Biographical information: doctors and other professions


December 2007 Introduction
The BMA library has no primary biographical resources: the archive collects administrative records and the library collects current clinical medical materials. Historical membership records have not been kept and current records are confidential.

The BMA does not have family history resources: enquirers are requested to contact any of the agencies listed at the end of this factsheet.

The most useful UK resource for family history is the Familia database, originally produced by the EARL cooperative, and now administered by Co-East, the collaborative, resource-sharing body for library authorities in the East of England. This web site has a geographical directory so you can obtain contact details for libraries and records offices in your area with information on the resources that they hold:
Familia database - http://www.familia.org.uk/

This web site also has links to many other useful web resources.

A major US commercial site is http://www.ancestry.com/

Other popular databases are listed in the Google directory.

The Wellcome Institute for the History and Understanding of Medicine Library is able to help with family history enquiries but cannot always respond immediately as many enquiries are received.

210 Euston Road
London
NW1 2BE
tel: 020 7611 8582
fax: 020 7611 8703
email: library@wellcome.ac.uk.
http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/library
hours: Mon, Wed, Fri 9.45am - 5.15pm Tue, Thu 9.45am - 7.15pm Sat: 9.45am - 1pm

If you are trying to trace current information, national embassies may be able to help.

Current UK information
Only limited resources are available at the BMA for contact tracing or historical biographical enquiries as the library concentrates on current information.

The Medical Register is a comprehensive list of UK doctors who have been accepted on the register. It does not, however, give much information. The latest volume is kept in the library general office and a full set back to the 1850s is kept in the BMA Archives. The General Medical Council website includes the current database. Select 'check a doctors registration':
Medical Register website - http://www.gmc-uk.org/

The Medical Directory is a commercial publication which contains information about most UK doctors. It gives fuller information than the Medical Register and includes details of medical school attended, speciality, major published papers and previous posts. The latest volume is kept in the library general office and a full set back to the 1850s is kept in the BMA Archive.

BMA staff can access an electronic database of the Medical Directory. It can be searched by multiple parameters to retrieve, say, all ophthalmologists working in London. You can cut and paste information to other text documents. The truncation symbol is an asterix (*). You should contact library staff if this would be useful.

Current international information
You can use the institution field in Medline to obtain contact information for doctors. If you search by author then you may need to click on options and then fields when you are viewing the records in order to select the institution field. For the Medline web version, you will need to select the full record from the titles display. Some records include email addresses.

American Medical Association Physician Select database
http://www.ama-assn.org/aps/ amahg.htm

Historical information
Print resources
The BMA Dynix catalogue has records for nearly 800 biographies. Biographies of well-known medical figures are kept at WZ 100 at the end of the classified sequence but most biographies are kept in the basement store. Each biography should be indexed by the name of the person in the Mesh subject heading field (surname then initials).

Lists of different royal colleges are kept at WZ 112.5. These include:
Munk W.
Roll of the Royal College of Physicians of London: comprising biographical sketches of all the eminent physicians whose names are recorded in the annals, from the foundation of the college in 1518 to its removal in 1825, from Warwick Lane to Pall Mall East. Vol 1: 1518 to 1700
BMA location: WZ 112.5

Power DA
Lives of the fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. 1930-1951
BMA location: WZ 112.5

Who's Who and Who Was Who
BMA location: B159

The BMA Archives keep a set of the Dictionary of National Biography (DNB). Or you can also use these resources:

Morton LT, Moore RJ. A bibliography of medical and biomedical biography 2nd ed.
BMA location: Quick Ref 9
Lists books and articles about significant figures in biomedicine

National Library of Medicine. Bibliography of the history of medicine
BMA location: Current Journal Area
Lsts individual and collective biographies at the start of each volume.

The Royal Society of Medicine Press publish an international quarterly journal: The Journal of Medical Biography (ISSN 0967-7720). It is aimed at a wide audience http://www.rsmpress.co.uk/jmb.htm
The BMA Archives
Keep an almost complete set of the Medical Directory and Medical Register. They can undertake research for enquirers or access to the volumes:
BMA Archives
tel: 020 7383 6648
email:bmaarchive@bma.org.uk

If you need to establish when a doctor died then it is best to use the Medical Register as it lists all registered doctors. If you are told that your subject died in the 1880s then you can establish an approximate date of death by first looking in 1881 and then in 1890, and then by narrowing down your search.

The BMJ is a reliable source of obituary information. It is better to look under the name of the subject but you may need to check under Obituaries or Deaths for some years. Obituaries were also included in the Lancet until several years ago and these can also be useful. Specialty journals may also contain obituaries. GP now includes some obituaries. You can find more information about BMJ obituaries here.

Database resources
You can search Medline for biographical information by using the field extension .pn. This will retrieve both historical information as well as current information about individuals still living. Eg: a search for kihara h$.pn. will locate a tribute article about Hitoshi Kihara.

The Hardin Library for the Health Sciences Information Bulletin number 3 Finding Biographical Information in the Biomedical Literature has advice on searching different databases:
http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/hardin/PDF/bull3.pdf

BMA library has a database of BMJ obituaries which currently covers the years 1963-1995. This can be accessed by library staff on request.

Web resources
The WWW Virtual Library for the History of Science, Technology & Medicine has a well organised list of links to sources and web sites:
http://echo.gmu.edu/

Bio search
Database of over 25 000 short biographies although they are limited to famous people:
http://www.biography.com/

Biographical dictionary
Covers more than "28 000 notable men and women who have shaped our world from ancient times to the present day". It can be searched by: birth years, death years, positions held, professions, literary and artistic works, achievements, and other keywords:
http://www.s9.com/biography/

Duke University Medical Center Library
Maintain a list of indexes and bibliographic resources which includes historical biography. This is particularly useful for international resources
http://www.mclibrary.duke.edu/hom/collections/resourceguide

Johns Hopkins University Department of the History of Science, Medicine and Technology at the Institute of the History of Medicine
Follow the Biographical sources link at:
http://www.welch.jhu.edu/ihm/iohmref.html

Other organisations and libraries
The Wellcome Institute for the History and Understanding of Medicine
This library collect historical biographical materials and index obituaries. The library staff have indexed selective years but have also indexed national newspapers and speciality journals. You can access WILDCAT (the Wellcome catalogue) from the public access terminals in the reading room. However, it is not easy to search for obituary information so you may prefer to contact the library.

Library
Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine
210 Euston Road
London NW1 2BE
tel: 020 7611 8582
fax: 020 7611 8703
email: library@wellcome.ac.uk.
http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/library
hours: Mon, Wed, Fri 9.45am - 5.15pm
Tue, Thu 9.45am - 7.15pm
Sat: 9.45am - 1pm

Novartis Foundation
The Novartis Foundation (formerly the Ciba Foundation) have a special Oppenheimer Collection of Medical and Scientific Biographies which has about 800 books. They are kept in the Hunterian Room on the ground floor next to the main library. Potential visitors should telephone before visiting to check room availability.

41 Portland Place
London
W1B 1BN
tel: 020 7636 9456
fax: 020 7436 2840
http://www.novartisfound.org.uk/
hours: 9.00am - 5.00pm

Oxford Centre for 20th Century Medical Biography
This is a collection of medical memoirs' on video tape. The Medical Sciences Video Archive of Oxford Brookes University and the Royal College of Physicians of London comprises hundreds of hours of medical memoirs and the recollections of a wide spectrum of clinicians and researchers.

Dr. Max Blythe
School of Biological and Molecular Sciences
Oxford Brookes University
Gipsy Lane
Oxford OX3 0BP
tel: 01865 483250/483264
fax: 01865 483264
http://www.brookes.ac.uk/schools/bms/medical/

Royal College of Physicians of London
11 St Andrews Place
Regents Park
London NW1 4LE
tel: 020 7935 1174 ext 312/3
fax: 020 7486 3729
email: info@rcplondon.ac.uk.
http://www.rcplondon.ac.uk

Royal College of Surgeons of England
35-43 Lincoln's Inn Fields
London WC2A 3PN
tel: 020 7405 3474 ext 3008
fax: 020 7405 4438
email: library@rcseng.ac.uk.
http://www.rcseng.ac.uk/library/services/familyresearch.html/view?searchterm=library%20biographical%20information
hours: Mon-Fri 9.30am - 5.30pm (closed in August)

The Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London Hall
Black Friars Lane
London EC4V 6EJ
tel: 020 7405 3474 ext 3008
fax: 020 7405 4438
email: archivist@apothecaries.org.uk.
http://www.apothecaries.org.uk

Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh Library
9 Queen Street
Edinburgh EH2 1JQ
tel: 020 7236 1189
fax: 0131 220 3939
email: library@rcseng.ac.uk.
http://www.rcpe.ac.uk/library/manuscript/a.php
hours: Mon-Fri 9am - 5pm

Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh
Nicolson Street
Edinburgh EH8 9DW
tel: 0131 527 1630/31/32
fax: 0131 557 6406
email: library@rcsed.ac.uk.
http://www.rcsed.ac.uk/content/
hours: Mon-Fri 9am - 5pm

Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow
234-242 St Vincent Street
Glasgow G2 5RJ
tel: 0141 221 6072
fax: 0141 221 1804
http://www.rcpsg.ac.uk/
hours: Mon-Fri 9.15am - 5pm

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