Course introduction

This course is designed to respond to the current concerns about universal health, global health and overall health, the reflection on the reform of the health care system, as well as the social debates caused by evidence-based medicine, translational medicine, precision medicine and the emerging high-tech medical technology. From the perspective of social cultural history, this course reviews the development of modern medicine in the 20th century and the difficulties it faces. The course “Modern Culture of Medicine” mainly focuses on three contents:

(1) Review the reasons for the emergence of eugenics, contraception and feminism, alternative medicine, bioethics, health care system reform, and their profound impact on social culture;

(2) Explore the social and cultural factors of human health promotion and disease prevention across different cultural traditions, as well as the social construction and evolution of the concept of health and disease in a global framework;

(3) Explore the far-reaching cultural impact of the rise and application of high-tech medical technology on human society, such as gene editing, reproductive technology, brain science and mental reconstruction.

This course aims to provide students with a vivid picture of human health care activities, so that students can understand medicine and the significance of changes in medical model and disease concept. This course attempts to get students to appreciate the social value of modern medical technology and health care, and also to maintain a critical attitude towards the mainstream culture in health care activities.

This course combines multi-media teaching and classroom discussion (reading report). Through rich historical documents, pictures and video materials, this course aims to expand students’ understanding of human health and diseases under the multicultural background, to increase students’ feelings of medical culture, and to improve teaching results. This course provides students with a certain amount of classic reading documents, and evaluates students in the form of classroom reports, classroom discussions and course paper.

This course aims to improve the health literacy of students without medical background. It can be an selective course for arts and science students who want to know about medicine and health care.