- Docente: Patrizia Fughelli
- Credits: 1
- SSD: MED/02
- Language: English
- Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
- Campus: Bologna
- Corso: Single cycle degree programme (LMCU) in Medicine and Surgery (cod. 9210)
Learning outcomes
Outline the history of the medical sciences from classic times till today, focusing on the birth of morpho-functional disciplines, the concept of disease throughout the ages, and the progress of surgical and therapeutic sciences.
Course contents
Lesson 1 – Introduction and course overview. History of medicine as cultural history: over time changes in definitions of body, health and disease in Western medicine. Concept of pain. EBM and NBM. The monographic part deals with anatomy and explores the Middle Ages at the University of Bologna.
Lesson 2 – History of medicine as social history of diseases: from the plague of Galen to Coronavirus. Illness, sickness and disease. The monographic part deals with epidemiology and development of public health.
Lesson 3 – History of medicine as history of a profession. The changing role of medicine and healing practices through time. Development of the profession from healer and herbalist to robots. The monographic part deals with artificial intelligence in medicine.
Lesson 4 – History of medicine as history of science, advancements of medical technologies and therapeutics. The monographic part deals with ancient surgical instruments located in Possati library, University of Bologna.
Readings/Bibliography
The slides shown during the lessons are available at the Web site: https://virtuale.unibo.it/
Username e password are reserved to students of Bologna University.
Pdfs with the powerpoint presentations of the lectures will be the material to be reviewed for the written exam at the end of the course.
Suggested readings to explore further the topics covered in class:
1) A Global History of Medicine Edited by Mark Jackson. Oxford University Press, 2018
Teaching methods
Lectures with slides
Peer-reviewed scientific videos
Class discussion
Assessment methods
Written test (for examination dates, see almaesami.unibo.it)
The test consists of 4-choice questions. Only one answer is correct. There are no penalties for wrong or blank answers.
The test must be completed in 45 minutes.
Module CFU Questions
History of Medicine 1 4
Ethics and Behavioural Sciences 2 8
Medical Statistics and Epidemiology 2 8
Scientific Research Methodology 1 4
Determinant of Health and Disease 2 8
Number of right answers Marks
31/32 30L
30 30
29 29
28 28
27 27
26 26
25 25
24 24
23 23
22 22
21 21
20 20
19 19
18 18
<18 Fail
≥18 and 0 right answers in any module: Fail
Exam marks are published within 3 days on AlmaEsami.
The student can refuse the marks within 5 days from publication by emailing Prof. Rucci (paola.rucci2@unibo.it). All refusals must be sent from the institutional email address @studio.unibo.it
After 6 days from publication the acceptance will be taken for granted and the exam will be recorded.
Teaching tools
Power point presentations.
Presentation of short movies
Office hours
See the website of Patrizia Fughelli