The MMS Annual Oration dates back more than 200 years, when in 1804, Dr. Isaac Rand addressed the topic of "On Phthisis Pulmonalis, and the Use of the Warm Bath." The historic purpose of the oration is to inform physicians of issues such as "the histories
of epidemics, tables of births and deaths, diaries of the weather, etc."
While the original theme has expanded considerably through the years, the essence of the oration remains to inform Massachusetts physicians of issues pertinent to current medical practice.
The following is a list of orators and their dissertations from 1804 to the present.
Orations from the present – 2000, 1999 – 1900, 1899 – 1800
2022
James J. O’Connell, MD
Rethinking Homelessness, Health, and Housing: A View from the Streets
2021
Monica Bharel, MD, MPH
Responsiveness and Resilience: Leading Through Public Health Crises
2020
Joan Y. Reede, MD, MPH, MS, MBA
Diversity in Medicine Matters: The Rewards of a Diverse Workforce
2019
Sandro Galea, MD, MPH, DrPH
Changing the Conversation Around Health
2018
Denise Faustman, MD, PhD
The BCG vaccine and Type 1 Diabetes
2017
Alvaro Pascual-Leone, MD, PhD
Traumatic Brain Injury, Concussion and American Football
2016
Alfred DeMaria, Jr., MD
Zika: Responding to the Challenges of an Emerging Infection
2015
Ashish K. Jha
Getting to Value in High-Value Health Care
2014
Michele P. Pugnaire
Medical Education Across the Continuum: A Snapshot in Time 2004-2014
2013
David L. Longworth
The Imperative of Patient Engagement in the Era of Healthcare Reform and Practice Transformation
2012
Eugene Lindsey
Working Together: From Guild to Enterprise
2011
Sean Palfrey
Critical Challenges for 21st Century Medical Practice: Knowledge, Judgment, Time, Cost, and Risk
2010
Gloria White-Hammond
Conflict Violence against Women: Moral and Ethical Obligations of Physicians
2009
Ezekiel Emanuel
High-Touch Medicine: The Future of the Physician-Patient Relationship
2007
Aaron Lazare
Apology in Medical Practice: An Emerging Clinical Skill
2006
Aram V. Chobanian
Effects of Race/Ethnicity and Socioeconomic Status on Cardiovascular Outcomes
2004
Marianne E. Felice
Eating Disorders of Adolescents: Too Little… Too Much
2003
Barry M. Manuel
The Crisis in Professional Liability: There Is a Solution
2002
Roseanna H. Means
Homelessness and Humanity: Misery and Mission
2001
Donald M. Berwick
Beyond the Institute of Medicine (IOM) Report: Strategies to Prevent Harm and Errors
2000
Jeffrey M. Drazen
Bringing a New Asthma Treatment Forward: An Odyssey from Bench to Bedside to Bench to Bedside
1999
Joseph P. Vacanti
Clinical Implications of Tissue Engineering
1998
Paul C. Zamecnik
Antisense Therapeutics - A New Possibility
1997
Moses Judah Folkman
Antiangiogenic Therapy
1996
Kurt J. Isselbacher
Genes and Cancer
1995
Grant V. Rodkey
Quo Vadis Medicina? | PDF (2 pages)
1994
John D. Stoeckle
Primary Care, A Look at Its Past and Future
1993
John B. Burke
Thermal Burns - New Solutions for the Oldest of Injuries
1992
Perry J. Culver
To Test or Not to Test; That Is the Question
1991
Edwin A. Cassem
Patrick Henry's Second Choice
1990
H. Brownell Wheeler
Healing and Heroism
1989
John I. Sandson
American Medicine and Medical Education: The Best and Worst of Times
1988
Paul S. Russell
A New Pathway Towards Progress in Clinical Medicine
1987
Mark D. Altschule
Must Clinical Medicine Be Biodegraded?
1986
Louis Weinstein
The Great Plagues of the 20th Century: Influenza, Poliomyelitis, Syphilis and AIDS - Their Impact on Society in America
1985
Claude E. Welch
Aesculapius - Can We Learn from Your Example? | PDF (3 pages)
1984
W. V. McDermott
A Tale of Two Cultures: A Comparative Study of Cancer in East Africa and North America
1983
Charles S. Davidson
A Peripatetic Heaptologist Returns
1982
William H. Sweet
Some Duties of the Medical and Legal Profession
1981
John J. Byrne
Lengthening Shadows | PDF (9 pages)
1980
Arnold S. Relman
The New Medical -Industrial Complex | PDF (8 pages)
1979
H. Thomas Ballantine
The Crisis in Ethics, Anno Domini 1979 | PDF (5 pages)
1978
Thomas R. Dawber
Unproved Hypotheses | PDF (7 pages)
1977
James L. Tullis
Don't Eat the Quails | PDF (4 pages)
1976
J. Englebert Dunphy
On Caring for the Patient with Cancer | PDF (7 pages)
1975
Harriet L. Hardy
Risk and Responsibility — A Physician's Viewpoint | PDF (6 pages)
1974
Donnell W. Boardman
The Dollars and Sense of Medical Care and Health Services: Relation | PDF (6 pages)
1973
Ephraim Friedman
The Boston City Hospital: A Tale of Three Cities | PDF (4 pages)
1972
Joseph E. Murray
Organ Replacement, Facial Deformity, and Plastic Surgery | PDF (6 pages)
1971
Earle M. Chapman
The Physician in a Changing Social Structure | PDF (6 pages)
1970
Dana Farnsworth
Youth in Protest: Overtones for Medicine | PDF (6 pages)
1969
Franz J. Ingelfinger
Swinging Copy and Sober Science | PDF (7 pages)
1968
Lamar Soutter
Medical Education and the University (1901–1968) | PDF (6 pages)
1967
John H. Talbott
At the Bedside | PDF (6 pages)
1966
David P. Boyd
The Subphrenic Spaces and the Emperor's New Robes | PDF (7 pages)
1965
Francis D. Moore
The Effect of Hemorrhage on Body Composition | PDF (11 pages)
1964
John F. Enders
Thoughts on Future Contributions of Virology to Medicine | PDF (7 pages)
1963
Charles H. Bradford
Medical Aims and Ideals | PDF (4 pages)
1962
J. M. Hayman, Jr.
Trends in Medical Education | PDF (5 pages)
1961
Alfred L. Frechette
The Massachusetts Medical Society and the Organization of Public-Health Services — Retrospect and Prospect | PDF (7 pages)
1960
Max Ritvo
The Role of Diagnostic Roentgenology in Medicine | PDF (9 pages)
1959
Henry F. Howe
Procedures in Consultation and Referral | PDF (7 pages)
1958
Edward D. Churchill
Reflections on the Challenge to the Medical Profession in India | PDF (7 pages)
1957
Paul D. White
Genes, the Heart and Destiny | PDF (5 pages)
1956
Merrill G. Sosman
Docendo Discimus | PDF (8 pages)
1955
Carl Bearse
The Involuntary Plight of the Voluntary Hospital | PDF (8 pages)
1954
Basil E. Barton
The Appreciation of Medical Politicians | PDF (6 pages)
1953
Sara M. Jordan
Medicine and the Doctor in Word and Epigram | PDF (9 pages)
1952
Joseph Garland
The New England Journal of Medicine
and the Massachusetts Medical Society | PDF (6 pages)
1951
Donald Munro
How Specialized Is a Specialty? | PDF (5 pages)
1950
John W. O'Meara
Safe Management of Fractures | PDF (5 pages)
1949
C. Sidney Burwell
Some Responsibilities of Medical Education | PDF (6 pages)
1948
Allen S. Johnson
Medicine's Responsibility in the Propagation of Poor Protoplasm | PDF (4 pages)
1947
Leland S. McKittrick
Medical Care in Our Free Society | PDF (7 pages)
1946
Frank H. Lahey
Gastric Surgery | PDF (14 pages)
1944
Joseph C. Aub
A Toxic Factor in Experimental Traumatic Shock | PDF (5 pages)
1943
Edward P. Bagg
Small Puddles | PDF (4 pages)
1942
William B. Castle
Some Remarks on Therapy for Anemia | PDF (6 pages)
1941
A. Warren Stearns
The Role of the Physician in a Competitive Society | PDF (12 pages)
1940
William Jason Mixter
New England, Neurosurgery and the Neurosurgeon | PDF (5 pages)
1939
Elliott P. Joslin
The Massachusetts Medical Society and Socialized Medicine | PDF (11 pages)
1938
Allen G. Rice
The Passing of Surgical Yeomen | PDF (7 pages)
1937
Joseph W. O'Connor
The Medical Society and Maternal Mortality | PDF (5 pages)
1936
Reginald Fitz
From Cow-Path to State Road | PDF (11 pages)
1935
Brace W. Paddock
Postgraduate Medical Education | PDF (6 pages)
1934
Lincoln Davis
The Objectives of Medical Progress | PDF (8 pages)
1933
Channing Frothingham
The Trend of Medicine in the Twentieth Century | PDF (10 pages)
1932
Samuel Bayard Woodward
The Story of Smallpox in Massachusetts | PDF (11 pages)
1931
Harvey Cushing
One Hundred and Fifty Years — From Tallow-Dip to Television | PDF (10 pages)
1930
Henry A. Christian
The Practitioner's Need of an Intelligent Skepticism | PDF (7 pages)
1929
George Cheever Shattuck
The Interdependence of Tropical Medicine and General Medicine |
PDF (7 pages)
1928
W.B. Cannon
The Mechanism of Emotional Disturbance of Bodily Functions | PDF (8 pages)
1927
WM. H. Rose
Industrial Surgery | PDF (9 pages)
1926
Charles F. Painter
Educational Requirements for Twentieth Century Practice | PDF (9 pages)
1925
David Cheever
The Physician as Custodian of the Health of the People: But Who Shall Guard the Custodian Himself? | PDF (9 pages)
1924
James S. Stone
The Relations of the Massachusetts Medical Society to the Public | PDF (8 pages)
1923
Roger I. Lee
The Physical Examination of Apparently Healthy Individuals: Its Importance, Limitations and Opportunities | PDF (9 pages)
1922
Kendall Emerson
The International Mind in Medicine | PDF (5 pages)
1921
F.W. Anthony
Some of the Mutual Relations between the Physician and the Commonwealth | PDF (page 10)
1920
Hugh Cabot
Compulsory Health Insurance, State Medicine or What? | PDF (7 pages)
1919
Samuel Crowell
The Reflections of a Physician Who Stayed at Home | PDF (7 pages)
1918
Myles Standish
Socialization of the Practice of Medicine | PDF (10 pages)
1917
P.E. Truesdale
Military Medicine: A Means to Perpetuate Its Teaching in Massachusetts | PDF (10 pages)
1916
David L. Edsall
Movements in Medicine | PDF (7 pages)
1915
Everett A. Bates
Some Perplexities in Modern Medicine | PDF (9 pages)
1914
Horace D. Arnold
The Education of the Public in Medical Matters | PDF (11 pages)
1913
Homer Gage
Some Abuses in Surgical Practice | PDF (7 pages)
1912
Walter E. Fernald
The Burden of Feeble-Mindedness | PDF (5 pages)
1911
Maurice H. Richardson
The Present Position and Value of the Exploratory or Operative Diagnosis | PDF (7 pages)
1910
John C. Munro
Dyspepsia and Indigestion Viewed from a Surgical Standpoint | PDF (5 pages)
1909
James G. Mumford
The Blood in Surgery - A Historical and Critical Study |
PDF (29 pages)
1908
Thomas F. Harrington
The Sanctity of Medicine | PDF (6 pages)
1907
J.F. Alleyne Adams
The Segregation of Consumptives | PDF (6 pages)
1906
John L. Hildreth
The General Practitioner and the Specialist | PDF (5 pages)
1905
Charles A. Drew
Some Facts and Fancies about Mind and Body | PDF (8 pages)
1904
Harold C. Ernst
Some Fermentations in Medical Education | PDF (7 pages)
1903
Herbert L. Burrell
Surgical Tuberculosis | PDF (16 pages)
1902
Willard S. Everett
The Present Status of the Practice of Medicine and the Urgent Need of More Stringent Application of Hygiene and Sanitary Laws | PDF (10 pages)
1901
George E. Francis
Medical Prospects | PDF (6 pages)
1900
Arthur T. Cabot
Realism in Medicine | PDF (34 pages)
1899
E.H. Bradford
The Expansion of Medicine | PDF (10 pages)
1898
W.T. Councilman
The Relation of Pathology to Medicine | PDF (8 pages)
1897
Zabdiel Boylston Adams
An Epoch in Medicine in an Age of Delusion | PDF (10 pages)
1896
Henry P. Bowditch
The Advancement of Medicine by Research | PDF (10 pages)
1895
Alfred Worcester
The Physician's Extra-Professional Duties | PDF (6 pages)
1894
Reginald H. Fitz
The Legislative Control of Medical Practice | PDF (23 pages)
1893
John T.G. Nichols
The Misuse of Drugs in Modern Practice | PDF (11 pages)
1892
Frank Winthrop Draper
The Medical Profession and the Commonwealth | PDF (10 pages)
1891
James B. Brewster
James Thacher, M.D., of Plymouth, Mass. | PDF (6 pages)
1890
James C. White
The Relations of the Massachusetts Medical Society to Medical Education: a Plea for Professional Independence | PDF (11 pages)
1889
Henry P. Walcott
State and Preventive Medicine in Massachusetts | PDF (60 pages)
1888
B. Joy Jeffries
Re-establishment of the Medical Profession | PDF (4 pages)
1887
George J. Townsend
The Position of the Massachusetts Medical Society - Its Relations to Medical Progress, to the Community in Which We Practise, and to Its Fellows | PDF (4 pages)
1886
Richard M. Hodges
Undercurrents of Modern Medicine | PDF (6 pages)
1885
Franklin K. Paddock
Antiseptic Surgery | PDF (4 pages)
1884
John Crowell
The Physician a Popular Educator | PDF (3 pages)
1883
Amos H. Johnson
Nature Guides Best, When Guided | PDF (45 pages)
1882
James P. Lynde
Infantile Mortality: Its Causes and Prevention | PDF (7 pages)
1881
Samuel Abbott Green
The History of Medicine in Massachusetts: The Centennial Address | PDF (123 pages)
1881
J. Collins Warren
Medical Societies: Their Organization and the Nature of Their Work | PDF (66 pages)
1880
Thomas H. Gage
The Prevention of the Spread of Typhoid Fever | PDF (4 pages)
1879
George W. Garland
Many Things Remain to Be Done | PDF (20 pages)
1878
Francis Minot
Hints in Ethics and Hygiene | PDF (28 pages)
1877
John Richardson Bronson
A Review of Medicine - Its Work and Its Worth | PDF (36 pages)
1876
Pierre LeBreton Stickney
The Country Doctor - His Place in the Profession | PDF (18 pages)
1875
George H. Lyman
The Interests of the Public and the Medical Profession | PDF (42 pages)
1874
Nathan Allen
The Medical Problems of the Day | PDF (89 pages)
1873
Charles E. Buckingham
The Proper Treatment of Children | PDF (39 pages)
1872
Thomas N. Stone
Watch and Wait | PDF (20 pages)
1871
Henry J. Bigelow
Medical Education in America | PDF (79 pages)
1870
William Williamson Wellington
Modern Medicine: Its Need and Its Tendency | PDF (37 pages)
1869
Alfred Hitchcock
Organic and Parallel Relation of Some of the Truths and Errors of Christianity and Medical Science | PDF (32 pages)
1868
Henry Grafton Clark
Medical Jurisprudence | PDF (24 pages)
1867
Horace P. Wakefield
The Duties of the Medical Profession | PDF (36 pages)
1866
George C. Shattuck
The Medical Profession and Society | PDF (32 pages)
1865
Benjamin E. Cotting
Disease; - A Part of the Plan of Creation | PDF (28 pages)
1864
J. Mason Warren
Recent Progress in Surgery | PDF (74 pages)
1863
Morrill Wyman
The Reality and Certainty of Medicine | PDF (41 pages)
1862
Henry I. Bowditch
Topographical Distribution and Local Origin of Consumption in Massachusetts | PDF (90 pages)
1861
Henry C. Perkins
The Physician and Surgeon in War | PDF (27 pages)
1860
Oliver Wendell Holmes
Currents and Counter-Currents in Medical Science | PDF (43 pages)
1859
Timothy Childs
Rational Medicine: The Past and Present; Its True Relations to Specialists, to the Partisans of Exclusive Systems, and to Empirics | PDF (29 pages)
1858
Horatio Adams
Investigations Upon the Subject of Vaccination | PDF (34 pages)
1857
M.S. Perry
The Principles and Objects of the Massachusetts Medical Society | PDF (28 pages)
1856
John G. Metcalf
The Study and Practice of Midwifery | PDF (123 pages)
1855
Augustus A. Gould
Search Out the Secrets of Nature | PDF (45 pages)
1854
William Workman
The Progress of Medical Science | PDF (46 pages)
1853
John B. S. Jackson
Morbid Anatomy | PDF (32 pages)
1852
Henry L. Sabin
The Duties, Trials and Pleasures of the Medical Profession | PDF (22 pages)
1851
David Humphreys Storer
Medical Jurisprudence | PDF (33 pages)
1850
Andrew Mackie
Medical Education | PDF (38 pages)
1849
Edward Jarvis
The Production of Vital Force | PDF (40 pages)
1848
Luther V. Bell
On the Practical Method of Ventilating Buildings | PDF (104 pages)
1847
John Ware
Condition and Prospects of the Medical Profession | PDF (47 pages)
1846
John O. Green
The Factory System in its Hygienic Relations | PDF (25 pages)
1845
William J. Walker
On the Treatment of Compound and Complicated Fractures |
PDF (45 pages)
1844
John Homans
The Character and Qualifications of the Good Physician | PDF (27 pages)
1843
Charles W. Wilder
Wilder Pulmonary Consumption - Its Causes, Symptoms and Treatment | PDF (51 pages)
1842
Stephen W. Williams
A Medical History of the County of Franklin in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts | PDF (48 pages)
1841
Edward Reynolds
The Present Condition, Prospects and Duties of the Medical Profession | PDF (38 pages)
1840
A. L. Peirson
On Fractures | PDF (74 pages)
1839
Enoch Hale Jr.
Remarks on the Pathology of the Typhoid Fever of New England | PDF (75 pages)
1838
Ebenezer Alden
Historical Sketch of the Origin and Progress of the Massachusetts Medical Society | PDF (42 pages)
1837
George Hayward
On Some of the Diseases of the Knee-Joint | PDF (28 pages)
1836
Andrew Nichols
On Irritation of the Nerves | PDF (36 pages)
1835
Jacob Bigelow
Self-Limited Diseases | PDF (28 pages)
1834
Zadok Howe
A Discourse on Quackery | PDF (24 pages)
1833
Walter Channing
Irritable Uterus | PDF (38 pages)
1830
Rufus Wyman
A Discourse on Mental Philosophy as Connected with Mental Disease | PDF (22 pages)
1829
William Sweetser
A Dissertation on Intemperance | PDF (94 pages)
1828
George Cheyne Shattuck
A Dissertation on the Uncertainty of the Healing Art | PDF (16 pages)
1827
Nathaniel Miller
A Dissertation on the Manner of Detecting Deep Seated Matter | PDF (15 pages)
1826
Joseph Henshaw Flint
A Dissertation on the Prophylactic Management of Infancy and Early Childhood | PDF (17 pages)
1824
Robert Thaxter
A Dissertation on the Excessive Use of Ardent Spirits | PDF (24 pages)
1823
Henry Halsey Childs
A Dissertation on the Progress of Medical Science in this State | PDF (16 pages)
1822
John G. Coffin
A Dissertation on Medical Education, and on the Medical Profession | PDF (44 pages)
1821
Nathaniel Bradstreet
A Dissertation on the Proximate Cause of Fever | PDF (59 pages)
1820
John C. Warren
A Comparative View of the Sensorial and Nervous Systems in Man and Animals | PDF (106 pages)
1818
James Jackson
Discourse on Fever | PDF (27 pages)
1817
Hector Orr
A Dissertation on the Properties of Animal and Vegetable Life |
PDF (47 pages)
1816
Richard Hazeltine
A Dissertation on Phlegmasia Dolens | PDF (45 pages)
1813
Oliver Prescott
A Dissertation on the Natural History and Medicinal Effects of the Secale Cornutum, or Ergot | PDF (17 pages)
1812
Abraham Haskell
A Dissertation on Cynanache Trachealis, or Croup | PDF (57 pages)
1811
Oliver Fiske
Dissertation on Certain Epidemic Diseases Which Prevailed in the County of Worcester | PDF (22 pages)
1810
Josiah Bartlett
A Dissertation on the Progress of Medical Science in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts |
PDF (32 pages)
1809
Aaron Dexter
A Dissertation on the Use of Blisters in Diseases of the Articulations | PDF (16 pages)
1808
John Brooks
A Dissertation on Pneumonia | PDF (257 pages)
1807
Thomas Welsh
On Heat and Cold | PDF (15 pages)
1806
Joshua Fisher
A Medical Discourse on Several Narcotic Vegetable Substances | PDF (16 pages)
1805
John Warren
A View of the Mercurial Practice in Febrile Diseases | PDF (195 pages)
1804
Isaac Rand
Observations on Phthisis Pulmonalis | PDF (32 pages)
