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Save epidemiology's footprints!: the case of Harvard epidemiology.

This paper uses the case of Harvard’s Department of epidemiology to sketch what could be an enlightened policy aiming to preserve modern epidemiology’s footprints for future generations. the preparation of a keynote lecture for the centennial anniversary of the Harvard School of Public Health (http://webapps.sph.harvard.edu/accordentG1/cuttersymposium20131108/) gave me a chance to spend several months focusing on the history of its epidemiology department. I witnessed the impact of the change in funding sources and archiving procedures of the 1960s and, later, the transition to electronic documentation. the culture of systematic archiving of paper documents came to an end, eliminating convenient troves for historical exploration. as no alternative mode of saving epidemiologic footprints emerged, the footprints of the last 50 years of epidemiology history are imperiled. It is urgent to act. Why is it important to save our footprints? Because history tells us who we are, how we contributed, to whom, and when. It gives us a shared sense of identity, allows us to learn from successes and failures, and helps us become better at what we do. as long as the past still seems vivid in our minds, we do not realize that it has become insubstantial. Without archives, at some point, it will be gone forever. the material needs to be stored and documented methodically. archiving is more than a hobby, it is an expertise. It is not only commendable but also indispensable. Future scholars should be able to reconstruct our history just as they are still able to understand how people lived under the Song Dynasty in 10th century China. I chose the example of the Song Dynasty purposefully. the Chinese empire had a tradition of geographical diaries (called “gazetteers”) and of dynastic histories. Historians belonging to newly prevailing dynasties dug into gazetteers from the immense empire to write a history of the former dynasty. modern scholars warn that the prevailing dynasty tended to exaggerate the weaknesses of the defeated dynasty to justify dynastic change. nonetheless, we can still consult a 2000-year-long stream of information, made of dynastic histories and even of the original gazetteers—a growing fraction of which can be consulted electronically. this material has sustained enthralling historical books. modern epidemiology departments may find inspiration in the proactive attitude and model used by the Chinese imperial administration to preserve the empire’s history, except for the bias and partiality of the prevailing dynasties. the following 6 recommendations are an attempt to transform the threat associated with the volatility of electronic documents into an asset, allowing us to archive more