Towards a Pre-History of Palliative Care: A Pilot Study Centred on Medical Education and Practice in Birmingham, c.1930 - c.1970 (360G-Wellcome-081453_Z_06_Z)

This is a pilot for a broader project on the history of end-of-life medical care before the availability of modern palliative care. It combines analysis of published literature and the use of oral history. The focus is mid-twentieth-century Britain, with a case study of education at Birmingham University Medical School and of the experience of doctors, patients and their families in this region. Although, the emergence of postwar palliative care has attracted attention, there has been no research on what one might call the 'pre-history' of palliative care: how doctors in the period 1930-1960 were trained to cope with the dying patient or how they dealt with this in practice. The rationale for a pilot is threefold. First, given the absence of prior research, there is a need to establish the strengths and weaknesses of a range of research methodologies and sources, particularly the viability of oral history. Secondly, the pilot will result in a number of hypotheses about changes over time that will shape a broader project. Finally, the pilot will trial an interdisciplinary approach involving historians and medical practitioners. In its own right, the research will be of interest to both historians and clinicians.