Sections offered FALL 2022:
#10922 |
AMIT HAGAR, LEAH SAVION |
TuTh 9:45 AM–11:00 AM |
BH 330 |
CLASS NOTES: IUB GenEd S&H credit; COLL (CASE) S&H Breadth of Inquiry credit; meets with HPSC-X 123
Class meets In Person. For more information visit https://covid.iu.edu/learning-modes/index.html
The interdisciplinary course offers a critical analysis of the most essential aspects of medicine: its underlying conceptions of sickness and practices, diversity and equity failures, and its ultimate goals. The students will be exposed to a new paradigm that is meant to change what many today see as a harmful, costly, and ineffective reality, where reactive intervention occurs at critical stages rather than an ongoing prevention.
Course content focuses initially on the main sources for the erosion of trust in the medical establishment, such as defensive medicine, medical errors, and big pharm. We’ll start with a brief history of the evolving perception roles and methods of medicine in Chinese, Islamic, and Western traditions, offers a psychological analysis of the lure of pseudo medicine, a bird eye view of the US Health Care System, the potential perils of over-diagnosis, and the challenges of racial and socio-economical inequality. Our aim is to lead students, via philosophical and scientific inquiry, to a deeper understanding and eventual change of ingrained perceptions. By examining three different health conditions – cancer, Alzheimer and metabolic disorders such as obesity – we shall explain their etiology in accessible terms, survey the current mindset that aims at treating them, and suggest how the shift towards a more preventive and less reactive approach to health care can improve longevity and health span and lead to a more resilient society.