History of Medicine Elective

Today’s clinician faces daily challenges to her/his best medical judgment imposed by an increasingly corporate environment for health care, by the problems of a large population of the uninsured, by an intrusive campaign to sell pharmaceuticals, and by the multiple cultures of the patient population.

Marie_ZakrzewskaSuch dilemmas as managed care, health care rationing, pharmaceutical prescribing policies, access to health care, the multi-cultural patient population, the evolution of hospitals or medical education, all challenge the practicing physician to draw on a solid grounding of informed professional judgment.

Through a better understanding of medical history, students can gain needed perspective on the social, professional, and moral climate in which they will be practicing.

The primary goal of this elective include helping students to acquire a deeper understanding of the historical context for the pressing issues of today’s health care system.

The course will be organized as a small-group seminar in which the instructors’ introductory comments each week will be followed by a student-led presentation of an assigned topic, based on historical readings guided by the instructors.

ANNOUNCEMENT:

Scholarship Opportunity

William B Bean Student Research Award 

Worcester Medical Trivia

First Federally-licensed AIDS test: Cambridge Bioscience Corp. received a federal license for its HIV 1 rapid diagnostic test on Dec. 13, 1988. 
The birth control pill was developed by by Drs. Gregory Pincus and Min-Chueh Chang, of the Worcester Foundation For Experimental Biology in Shrewsbury. It was announced in 1957; approved by the FDA in June, 1960.
Sigmund Freud visited Worcester State Hospital in 1909 during his first and only trip to America.
Clara Barton, founder of The Red Cross, was born in the suburb of Oxford - 1821.

 

The AY08-09
HISTORY OF MEDICINE ELECTIVE
begins September 9th

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Sponsoring Department

Office of Medical History and Archives, Lamar Soutter Library  
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