Don’t miss the last History Workshop of winter quarter, presented by Miles Wilkinson:

Creating Confidentiality: Physician-Patient Privilege and Medical Confidentiality in the United States, 1776–1975

Tuesday, March 12, 2019
3:30–5:00 p.m.
375 McKenzie Hall

This event is free and open to all.

Abstract

Tracing the origins and evolution of physician-patient privilege in America, Miles Wilkinson shows that the laws regulating medical testimony in the courtroom were cobbled together in response to a variety of disparate medical and legal developments—many predating the modern notions of privacy and patients’ rights often associated with the privilege today.

In doing so, Wilkinson explains how physician-patient privilege became a widely accepted legal doctrine and explain why the privilege remains such an unevenly applied rule in American courts.

About the Speaker

Miles Wilkinson is a graduate employee with the Department of History. His research focuses on the history of medicine in the United States. He is also a 2018-19 Oregon Humanities Center Teaching Fellow.