Selected topics on health and society.

Explores what it means to be a practicing physician in contemporary America. Structured as a series of guest lectures by doctors from different medical specialties and at different stages in their careers; physician scientists and academicians; hospital administrators and related professionals; providers of medical care from international settings; and ethicists.

Provides a look at the economics of health and health care through a sociological lens. Examines how the multidimensional nature and distribution of health and healthcare are shaped by a variety of social and economic factors. Gain an understanding of the power of incentives, markets, and cost-benefit analysis, as well as the limits of these tools, in creating effective health care policy.

Explores the value of health in general and mental health specifically. Comparison of notions of health and illness, non-communicable disease and mental illness, and relative valuations in health and mental health. Development of sound, sensitive, and defensible opinions about mental health through the use of plays, poems, songs, videos, short stories, and personal accounts of illness and disability.

Explores the social context of health, illness, and the health care system in American society. Discussion of the processes of medicalization and demedicalization, social factors influencing health and health care, the organization of the health care delivery system and patient outcomes, and the social meaning and experiences of illness.

Examine health disparities and outcomes in four areas: core medical sociological theories and models; the biology of stress; intersections of race, class, and gender for health; and introduction to genetics and health disparities.