Dr. Todd Savitt

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Dr. Todd Savitt, medical historian and ethicist, will be the featured presenter at the third annual Susan and Gaylon McCollough Medical Scholars Forum Feb. 18-19 on The University of Alabama campus.

Savitt will conduct a medical readers’ theatre on the theme, “Patient as a Person,” as part of the forum at 3 p.m. Feb. 18 in 205 Smith Hall and 10 a.m. Feb. 19 p.m. in 301 Morgan Hall. The presentation is free and open to the public.

The medical readers’ theatre is a performance-based presentation in which short stories about medical cases are presented as a script. Students act out the stories. The presentation provides case examples of real-life occurrences that raise social and ethical issues. The presentation is followed by a discussion with the actors and audience.

Savitt founded and coordinated the medical readers’ theatre at East Carolina University’s Brody School of Medicine where he serves a professor in the department of medical humanities. He is an expert in African-American medical history and the medical history of the American West and South.

He has written or co-edited four books, including “Medicine and Slavery: The Diseases and Health Care of Blacks in Antebellum Virginia.” Savitt’s published articles include the history of sickle-cell anemia, sudden infant death syndrome, use of African-Americans for medical experimentation and the entry of black physicians into the American medical profession.

Savitt is chairman for the National Institutes of Health’s medical history grants panel and serves as secretary/treasurer of the American Association for the History of Medicine.

The McCollough Medical Scholars Forum, sponsored by UA’s College of Arts and Sciences, was established by Alabama physician and University of Alabama alumnus Dr. Gaylon McCollough and his wife, Susan.

Its purpose is to give students an understanding of the importance of the scientific and humanistic aspects of health care. High school students, University of Alabama pre-health professions students, and past forum participants will join UA faculty representing diverse disciplines for the event.

The College of Arts and Sciences is Alabama’s largest liberal arts college and the University’s largest division with 355 faculty and 6,600 students.