archives collection - American Academy of Family Physicians ...

Renner, John H., M.D. (1932-2000)
1972-1995
1 box – See also: Audio-Visual Collection; Museum Collection; and Photograph Collection
John H. Renner, M.D. was born in 1932 in Newtown, Indiana, and grew up in Auburn, Indiana. He
attended medical school at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., earning his M.D. in
1958. He completed an internship and fellowship at George Washington University Hospital in
1959-1960, then entered the private general practice of medicine in Virginia until 1970, when he
moved to Madison, Wisconsin, to help found the Department of Family Medicine and Practice at the
University of Wisconsin Medical School. He served as the department’s chairman and professor. In
1980, he moved to Missouri to establish the Family Practice residency program at St. Mary’s
Hospital in Kansas City. At the time of his death, he was a clinical professor at the University of
Missouri-Kansas City Medical School, president of the National Council for Reliable Health
Information, and Chief Medical Officer of HealthScout.com, an Internet health information service.
He was involved in many different consulting activities, especially related to health fraud. He hosted
a radio program in Kansas City, wrote a column for The Kansas City Star, and opened the Consumer
Health Information Research Institute (CHIRI) in Kansas City out of his concern for exposing
medical quackery and fraud. He also served on several editorial boards and held positions in
numerous professional organizations. He joined the AAFP in 1960, the STFM in 1971, and became
an ABFP diplomate in 1972. He died in 2000 in Kansas City, Missouri, following emergency heart
surgery.
His collection contains files from some of his papers and presentations, including his special
interests in accurate health information for consumers and patient education. Also included are
several reports from Residency Assistance Program (RAP) consultations he conducted in the earlyto-mid
1980s. Several files are from a patient education library that he established at the Sisters of
St. Mary Family Medicine Center in Kansas City. One significant file contains flyers and
announcements for a workshop on Patient Education in the Primary Care Setting, held in Madison,
Wisconsin in April 1977. This workshop evolved into the Conference on Patient Education (now
Conference on Practice Improvement) that has been coordinated jointly by the AAFP and STFM
since 1986.
Ritt, Albert E., M.D. (1908-1997)
1951-1981
1 slim document case – See also: Audio-Visual Collection and Photograph Collection
Born in Gladstone, North Dakota in 1908, Albert E. Ritt, M.D. graduated from the University of
Minnesota Medical School in 1932. Following graduation, he interned at St. Mary’s Catholic
Hospital in Minneapolis, and then went into private general practice in St. Paul. In 1946, Dr. Ritt
became active in organizing the Ramsey County Chapter of General Practitioners, and became the
group’s first president in 1947. In this position, he played a key role in helping to organize the
77