The History of Medicine Department is part of the Institute of Biomedical Ethics and History of Medicine within the University of Zurich (UZH). It is an interdisciplinary chair and the team participates in research and teaching in the Faculty of Medicine and the Faculty of Philosophy. Prof. Dr. phil. Flurin Condrau is the chairman of the History of Medicine Department.

The researchers of the History of Medicine Department are also members of the Center « History of Knowledge » (Center of Excellence of UZH and ETH Zürich) and participate in the AG Medical Humanities.

Erwin Ackerknecht, 1960.

The Department of History of Medicine stems from the History of Medicine Institute, founded in 1951. From 1957 to 1971, the German-American medical historian, physician and ethnologist Erwin H. Ackerknecht (1906-1988) was the Chairman of the Institute. Ackerknecht made the Zurich Institute internationally known.