Andrew Lea, M.D., D.Phil.

Andrew Lea is a physician-historian at the University of Rochester, where he works as a general internist at Strong Memorial Hospital and an assistant professor of health humanities and bioethics. He graduated summa cum laude from Harvard College with a bachelor’s degree in History and Science and w...

Andrew Lea is a physician-historian at the University of Rochester, where he works as a general internist at Strong Memorial Hospital and an assistant professor of health humanities and bioethics. He graduated summa cum laude from Harvard College with a bachelor’s degree in History and Science and went on to receive his D.Phil. (Ph.D.) in History of Science and Medicine from the University of Oxford with the support of a Rhodes Scholarship. He earned his medical degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, before returning to Boston to complete his residency training in internal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital / Mass General Brigham.

Andrew Lea is a physician-historian at the University of Rochester, where he works as a general internist at Strong Memorial Hospital and an assistant professor of health humanities and bioethics. He graduated summa cum laude from Harvard College with a bachelor’s degree in History and Science and w...

Andrew Lea is a physician-historian at the University of Rochester, where he works as a general internist at Strong Memorial Hospital and an assistant professor of health humanities and bioethics. He graduated summa cum laude from Harvard College with a bachelor’s degree in History and Science and went on to receive his D.Phil. (Ph.D.) in History of Science and Medicine from the University of Oxford with the support of a Rhodes Scholarship. He earned his medical degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, before returning to Boston to complete his residency training in internal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital / Mass General Brigham.

His research explores the history of artificial intelligence, communications media, and information technology in medicine and has appeared in leading historical and medical journals, including Isis and the New England Journal of Medicine. His first book Digitizing Diagnosis: Medicine, Minds, and Machines in Twentieth-Century America (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2023) examined the history of AI in medicine through the lens of early efforts to computerize medical diagnosis and decision-making. He is working on his second book project, tentatively titled Aid to Thought: A History of the Peripheral Brain in Medicine, which looks at the history of reference tools in medicine, from Index Medicus and Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine, to UpToDate and new AI-mediated resources. His work has been supported by fellowships from the National Institutes of Health, the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG), and the Johns Hopkins Center for Medical Humanities and Social Medicine.