BSHM Congress 2025
British Society for the History of Medicine (BSHM) Congress 2025 focuses on three main themes:
- Herbs, Potions and Magic Bullets
The history of medicines and their uses and abuses across time, culture and modality from herbal remedies through chemicals, pharmaceutical drugs and biologics to hi-tech treatments in Western medicine; traditional, non-Western and Indigenous practices; alternative, controversial and failed approaches; and innovators, practitioners and patients. - Disability and Rehabilitation
The history of physical and mental disabilities, including: the recognition, definition and description of disablement over time; diagnosis, support and self-help; medical, surgical and psychiatric treatment; the challenges, successes and failures of rehabilitation; and the roles of practitioners, experiences of patients, and limitations of healthcare. - Medical and Healthcare Learning
The history of learning in medicine and healthcare in the context of formal and informal organisations and sites involved with research and education in the UK and internationally: medical schools and teaching hospitals, universities and research institutes, medical societies and colleges; key contributions, major protagonists and notable developments. - Miscellaneous Topics
Presentations on diverse subjects in the history of medicine and healthcare, which reflect the broad interests of our community, form an important element of the Congress. The organisers will seek to group presentations on related topics, such as local medical history, in mini-themed sessions where possible.
Keynote Lectures
A Quiet Revolution: How Monoclonal Antibodies Transformed Medicine – Dr Lara Marks
Since their creation 50 years ago, monoclonal antibodies have radically reshaped medicine and spawned a whole new industry. They have improved the accuracy and speed of diagnostics, which proved crucial in the COVID-19 pandemic, helped transform the treatment of certain cancers, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, and many other significant disorders, and have major potential in the fight against antimicrobial resistance.
The History of Disability: Myths, the Everyday and Tales of the Unexpected – Dr Simon Jarrett
The history of disability is suffused with myths. Many of these frame the disabled person as an eternal outcast – shunned, or at best pitied, by society. The historical excavation and examination of people’s everyday lives creates a new prism through which unexpected insights emerge. Within all this lurks the tense and uneasy relationship between Disability and Medicine.
Provisional Programme
Wednesday 10 September 2025
13.00 Editorial Board Meeting (invitation only)
14.00 John Blair Trust meeting (invitation only)
15.00 BSHM Officers and Representatives Committee (invitation only)
17.00 Registration opens
17.30 Welcome Reception at Cloth Hall Court
19.30 Evening close
Thursday 11 September 2025
THEMES: HERBS, POTIONS AND MAGIC BULLETS/MISCELLANEOUS TOPICS
08.30 Registration and refreshments
09.00 Keynote lecture: Dr Lara Marks
16.30 Afternoon close
16.45 Transport to the Thackray Museum of Medicine
19.45 Visit ends
Friday 12 September 2025
THEMES: DISABILITY AND REHABILITATION/MISCELLANEOUS TOPICS
08.30 Registration and refreshments
09.00 Keynote lecture: Dr Simon Jarrett
17.30 Afternoon close
19.00 Congress Dinner at The Queens Hotel
Saturday 13 September 2025
THEMES: MEDICAL AND HEALTHCARE LEARNING/MISCELLANEOUS TOPICS
08.30 Registration and refreshments
09.00 The John Blair Trust Lecture: Mr Iain Macintyre
16.00 BSHM Annual General Meeting
17.00 Congress close
Abstract Submission
We invite abstract submissions for oral presentations and posters on the three symposium themes and miscellaneous topics in the history of medicine and healthcare for consideration by the Congress review panel. The abstract text should be between 150 and 250 words in length. Titles should be no longer than 15 words. The deadline for sending in the abstract admissions is 20 May 2025. Send the submissions to: congress2025@bshm.org.uk
For more information on the congress, please visit this website.
