Today from 1-2pm (EST), speaking with medical historian, Frank W. Stahnisch about the Flexner Report.
This document, supported by the Carnegie and Rockefeller foundations and published in 1910, has had a huge impact on how we view and handle medicine, medical school, and healthcare.
While it was advertised and no doubt desired as a raising of health standards in hygiene and education, other effects included the closure of African American medical schools and hospitals as well as those for women and those in rural areas where no alternatives existed. For those who have heard shows on herbalism, the Flexner Report is also responsible for the criminalization of this practice and other medical tracts outside the biomedical. This also centralized power in the medical world, building the foundation for the monopolies that exist today.
*I first learned of the Flexner Report from REI workshops in Asheville, another of which will be available this September!
Listen in at Asheville FM!