Dr Keith Hodgkin (1918-1999)

The papers here comprise a remarkably full set of records created over the course of Hodgkin's general practice career, including index cards of lecture, ward round and case notes made while a student at the Radcliffe Infirmary and the Hammersmith Hospital 1939-1943, and patient records from his practice 1954-1979. There are also reports and surveys illustrating the use of practice records in research. His Family Record contains reminiscences and evaluation of his professional, as well as family life, and material relating to his grandfather's uncle, Thomas Hodgkin (1798-1866), whose papers are held by the Archives and Manuscripts Department of the Library (PP/HO).

Hospital laboratory blood sample reports for Hodgkin's patients c.1965-1979 have been weeded, as have the ulcer-type dyspepsia survey forms, of which a sample copy of each type of form was kept.

List of abbreviations used:

BMJ British Medical Journal

cv curriculum vitae

GP General Practicioner

KH Keith Hodgkin

n.d. not dated

RCGP Royal College of General Practicioners

UTD Ulcer-type dyspepsia

WIHM Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine

Keith Hodgkin worked as a General Practitioner from 1949, soon after the establishment of the NHS, and became very interested in methods of record keeping, believing that good record keeping practice would not only improve standards of patient care and facilitate the work of the GP but could also be used in research. In 1963 he published Towards Earlier Diagnosis, which described general practice work to students, with appendices detailing the records he kept in parallel with the NHS patient record notes. Diagnoses were recorded on the patient's notes, and ringed for entry into a day book and for indexing into a central diagnostic register which used the International Classification of Diseases. An age/sex register of all practice patients was also kept, and regularly updated. Hodgkin was instrumental in the formation of a group of four practices in the North East, which co-operated in research projects using their practice records. Studies carried out by the group included a five year survey on patients with ulcer-type dyspepsia, funded by the Medical Research Council.

The papers here comprise a remarkably full set of records created over the course of Hodgkin's general practice career, including index cards of lecture, ward round and case notes made while a student at the Radcliffe Infirmary and the Hammersmith Hospital 1939-1943, and patient records from his practice 1954-1979. There are also reports and surveys illustrating the use of practice records in research. His Family Record contains reminiscences and evaluation of his professional, as well as family life, and material relating to his grandfather's uncle, Thomas Hodgkin (1798-1866), whose papers are held by the Archives and Manuscripts Department of the Library (PP/HO).

Hospital laboratory blood sample reports for Hodgkin's patients c.1965-1979 have been weeded, as have the ulcer-type dyspepsia survey forms, of which a sample copy of each type of form was kept.

Biographical Summary:

1918 Born

1936-1939 Magdalen College, Oxford

1939 Degree in physiology

1939-1943 Student House Surgeon and work in Hugh Cairns's Neurosurgical Unit, Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford

1942 BM, Oxford

1943 House Surgeon for Professor Grey Turner, Postgraduate Medical School, Hammersmith Hospital

1943-1946 Surgeon Lieutenant, Royal Navy

1946-1948 Newcastle General Infirmary

1948-1949 Hospital pathologist, Oxford

1949-1950 General Practice, Stockton

1950-1973 General Practice, Redcar

1963 Towards Earlier Diagnosis. A Family Doctor's Approach

1973-1978 Professor of General Practice, University of Newfoundland

1973 Visiting Professor, Glasgow Medical School

1978-1985 RCGP Committee on development of oral examination

1978 Visiting Professor, Dundee Medical School

1982 Visiting Lecturer, Western Australia Medical School

1983-1984 Editing Reader's Digest Medical Adviser

At Wellcome Collection:

Other papers relating to the Hodgkin Family are held at PP/HO. The papers of George Grey Turner are held at PP/GGT: Hodgkin worked as House Surgeon under him at the Hammersmith Hospital, 1943.