Readings in Health, Medicine, and Society offers students carefully selected readings that provide them with a broad and well-rooted knowledge base in global and U.S. medical sociology. Unit I provides students with an overview of the field and examines select concepts and theoretical perspectives. Unit II illustrates the ways in which culture impacts health and health care systems. Unit III examines inequalities at the individual and societal levels. In Unit IV, students investigate how political and corporate structures impact people's health choices and behaviors. Unit V describes the key variables involved in the socialization of Western doctors, reviews the ways folk medicines differ from the Western paradigm, and illustrates an example of healing practices outside Western medicine. Unit VI provides a review of emerging medical technologies as they relate to sociology and offers a critical analysis of pharmaceutical technology. Unit VII critically examines the history of power building by U.S. doctors. The final unit offers a brief overview of the history of bioethics through a discussion of the Nuremburg Code, followed by an examination of patient autonomy and informed consent. Featuring a unique sociological perspective, Readings in Health, Medicine, and Society is an ideal resource for courses in medical sociology and public health.
Readings in Health, Medicine, and Society offers students carefully selected readings that provide them with a broad and well-rooted knowledge base in global and U.S. medical sociology. Unit I provides students with an overview of the field and examines select concepts and theoretical perspectives. Unit II illustrates the ways in which culture impacts health and health care systems. Unit III examines inequalities at the individual and societal levels. In Unit IV, students investigate how political and corporate structures impact people's health choices and behaviors. Unit V describes the key variables involved in the socialization of Western doctors, reviews the ways folk medicines differ from the Western paradigm, and illustrates an example of healing practices outside Western medicine. Unit VI provides a review of emerging medical technologies as they relate to sociology and offers a critical analysis of pharmaceutical technology. Unit VII critically examines the history of power building by U.S. doctors. The final unit offers a brief overview of the history of bioethics through a discussion of the Nuremburg Code, followed by an examination of patient autonomy and informed consent. Featuring a unique sociological perspective, Readings in Health, Medicine, and Society is an ideal resource for courses in medical sociology and public health.
This book explores relevant questions within this multi-faceted and rapidly growing field, and will help to define and foster scholarship within the intersection of neuroethics and clinical neuroscience.
Not every illness has a biological remedy. Poverty, Health and Law presents health in the broader social context of people''s lives, providing insights into the advancement of health through legal advocacy and interdisciplinary solutions to complex social problems. Focusing on basic legal rights and their relation to health--income and employment, housing, education, legal status, and personal safety--the authors provide information and insight into how the law may be used as a tool to improve health and how health care providers and lawyers can work together to invoke more effective and preventive remedies for patients and clients. As America prepares for major reform of its health care system, Poverty, Health and Law brings to the forefront the need to address the root causes of illness and poor health, particularly among vulnerable populations, by exploring remedies and innovations both within and outside of the health care system. "[T]his book is a helpful resource for existing and emerging MLPs that is sure to inspire improved care for the poor." -- World Medical & Health Policy "This book is intended to be used in at least three ways: (1) as a teaching tool primarily for legal and medical educators; (2) as a guidebook for newer or contemplated MLP programs; and (3) as a resource and reference work for MLP practitioners. It succeeds in each of these categories. ...The chief pedagogical goal, whose attainment is likely to be aided immeasurably by this volume, is not to get physicians and attorneys to think alike, but rather to teach members of each profession how and why the other professional thinks as he or she does. ...Taking on an ambitious and provocative agenda, they have done an excellent job of preparing future and current medical and legal practitioners to work collaboratively on behalf of patients/clients who need their joint advocacy. Any reader interested in the ways in which law and medicine might intersect on behalf of consumers'' well-being will benefit from attention to ''the'' book on the current achievements and future promise of MLPs." -- Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, Marshall B. Kapp, J.D., M.P.H., Director of the Florida State University Center for Innovative Collaboration in Medicine & Law "[This book] is an invaluable compendium of collective wisdom concerning the theory and practice of MLP--a gift. Those new to the field, whether practitioners, students, academics or bureaucrats, will scarcely believe their luck that such an impressive resource now exists; an exhaustive treatment of MLP from the foundations up. But Poverty, Health and Law isn''t just an edited collection of pieces from legal and medical practitioners from around the States--it is a thoughtful and strategic treatment of the subject with a unified structure and consistent educative approach. Intended as both a teaching tool and a resource for those engaged or interested in MLP, the book boasts numerous valuable features...[w]hether you are beginning to explore MLP or wanting to supercharge an existing partnership or alliance, Poverty, Health and Law will prove to be an indispensible reference." -- Peter Noble, Advocacy Health Alliances blog "Poverty, Health and Law is a valuable resource to enhance understanding of the non-medical factors that affect health. Garnering the expertise of authors from healthcare and law, Poverty, Health and Law is intentionally written to be accessible to students across disciplines of medicine, law, social work and public health. It is a crucial step in advancing the medical-legal partnership model and will also serve as a catalyst to stimulate further research about addressing the social determinants of health." -- David R. Williams, Ph.D., M.P.H., Florence Sprague Norman and Laura Smart Norman Professor of Public Health, Professor of African and African American Studies and of Sociology, Harvard University "This ground-breaking work shows how doctors and lawyers across the country can work together to protect the health of our most vulnerable populations. A comprehensive collection of compelling essays written by national experts, this volume is an invaluable teaching tool for the next generation of legal and health professionals to help guide and inspire such innovative interdisciplinary collaborations in the future. It is also a must-read for practitioners and policy-makers alike who want to understand how real health reform can happen at the grass-roots level." -- Charity Scott, J.D., Professor of Law and Director of the Center for Law, Health & Society, Georgia State University College of Law "Medical-legal partnerships unite the medical and legal professions in a common goal and create the ideal team to serve the healthcare and legal needs of vulnerable populations including children, cancer patients, senior citizens, and HIV/AIDS patients. Not only do they provide critical direct services to patients, they also promote systemic advocacy efforts that have an enormously positive impact on healthcare policies and practices. Poverty, Health and Law is an important guide that could not have been published at a more vital time." -- Steven B. Scudder, J.D., Committee Counsel, ABA Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service
Lupton′s newest edition of Medicine as Culture is more relevant than ever. Trudy Rudge, Professor of Nursing, University of Sydney A welcome update of a text that has become a mainstay of the medical sociologist′s library. Alan Radley, Emeritus Professor of Social Psychology, Loughborough University Medicine as Culture introduces students to a broad range of cross-disciplinary theoretical perspectives, using examples that emphasize bodies and visual images. Lupton′s core contrast between lay perspectives on illness and medical power is a useful beginning point for courses teaching health and illness from a socio-cultural perspective. Arthur Frank, Department of Sociology, University of Calgary Medicine as Culture is unlike any other sociological text on health and medicine. It combines perspectives drawn from a wide variety of disciplines including sociology, anthropology, social history, cultural geography, and media and cultural studies. The book explores the ways in which medicine and health care are sociocultural constructions, ranging from popular media and elite cultural representations of illness to the power dynamics of the doctor-patient relationship. The Third Edition has been updated to cover new areas of interest, including: - studies of space and place in relation to the body - actor-network theory as it is applied in research related to medicine - The internet and social media and how they contribute to lay health knowledge and patient support - complementary and alternative medicine - obesity and fat politics. Contextualising introductions and discussion points in every chapter makes Medicine as Culture, Third Edition a rigorous yet accessible text for students. Deborah Lupton is an independent sociologist and Honorary Associate in the Department of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Sydney.
In the United States, some populations suffer from far greater disparities in health than others. Those disparities are caused not only by fundamental differences in health status across segments of the population, but also because of inequities in factors that impact health status, so-called determinants of health. Only part of an individual's health status depends on his or her behavior and choice; community-wide problems like poverty, unemployment, poor education, inadequate housing, poor public transportation, interpersonal violence, and decaying neighborhoods also contribute to health inequities, as well as the historic and ongoing interplay of structures, policies, and norms that shape lives. When these factors are not optimal in a community, it does not mean they are intractable: such inequities can be mitigated by social policies that can shape health in powerful ways. Communities in Action: Pathways to Health Equity seeks to delineate the causes of and the solutions to health inequities in the United States. This report focuses on what communities can do to promote health equity, what actions are needed by the many and varied stakeholders that are part of communities or support them, as well as the root causes and structural barriers that need to be overcome.
Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize "A panoramic and perfectly magnificent intellectual history of medicine…This is the book that delivers it all." —Sherwin Nuland, author of How We Die Hailed as "a remarkable achievement" (Boston Globe) and as "a triumph: simultaneously entertaining and instructive, witty and thought-provoking…a splendid and thoroughly engrossing book" (Los Angeles Times), Roy Porter's charting of the history of medicine affords us an opportunity as never before to assess its culture and science and its costs and benefits to mankind. Porter explores medicine's evolution against the backdrop of the wider religious, scientific, philosophical, and political beliefs of the culture in which it develops, covering ground from the diseases of the hunter-gatherers to the more recent threats of AIDS and Ebola, from the clearly defined conviction of the Hippocratic oath to the muddy ethical dilemmas of modern-day medicine. Offering up a treasure trove of historical surprises along the way, this book "has instantly become the standard single-volume work in its field" (The Lancet).
Over the past half-century, the social terrain of health and illness has been transformed. What were once considered normal human events and common human problems—birth, aging, menopause, alcoholism, and obesity—are now viewed as medical conditions. For better or worse, medicine increasingly permeates aspects of daily life. Building on more than three decades of research, Peter Conrad explores the changing forces behind this trend with case studies of short stature, social anxiety, "male menopause," erectile dysfunction, adult ADHD, and sexual orientation. He examines the emergence of and changes in medicalization, the consequences of the expanding medical domain, and the implications for health and society. He finds in recent developments—such as the growing number of possible diagnoses and biomedical enhancements—the future direction of medicalization. Conrad contends that the impact of medical professionals on medicalization has diminished. Instead, the pharmaceutical and biotechnical industries, insurance companies and HMOs, and the patient as consumer have become the major forces promoting medicalization. This thought-provoking study offers valuable insight into not only how medicalization got to this point but also how it may continue to evolve.
Drawing on New Testament studies and recent scholarship on the expansion of the Christian church, Gary B. Ferngren presents a comprehensive historical account of medicine and medical philanthropy in the first five centuries of the Christian era. Ferngren first describes how early Christians understood disease. He examines the relationship of early Christian medicine to the natural and supernatural modes of healing found in the Bible. Despite biblical accounts of demonic possession and miraculous healing, Ferngren argues that early Christians generally accepted naturalistic assumptions about disease and cared for the sick with medical knowledge gleaned from the Greeks and Romans. Ferngren also explores the origins of medical philanthropy in the early Christian church. Rather than viewing illness as punishment for sins, early Christians believed that the sick deserved both medical assistance and compassion. Even as they were being persecuted, Christians cared for the sick within and outside of their community. Their long experience in medical charity led to the creation of the first hospitals, a singular Christian contribution to health care. "A succinct, thoughtful, well-written, and carefully argued assessment of Christian involvement with medical matters in the first five centuries of the common era . . . It is to Ferngren's credit that he has opened questions and explored them so astutely. This fine work looks forward as well as backward; it invites fuller reflection of the many senses in which medicine and religion intersect and merits wide readership."—Journal of the American Medical Association "In this superb work of historical and conceptual scholarship, Ferngren unfolds for the reader a cultural milieu of healing practices during the early centuries of Christianity."—Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith "Readable and widely researched . . . an important book for mission studies and American Catholic movements, the book posits the question of what can take its place in today's challenging religious culture."—Missiology: An International Review Gary B. Ferngren is a professor of history at Oregon State University and a professor of the history of medicine at First Moscow State Medical University. He is the author of Medicine and Religion: A Historical Introduction and the editor of Science and Religion: A Historical Introduction.
Adds 21 new essays and drops some that appeared in the 1984 edition (first in 1978) to reflect recent scholarship and changes in orientation by historians. Adds entirely new clusters on sickness and health, early American medicine, therapeutics, the art of medicine, and public health and personal hygiene. Other discussions are updated to reflect such phenomena as the growing mortality from HIV, homicide, and suicide. No index. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
