Far from being a static entity, creativity may be observed to evolve over time as the contexts that require it shift and change. This principle is illustrated in the thirty-plus years of biomedicine since the advent of AIDS and the discovery of its viral cause, HIV. This constituted a time period of dramatic changes in the field of biomedical research, particularly with respect to the patient-researcher relationship and the ways that char acteristics of a patient population must be understood to effectively shape research practices. The essentially social nature of creativity, usually obscured in this domain, is shown to now play a central role in the field of biomedicine.