00976 - History of Medicine

Learning outcomes

Outline the history of the Western 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. The course will pay special attention to critical examination of the social and cultural determinants of health conditions and medical practice through time and there will be also be a significant focus on gender perspective.

Course contents

Lesson 1 – Introduction and course overview. The history of medicine as the social history of diseases: from the plague of Athen to COVID-19. Definitions, history and development of public health.

Lesson 2 – The history of Western medicine as cultural history: over time changes in definitions of body, from humoral theory to anatomical revolution to imaging diagnosis

Lesson 3 – The history of medicine as the history of a profession. The changing role of medicine and healing practices through time.

Lesson 4 – The history of medicine as the history of a science: from an “art” to the “scientific medicine”, advancements of medical technologies and therapeutics, biomedicine and its consequences.

Readings/Bibliography

The teaching material will be provided by the teacher mostly as electronic files, trying to minimize the use of paper materials.

Teaching methods

Lectures with slides

Assessment methods

The level of learning will be verified at the end of the course through a written exam. The exam will be organized in multiple choice questions aimed at verifying the student's knowledge of the scheduled topics.

The test consists of 16 questions. Each question has 4 answers, only one correct. Each correct answer is worth two points.

Those who reach a minimum of 18 points pass the test. The number of correct answers, if greater than or equal to 18, corresponds to the final mark. With 16 correct answers you have praise. There are no penalties for wrong or undecided answers.

The test must be completed within 35 minutes of starting.

The final score will be weighted averaged with the scores of the other modules, to obtain the global grade.

Teaching tools

Power Point presentation and critical readings of historical sources. The teaching material will be downloaded at unibo virtual online learning platform.

Office hours

See the website of Annagiulia Gramenzi