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Food and drink were crucial to hospital and asylum expenditure from medieval to modern times, not unusually comprising one half of medical institutions&#8217; annual budgets. Drink and diet naturally varied with country, region and locality. The organisers of this conference are interested in exploring broad geographical perspectives and associated fads, prejudices and phobias. The acquisition, preparation and use of foodstuffs were also managed by diverse groups, sometimes lay or clerical, as well as medical, including doctors, nurses and dieticians. Dietary needs and preferences of patients also varied with age, gender, race and religion, while meals were often augmented or restricted in line with diagnosis and discipline. Views concerning the role of food and drink in recovery also shifted significantly, both in earlier centuries, and more recently with the rise of the nutritional sciences.We welcome abstracts on any of the following themes:Treatment: Diet &#38; Medecine:    Theory            The role of diet and medical theory         The psychology of food and food choice        Food as medicine; medicine as food         Food and religion: daily bread and the sin of gluttony            Practice             Dietary restrictions and punishments         Artificial and forced feeding         Alcohol and medical therapies         Water, wine and other dietary liquids         Nutrition and malnutrition         High diets, low diets and milk diets Infant feeding and nutrition         Meat eaters versus vegetarians         Food for convalescence, weight gain and obesity        Supply:    The procurement and purchase of food Waste, resistance and food smuggling    Hospital gardens, farms and work therapy    Food production and local economies    Theft of provisions and food crime    Food and philanthropy    Rationing, shortages and inequalitiesPreparation:    In-house preparation and distribution    Food for patients versus food for staff    Wells, vineyards and hospital breweries    Hospital kitchens and their technologies    Spaces of food preparation and consumption    Investigating quality and improving foodFood and Disease:    Food-related disorders and diseases     Hospital nutritionists and the science of food     Hospital medicine and food metaphors     Toxins, poisoning and contamination     Allergies, additives and adulteration     Hunger, starvation and famineThe Advisory Board of the INHH, as organisers of this conference, wish to invite proposals for 25-30 minute papers on any aspect and era relating to the history of food, drink and institutional medicine. Abstracts should be between 200-300 words in length and will be received until 30 April 2012.A programme, featuring an address by Professor Peter Scholliers (VUB, Belgium), will be advertised in June 2012. This two day (26-27 April 2013) event will be hosted by the University of Birmingham (Brussels campus)&#160; and the Free University of Brussels (VUB),&#160; Sponsored by the Society For Social History of MedicineFpr more information, please contact: Dr Jonathan Reinarz, History of Medicine Unit, University of Birmingham, UK - j.reinarz@bham.ac.uk