Thomas Schlich (born 8 June 1962) is a German-Canadian historian of medicine known for his work on the history of surgery.

From 1992 to 1997 he was Research Officer at the Institute for the History of Medicine at the Robert Bosch Foundation in Stuttgart, Germany.

[14] He presently serves on the editorial boards the monograph series “Forschungen zur Kultur der Medizin.

Most of his recent publications contribute to his research project “Cutting into the Living Body: The Emergence of Modern Surgery, 1800-1914”.

This research looks at two issues: the history of the rationale of modern surgery—why surgeons open up their patient's living bodies to restore their health; and the practices of modern surgery—how surgeons have learned to repair structures within the living body, and making sure that the patient survives.