The Center for the History of Medicine is the premier organization for gathering historical epidemiological and contemporary historical information on pandemic influenza. The resulting scholarly work has been presented and discussed at high-level policy meetings hosted by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, U.S. Agency for International Development, Department of Defense, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, as well as the Institute of Medicine, the American Red Cross and the RAND Corporation.

Research at the Center focuses on a broad continuum of historical topics, including U.S. medicine and public health, science and medicine, U.S. immigration and immigrant health, eugenics, medical genetics, children’s health and tropical medicine, in order to publish research that applies historical lessons to contemporary public health policy-making.

In addition to conducting quantitative and qualitative scholarly research, the Center develops and publishes digital archives of primary materials and oral histories related to its historical and contemporary studies. The Center also directs a University of Michigan Medical School oral history program in cooperation with the U-M Bentley Historical Library.