HOME | COURSES | MHS Courses Offered Fall 2009
(Appendix C)

UNDERGRADUATE COURSES
MHS 115F, Medicine, Health, and the Body
Instructor: Marian Yagel, PhD
This course explores the way medicine shapes our understanding of health and the body in contemporary American society. Focusing on medicine as both science and social phenomenon, we will investigate several interrelated questions: How does medicine classify the body as sick or healthy? How do individual and collective experiences of health and disease influence medical theory and practice? And how do social and cultural factors influence medicine’s potential impact on health and the body? TR, 4:00-5:15

MHS 203, U.S. Public Health Ethics and Policy
Instructor: Elizabeth Heitman, PhD
This course is a systematic overview of the major ethical issues in public health practice and policy. It examines the history and ethical commitments of public health and specific ethical problems in epidemiology and the definition of health problems, health promotion and disease prevention, occupational health, risk assessment and environmental hazards, research with human beings, and health disparities. No previous courses in ethics required. W, 2:10-4:40

MHS 205W, Medicine and Literature
Instructor:  Marian Yagel, PhD
This is one of our core courses: Examines the role of narrative in medicine, health, and healing.  Readings and discussions will focus on what insights literature and the creative arts can bring to our understanding of medicine, bioethics, and the human condition. Areas to be covered include: doctor-patient relationship; metaphors of illness; stigmatization and suffering; individuals and communities in global contexts; epidemics; and medical experimentation. TR, 11:00-12:15

MHS 220, Narrative Medicine: Stories of Illness and the Doctor-Patient Relationship
Instructor: Scott Pearson, M.D. (Division of Surgical Oncology)
As the field of medicine becomes increasingly technology driven and information rich, doctors are finding it harder to listen to and respond to their patients.   As a result, patients feel less understood and have begun to devalue the clinical experience. In response to this dilemma, medical schools are beginning to train students in the field of literature in programs known as Narrative Medicine. The premise of such an approach is that through close attention to patients’ stories, physicians will learn to appreciate the experiences of their patients. In this course, we will dissect the doctor-patient relationship as illustrated by illness narratives and other literary works. T, 1:10-3:40

MHS 221, Controversies in Modern Medicine
Instructor: Frank Boehm, MD
Deals with political, ethical and medical issues that have caused considerable debate in our country. Issues such as the medically uninsured, patient safety, minority disparity outcome, physician-assisted suicide, abortion, medical malpractice and nursing shortages are just a few of the controversies that will be discussed and debated. T, 1:10-3:40

MHS 290-01, Community Health Research
Instructor: Barbara Clinton
Students will design or implement strategies to address community health needs.  Working with community mentors, the students will identify unmet community health needs, learn how non-profit organizations address these needs, and provide tools and solutions to enhance community health. APPLICATION Requires instructor approval. M, 1:10-3:40

MHS 290-02, HIV/AIDS in the Global Community
Instructor: JuLeigh Petty
Explores the medical, cultural, social, political, economic, and public policy dimensions of HIV/AIDS on a global level. It focuses upon HIV prevention and treatment strategies, social stigma and discrimination and the influence of HIV/AIDS on other aspects of society and culture. TR, 11:00-12:15

MHS 295-01, Medicine, Science and Technology
Instructor: JuLeigh Petty
This course will examine the impact of scientific and technological innovations on medicine and society. It will analyze a variety of topics, including the tension between art and science in medicine, the effect of science and technology on the doctor-patient relationship, as well as the social and ethical issues raised by new biomedical developments. Research seminar. F, 2:10-4:00

MHS 295-02, Medicine, Religion, and Spirituality
Instructor: Marian Yagel, PhD
Research seminar: Explores the relationship between medicine and religion, and how that relationship affects individuals, families and communities as they deal with such life events as birth, serious illness, injury, disability, war and death. Sources include fiction, poetry, drama, film, and texts. W, 3:10-5:00

GRADUATE COURSES
MHS 300-01, Graduate Colloquium
Instructor: Larry Churchill, MD
Introduction to graduate-level interdisciplinary work in medicine, health, and society, drawing on the perspectives of anthropology, economics, history, philosophy, political science and policy studies, psychology, religious studies, and sociology. Churchill.  TR, 11:00-12:15

MHS 305-01, Foundations of Global Health
Instructor: Vermund/Etherington
Study of determinants of health and interventions used to better health, particularly in low-resource settings. Core research and evaluation methodologies used in the field.

MHS 393a–393b–393c. Graduate Internship

MHS 393a, Internship Training [Must be taken concurrently with 393b and/or 393c.]

MHS 394a–394b–394c. Graduate Service Learning

MHS 398. Master’s Thesis Research. [0]