The important links between past, present, and the future will be recognized by the Center through efforts to bring historians and policy makers together in forums that will promote the exchange of ideas. We expect that these historical and public policy debates will also hold great interest among the lay public. In this manner, the Center will play a leadership role in community relations for the Medical School and Hospital and foster a vibrant intellectual discourse with the community we serve. The University of Michigan has an extensive collection of health science artifacts. Additional Michigan health-science artifacts exist in private collections.
Historical artifacts provide an important tangible link to the past.
They create interest and can be used to illustrate points that are difficult to convey through the printed word alone. Facilitate and foster the teaching of the humanities to our medical students, faculty, staff and patients by serving as a facilitator and clearinghouse for the scholarly and educational enterprises of our faculty involved in the history of health care, the ethics of health care, social implications of the biomedical enterprise, and the humanities as they pertain to health and disease. A primary means of educating humane and caring physicians and health care providers is to introduce them to the humanities. When that office was disbanded, the Historical Center was transferred to the University of Michigan Medical School. In 1999 we moved to our present offices in the Simpson Memorial Institute for Medical Research.