From medical surveys to the geography of health. Institutional relations between geography and medicine

Geography and medicine are scientific disciplines with numerous common points. In the present paper I review the main currents that, from geography, have approached subjects related to medicine, health and illness. The analysis is based on a systematic account of the main Spanish and international geography journals, considering all the relevant articles published the last twenty years about subjects related to geography, medicine and/or health. The analysis produces a chronological itinerary for the different points of contact between geography and medicine from their institutionalization in the middle of the 19th century until our days. From medical topographies, through medical geography, and until the most recent Geography of health, this article seeks to summarize the main theoretical sources and the methodological techniques used by these streams.