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The History and Epidemiology of Heat Wave Mortality
September 7th, 2022 @ 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
The Department of Epidemiology Seminar Series Presents:
Speaker:
David Jones, MD, PhD
A. Bernard Ackerman Professor of the Culture of Medicine
Department of the History of Science, Harvard University
Professor in the Department of Epidemiology
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Abstract:
After a summer of record heat throughout the northern hemisphere, it is useful to reflect on the long history of concern about heat-related mortality. Over the course of the 20th century, epidemiologists worked to resolve a series of puzzles, but several important ones persist. It is now increasingly clear that rising heat is our own doing, from urban heat-islands to global warming. It remains to be seen whether this newfound sense of responsibility will lead to decisive action to prevent further deaths.
Bio: Trained in psychiatry and history of science, David Jones is the Ackerman Professor of the Culture of Medicine at Harvard University. His research has focused on the causes and meanings of health inequalities (Rationalizing Epidemics: Meanings and Uses of American Indian Mortality since 1600) and the history of decision making in cardiac therapeutics (Broken Hearts: The Tangled History of Cardiac Care). He is currently at work on four other histories, of the evolution of coronary artery surgery, of heart disease and cardiac therapeutics in India, of the threat of air pollution to health in India, and of the history of air pollution research in the United States. His teaching at Harvard College and Harvard Medical School explores the history of medicine, medical ethics, and social medicine.