OLLibrary - News
Notes about
Medical Records
from Gary Martens (email list, permission to post granted)
#1 About physicians -
"For anyone seeking information on
physicians that have practiced in this country, The History of
Medicine Division, National Library of Medicine (NIH) has SOME
info on SOME physicians who practiced in this country, starting in
1607.
I received a query from a researcher
in Norway who is working on a thesis on Norwegian-American female
physicians. She wanted to know more about a female physician who
she had tracked to Polk County.
I send an email query to the History
of Medicine library, and was totally amazed that I got an answer
back in about 30 minutes.
Dr. Carrie Lee Heald died in Osceola
of typhoid fever on 18 November 1903. The records don't indicate
how long she lived in Osceola, but her career was very short: she
graduated from Northwestern in 1897, got a Nebraska medical
license in the same year (she had an Illinois license as well),
and then died six years later.
That's the extent of the information
they have."
Later note:
"... you might be interested in the
response D...N... (another researcher) got from the History of
Medicine Division, National Library of Medicine, when he was
inquiring about a doctor from the 1890 time period.
They couldn't find anything for
this doctor practicing in the 1890's, and they said 'This is
not unusual: medical education and licensure were rather casual in
the 19th century (an actual degree was not required), and a good
many practitioners left little or no paper record of their
careers. It certainly does *NOT* mean that your information is
incorrect. Your best next step would probably be to check local
historical societies.'
So they may have some
records going back to 1607, but its hit and miss up until the 20th
century."
2002 - "For physicians in the the US who died between 1804 and 1929, the American Medical Association has published a "Directory of Deceased American Physicians", but is has been estimated that only about half of the physicians who were out there practicing medicine are in this two volume set. Moreover, it covers only professional information (date of degree, date of licensure, etc.) - - - there are no personal details (spouse, children etc.)."
NOTE: Secure this volume by inter-library loan - check with your local library!
#2 Medical Records
"Keep in mind that AMA standards for
keeping records is something like 7 years after a person is no
longer a patient, and some states only require that records be
kept for 5 years.
So even though the records may exist
somewhere, there isn't much you can do to obtain them, if people
are unwilling to find them for you.
As far as burial records go, people
at some of these older hospitals may have ended up in the
equivalent of potters field, and the records can be sketchy at
best."
Gary Martens
GRDB List Owner - AHSGR Database mailing list
GER-Volga Co-list Owner - German Russian Volga mailing list
AHSGR Village Coordinator for Schilling -
Schilling Village Home Page -
http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~gmartens/Schilling/
NEGenWeb County Coordinator for Lincoln, Seward and Polk
Counties
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