcripts appearing within 18 months.^[20]

Witness Seminar participants have included

Each witness seminar is transcribed and published by HoMBRG.[27] Recent volumes have been edited by E M Jones, C Overy and E M Tansey. As of May 2017^[update] there are 62 Volumes.^[28] Titles include The Development of Brain Banks, Narrative Medicine; Migraine; The National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles;^[29] and The Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC)^[30] The publication of these works are often referred to by specialists in their fields of medical practice.^[31]

The first two volumes were reviewed in

In 2015 the Group began producing oral history interviews with notable scientists and clinicians. This material is made freely available on YouTube (in the case of video interviews) and the Group's website, as are the transcripts of both audio and video interviews.[36]

Wikidata

Wikidata has the property:

• History of Modern Biomedicine ID (P3885) (see uses)

As the HoMBRG project came to an end, a