This article argues that the contemporary history of health and medicine presents some particular challenges, however, for the nature of historians' involvement in the object of their study and for their relationships with other disciplines and with the field of policy. It gives an overview of histories that encompass the nineteenth and twentieth century. Those that focus exclusively on the post-war years mostly deal with welfare, and the other one focuses on health. Oral history has continued to be a key resource for contemporary history. The methodology of elite oral history in contemporary health history is also analysed. It has implications for relationships between the researcher and those being researched. This article also discusses the role of ethical review for the contemporary history of health.