Johann Peter Frank

Who was Johann Peter Frank?

Johann Peter Frank was a German physician and hygienist who was a native of Rodalben.

He studied medicine at the Universities of Strasbourg and Heidelberg, and earned his medical doctorate in 1766. He was professor at the Universities of Pavia and Göttingen, and for a period of time was personal physician to Czar Alexander I. He was also professor of medicine at the University of Vienna, as well as director of the Allegemeines Krankenhaus in Vienna.

Johann Frank was an important figure in the early history of social medicine and public health. For much of his career he worked on the System einer vollständigen medicinischen Polizey, which was a comprehensive 9-volume treatise on all aspects of hygiene and public health. This work was first published in 1779, and was continued until 1827, six years after Frank's death. His methodology for public health dealt with subjects such as public sanitation, water supply issues, sexual hygiene, maternal and child welfare, food safety, and prostitution, to name a few.

He stressed the importance of keeping accurate statistical records for hospitals.