• The applications have been reviewed and a decision made: Catherine Smith, Ph.D., a professor at The Information School at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is the recipient of the 2022 Sandra L. Panther Fellowship in the History of Family Medicine.

    Smith’s winning proposal, “The Doctors Riddle: Pioneers in Consumer Health Information,” focuses on the unusual lives and careers of two sisters, Mary Adeline Riddle and Julia Riddle. The Riddles, born in the 1860s, overcame tremendous obstacles to become politically active physicians, outspoken public health leaders, and clear-spoken publishers of The Layman’s Health Journal. The publication, written for a general audience, was a rarity at the time.

    “Health information is incredibly powerful information,” says Smith, “but it has always been a complex issue to give patients ‘in the wild’ – pre-diagnosed, living their daily lives – the information they need. The giver has to understand what’s important to give, and the receiver has to understand what’s important to receive.”

    Sponsored by the AAFP Foundation’s Center for the History of Family Medicine (CHFM), the fellowship honors Sandy Panther, former executive director of the Foundation. With funding from the fellowship, Smith plans to visit the Center this summer; her goal is to find information among the vast CHFM collections that will give her context on what health topics were being discussed back when the Riddles were writing.

    “Family medicine material is hard to find,” says Smith. “Other organizations have pieces of it, but it takes a lot of difficult searching. The CHFM is a one-stop-shop.”

    Smith hopes the information she gathers on-site will strengthen her book project about these pioneering women physicians. Were others delving into the day-to-day basics of public health? Were they discussing hygiene? Were they explaining the importance of keeping flies out of the milk?

    Does it matter? That’s no riddle at all.

    “The history of family medicine matters,” Smith says. “How can we know why we do what we do if we don’t understand the history?”