What made modern medicine? Is medicine still modern? In The New Modern Medicine: Disease, Evidence, and Epidemiological Medicine (Oxford University Press, 2025), Jonathan Fuller attempts to answer these questions through historical and philosophical analysis. In this talk, he will argue that modern medicine was born of an intimate relationship between clinical practice and modern research sciences. However, clinical medicine has been molded in the image of different sciences over time. Some time ago, historians and sociologists wrote of a ‘laboratory medicine’ in which experimental laboratory sciences shaped modern medicine. However, since the Second World War, modern epidemiology has profoundly influenced medical concepts, reasoning, and goals in ways that are often hiding in plain sight. The result is an epidemiological medicine that characterizes medicine’s recent past, and what may be considered a new modern medicine. He illustrates the rise and characteristics of epidemiological medicine using examples from one of the diseases of the "epidemiologic transition": cancer. From its multifactorial etiology to its evidence-based management and even – perhaps, surprisingly – its precision diagnosis and treatment, cancer medicine is epidemiological medicine.
Jonathan Fuller, MD, PhD is Associate Professor in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science and the Department of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, where he is also Core Faculty Member in the Institute for Bioethics and Director of the Research Ethics Consultation Service. Dr. Fuller’s research investigates the ethical and scientific foundations of medical research and practice, with a focus on diagnosis, clinical reasoning and decision-making, epidemiology and clinical research, evidence-based medicine, and innovations for Alzheimer’s disease. Dr. Fuller completed a PhD in philosophy of medicine and a research fellowship in health professions education in 2016, as well as an MD and postdoctoral fellowship in history and philosophy of science in 2019, all from the University of Toronto.
This lecture is sponsored by the Michaels family is honor Dr. Milton Michaels, a well-respected Pittsburgh Internist specializing in hematology. He was born to immigrant parents who encouraged him to enter the field of medicine. But medicine was never just a job, rather, it was his passion that he enjoyed for over fifty years. He trained at the University of Pittsburgh Medical school, moved to Boston for training at the Beth Israel and specialty training in hematology under William Dameshek, before returning to Pittsburgh to practice. He was a superior diagnostician and recognized for his compassionate care, good humor and constant attention to the medical literature quoting NEJM, the Annals and Blood until his last weeks of life at 95 years of age. He was a loyal supporter of Dr. John Erlen’s work for the CF Reynolds Medical History Society, and a strong advocate for the Society for which he also served as a past President. Dr. Michael’s had a keen awareness of the importance of remembering where we have been to understand where we are now and imagine where we can go in the future. Lois Michaels and her children Marian, Eric, and Jay, and her daughter-in-law Carol, are proud to sponsor this lecture in his memory.
All our events continue to be free to the public. The C.F. Reynolds Medical History Society thanks its dues-paying members for their support. Because of your generosity, the history of medicine, public health, and allied sciences have a future in Southwestern Pennsylvania. Dues are $10 per calendar year for trainees and $25 for all others and can be paid via our website or ask for the mailing address for checks. Funds go toward speaker honoraria and an annual mailing.
