Teaching

Teaching

SM750.0 (Fall ’11 & Fall ’12) – Introduction to Social Medicine and Global Health - Harvard Medical School (course directors: Paul Farmer, David Jones, Jeremy Greene)

All physicians, regardless of their specialty, will work in setting where social, economic, and political forces powerfully influence who gets sick, the diseases that afflict them, the treatments that are available, and the outcomes of those treatments. This course introduces students to the theory and practice of social medicine so that they are both able to recognize and understand how these forces affect their patients, and be able to respond appropriately. Through lectures and tutorials, the course explores (1) the determinants of disease; (2) why patterns of disease differ between different societies and change over time; (3) the causes of health disparities in both national and international contexts; and (4) the role of medical and public health interventions in combating health disparities.