ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

Little Pharma: Reference Tools, Industry Interests, and the Quest for Therapeutic Reform

• In Event: Science and Education 3: Making Expertise

English Abstract

Physicians have carried practical guides for centuries. These tools—variously called “manuals,” “handbooks,” “pocket remembrancers,” or more commonly, “vade mecums” (Latin for “go with me”)—served as on-the-go memory stimuli. Nineteenth-century manuals, such as Robert Hooper’s The Physician’s Vade-Mecum sought to “compress” for the busy physician the vast expanse of descriptive medical knowledge into a useful companion. This act of compression resulted in a knowledge bottleneck: with such limited space, including certain kinds of information invariably came at the expense of other types of information. The vade mecum would therefore become a contested site over what counted as “appropriate,” “important,” and “rational” medical knowledge. This presentation explores these themes over the first half of the twentieth century, illuminating how the drug industry has used of reference tools as sites of pharmaceutical promotion and how, in response, the American Medical Association’s Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry created a vade mecum to counter the excesses of drug manufacturers and inculcate a rational approach to medical therapeutics.

Author

• Andrew Lea, University of Rochester