The Medical Heritage Center is pleased to announce the papers of Dr. E. Christopher Ellison, retired administrator and faculty member in The Ohio State University College of Medicine are now available for research. Dr. Ellison deposited his papers in June 2021. With the assistance of our diligent student employees, MHC staff have prepared and described the materials in a document known as a finding aid.

E. Christopher “Chris” Ellison entered the family business when he became a surgeon and professor at The Ohio State University. His father, Dr. Edwin Ellison, was also a surgeon at Ohio State. The elder Dr. Ellison worked closely with eminent Ohio State surgeon Dr. Robert Zollinger, Jr. Together they identified the Zollinger-Ellison Syndrome which is related to tumors of the stomach. It is commonly referred to as gastrinoma. The younger Dr. Ellison worked with Zollinger early in his career and then carried on with the study and treatment of gastrinoma for five decades. During the course of his research, writing about and treatment of gastrinoma, he collected a significant body of historical and more contemporary literature about this condition spanning nearly 100 years from the early 20^th century to the early 21^st century. The Medical Heritage Center also holds Dr. Zollinger’s papers and Ellison’s papers expand this area of medical treatment, research and publishing.

In addition to an in-depth record of gastrinoma, Chris Ellison’s papers provide multiple perspectives into the medical field. The collection reflects his leadership as an administrator, professor and surgeon. While he was in private practice for a short period, the bulk of material documents his varied roles in academic medicine. Due to his long affiliation with The Ohio State University Department of Surgery (DOS) and his position as chair of the Department from 2000-2013, Chris Ellison’s papers document the history of the DOS very well. In his papers is a recording of a ‘State of the Department’ address that Ellison gave near the end of his time as department chair on February 28, 2012, that discusses growth and reorganization of the department in detail. He considered the formation of separate departments for Orthopedic Surgery in 1999, Neurological Surgery in 2003, Urology in 2006 and Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery in 2011 major achievements. He stated, “Each time we did this, those individual departments grew in ways that would never have been possible had they been divisions within the Department of Surgery.” Dr. Ellison was also excited to share that the National Institutes of Health ranked The Ohio State University Department of Surgery 27^th in the nation in 2011. He utilized his personal knowledge and collected records that are part of his papers to co-author with Timothy M. Pawlick Honoring the Past and Leading for the Future: The History of The Ohio State University Department of Surgery. Ellison’s papers are one of the better extant resources for information about the history of the DOS.

In addition to a history of the DOS, Dr. Ellison is also the co-author of a widely used and extensively illustrated surgical textbook, Zollinger’s Atlas of Surgical Operations. His co-author is Robert M. Zollinger, Jr., the son of his mentor and his father’s collaborator, Robert M. Zollinger. The collection contains working drafts of text and illustrations, as well as correspondence with the publisher and other collaborators that demonstrate the writing process and editorial decision making for the 9^th and 10^th editions.  There are published copies of the 9^th Edition of the Atlas, including a copy translated to Chinese, in the collection. His papers also include copies of many articles that Ellison published in peer reviewed publications.

Chris Ellison is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons and served as a national leader in this organization. Other national and regional professional organizations in which he was involved include the American Association of Endocrine Surgeons, the American Surgical Association, the Central Surgical Association, the James IV Association of Surgeons, and the Society of Surgical Chairs. His collection includes four linear feet of correspondence, meeting agendas and minutes, conference programs, membership information and other records of his work with these professional groups. His affiliation with surgical associations broadened Ellison’s perspective on the medical and surgical field. In the later years of his career, he became concerned about surgeon shortages, particularly in his field of general surgery. Ellison researched, wrote and spoke about this issue. His own articles and presentations, as well as information that he compiled regarding surgeon shortages are found in the collection. His concern for this issue culminated with co-authoring the book The Coming Shortage of Surgeons: Why They are Disappearing and What That Means for Your Health that was published in 2009.

Dr. Ellison’s collection contains information about changes in the medical field from the late 1970s through the 2010s, including the expanded use of laparoscopic surgery, implementation of electronic health records (EHR), and the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in March 2010. Photographs depict Dr. Ellison throughout his career, including headshots, attending professional events and many images in the operating room. There are photographs of his father, Edwin Ellison, and Robert M. Zollinger, as well as many other physicians with long careers at Ohio State. Dr. Ellison is volunteering his time at the Medical Heritage Center to identify more of his colleagues and family members in the photographs. Personal items such as business cards, template for his prescription pad, numerous versions of his curriculum vitae, his diplomas and information about credentials and continuing medical education provide tangible evidence of a physician’s day-to-day experience. Numerous thank you cards and notes expressing congratulations and friendship speak to the relationships that Dr. Ellison built with patients and colleagues. A variety of awards and honors that Dr. Ellison received are part of his collection, but two that stand out are College of Medicine as Professor of the Year in 1999 and Distinguished Professor in 2012.

While there are over thirty boxes of paper materials, two- and three-dimensional objects, digital files dating from approximately 1995 to 2021 are also part of Dr. Ellison’s archives. They are comprised of similar items in electronic form as are found in the papers – letters, pictures, presentations, drafts of written pieces, and more versions of his biography and curriculum vitae. Instead of moving boxes to the Medical Heritage Center, the first step for transferring the digital files was saving them to the MHC network. A master copy was saved as it was received, and copies of the files were organized into folders based on their subject and format. The finding aid for the collection describes the scope of both the electronic and physical materials. Researchers can request copies of both digital files and physical items of interest.

Researchers who want to use Dr. Ellison’s papers may also consider viewing the OSU Department of Surgery Records, Spec.200002.OSU Surgery that are also part of the Medical Heritage Center’s archival collections.

If you have questions about Medical Heritage Center collections or would like to view collections, please email curator Kristin Rodgers at mhcmail@osumc.edu for reference services or to schedule an appointment.