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Courses: A Unique Opportunity
Although
many universities and medical schools have programs in medical
humanities and/or bioethics, Davidson College is one of the first
liberal arts colleges to offer such a program. In order to complete
the requirements for the Medical Humanities Concentration,
students
take the following courses:
Philosophy
130 (Medical Ethics); required for all.
Five
electives should be selected, only two of which can count toward
your major. No more than two electives may be taken from any one
department or from those listed by the Center for Interdisciplinary
Studies. Electives are selected from:
ANT
340 Medical Anthropology
Cultural and social aspects of illness and health behavior from
a cross-cultural perspective. Emphasis on comparative study of
therapeutic strategies utilized by lay persons and specialists
in attempting to medicate human affliction. Exploration of the
interaction of nutritional, epidemiological, and ecological factors
that influence the bio-cultural context of sickness and therapy.
BIO
304 Molecular Biology
Focus on molecular (recombinant DNA) methods as they are applied
to answer a variety of biological questions. Emphasis is on learning
from the genome organisms. The course uses primary literature
for most of the semester and students participate extensively
in class discussions. Laboratory involves a research project;
students conduct original research through a series of experiments,
using a wide range of methods such as Southern blots and western
blots.
BIO
307 Immunology
Introduction to the immune system with an emphasis on mammalian
models. Course focuses on the cellular and molecular levels of
the immune system in health and disease. Topics include recognition
of antigen, development of lymphocyte repertoires, and adaptive
immune responses.
BIO 310/CSC310 Bioinformatics
A survey of computational techniques used to extract meaning from
biological data. Algorithms and statistical procedures for analyzing
genomic and proteomic data will be discussed in class and applied in
the computer lab using Perl. Interdisciplinary teams will explore a
particular topic in depth.
BIO 331 Behavioral Neuroscience
(Cross-listed Psychology 303) Permission of the instructor
required. (Fall)
CIS
380 Issues in Medicine
This course has two components, the classroom and clinics and
hospitals. In the classroom, students examine the four principles
of medical ethics: patient autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence
and justice. Three or so guest ethicists and/or physicians provide
lectures and discussions of issues important to the ethical practice
of medicine. Students prepare a seminar on an ethical topic of
their choosing. In clinics and hospitals in the Charlotte area,
students observe typically eight medical practices and write both
descriptive and reflective summaries of their activities.
CIS 381 Health
Law and Public Policy
Overview
of the regulations affecting the U.S. healthcare system, including
Medicare and Medicaid billing regulations, healthcare fraud and
abuse laws, public health regulation, and regulation affecting
access to care. Students will explore several case studies in
depth, such as smallpox vaccination of healthcare workers, the Duke
University transplant case, criminal investigations of hospitals for
healthcare fraud, and how policy makers have used regulation to
attempt to guarantee access to healthcare.
CIS 388 History
of Medical Law
This course examines the
interrelationship between law and medicine in the United States.
Physicians' roles in the legal system have evolved through U.S.
history. The course considers physicians as medical examiners,
expert witnesses, defendants, and politicians; and looks at issues
or incidents in which physicians had a large impact on the law.
CIS
390 Health Care Ethics
Introduction to the interdisciplinary nature of ethical thinking
and decision making in health care. The course has two components:
didactic (lectures, class discussion, library research, paper
writing, etc.); and "experiential" involving an externship
assignment to a clinical or administrative department at the Carolinas
Medical Center. Externship activities include observing on clinical
rounds, attending departmental educational conferences, journal
clubs and Grand Rounds, spending one or more nights at the hospital
"on call" with resident physicians, doing administrative
projects, etc.
CIS 397 Future of American Health Care
In order to adequately prepare for the future, one must know and
understand the past and present history of a specific discipline.
This course will review the origins and concepts of primary care
medicine in America, its present state and proposed models which
might better serve a majority of the basic health care needs of
America's population in the new millennium. By the end of the
course, students will be expected to be creative in articulating
a workable primary care system for the next century.
ECO
322 Health Economics
Application of basic tools of economic
analysis to the markets for medical care and health insurance
in the United States. Includes international comparisons of health
care systems in both developed and developing countries and proposals
to reform the health care system in the United States.
ENG 101 Ethics
and Technologies of Medicine
This course explores medical ethics in the context of the
patient-physician relationship and certain advances in medical
technologies to gain a better understanding and appreciation of the
complexities involved in a field with far-reaching implications for
humans, both as species and as a society.
PHI
130 Medical Ethics
A critical analysis of ethical problems in medicine and health
care: Topics include: the ethical foundations of medical
professionalism; informed consent; the right to bodily autonomy &
self-determination; competence, decisional capacity and
responsibility; agency (guardians & surrogate decision makers),
the beginning and ending of persons, social justice and rights to
professional health care services, insurance & managed care.
Course goals: to provide the conceptual normative tools for
diagnosing and rationally resolving or at least rationally
"managing" value-based conflict in health care.
PHI 215
Ethics
Critical introduction to theories of value and obligation; the
nature and validity of moral judgments; analysis of the meaning
and function of moral language. Some discussion of contemporary
moral controversies.
POL
316 Civil Liberties
Analysis of Constitutional guarantees of civil liberties in
the United States with special focus on the Bill of Rights and
the 14th Amendment.
PSY
231 Abnormal Psychology
Characteristics, etiology and treatment of major patterns of maladaptive
behavior (anxiety disorders, depression, antisocial behavior,
schizophrenia, etc.) Theoretical and empirical evidence for understanding
causality and treatment.
PSY
245 Psychology of Aging
Introduction to human aging from a psychological perspective.
Adult age-related changes in memory, intelligence, wisdom, personality,
etc. Attitudes toward aging and adjustment to aging. Emphasis
on the application of scientific methods to the study of aging.
PSY 303 Research - Behavioral Neuroscience
Role of the nervous system; sensory and motor mechanism;
physiological bases of motivation and emotions; sleep and arousal; and
physiological bases of learning, memory, and language. Extensive
laboratory training. Work with animals is required.
PSY
304 Psychological Research - Memory
Research methods, concepts, and empirical findings in the field
of memory are explored in lecture and laboratories. Emphasis is
on human memory. Participation in research as subjects and experimenters
is required.
PSY
314 Research Methods in Clinical Psychology
Research methodologies and statistical techniques used in clinical
research. Ethical and practical constraints to the empirical study
of clinical problems. Students will critique empirical articles
in Clinical Psychology and Behavioral medicine in lecture/discussion,
while computing laboratories will develop skills with multi-variate
statistics. Course requirements include participation in research
experiences as subjects and investigators.
PSY
315 Psychological Research - Developmental
Research methods for studying child development are examined in
lecture, laboratory and field settings. Methods include observations,
interviews, and experiments with emphasis on ethical implications
of research with children and research designs commonly used by
developmental psychologists.
PSY
319 Research methods in Adult Development
Research Methods, concepts, empirical findings, and ethics for
studying adult development (focus on younger and older adulthood)
are explored in lecture and laboratory settings. Prerequisite
will be Psy 101. Recommended for completion by Fall of the senior year
for majors.
PSY
324 Advanced Neuroscience
Intensive readings in molecular neurobiology, neuroanatomy,
neurophysiology, and/or behavior. Students make classroom
presentations of critical analyses of the course readings, conduct
laboratory research or hospital rounds, and submit an annotated
bibliography and a write-up of the laboratory project or term paper.
REL 256
Religion, Ethics, and Medicine
This course explores fundamental themes and methods in
bioethics, as well as analyses of particular issues, for the ways
that religious approaches offer distinctive, complementary, or
overlapping perspectives with secular approaches. It
examines core values and principles that characterize modern
bioethics; the meaning of health, disease, normalcy, and
abnormalcy as functional concepts in biology, medicine, and
society. It explores considerations of virtue and character that
have defined medicine as a vocation and a social practice.
SOC
360 Medical Sociology
Sociological factors of health and illness; social organization
of modern medicine; sociological analysis of the role and status
of medical and paramedical personnel in this country, social differences
in the acquisition of medical care and in the reaction to medical
treatment.
One
of the electives may be an independent study, tutorial, or practicum
arranged with a member of the Medical Humanities faculty. You
must meet with Dr. Stell if you plan to do this.
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