The Medical Humanities minor promotes an interdisciplinary understanding of health and health care. It enables students to appreciate the strengths and limits of the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities as they seek to explain and to achieve a measure of control over disease, illness, and suffering. The interdisciplinary minor helps students to grasp how legal, economic, and political institutions influence the production, distribution, and delivery of health care services. It also provides students with the analytical and ethical skills necessary to apply the principles of scientific integrity in biomedical research.
Medical Humanities courses emphasize the role ethical values play in defining problems as “medical,” worthy of scientific study, calling for mobilization of social, as well as individual resources. The courses help students to develop the analytical skills that permit clear thinking and writing about the complex trade-offs involved in developing, using, and paying for health care.
If both programs are in agreement, up to two courses may count for both a major and the Medical Humanities interdisciplinary minor.
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