An Introduction to Medicine

The course aims to provide some cultural tools to build an awareness and a capacity for critical reflection on the complexity of the medical profession and on the scientific, social, ethical and relational contexts in which it operates. In particular we will discuss: 1. The concepts of health, disease/illness, medicine and care in their historical development and in the current framework; 2. Methods, tools and limits of scientific and clinical research and their role in the progress of knowledge and medical practice; 3. The concept of global health as gazing both towards a planetary dimension and towards the close interrelation between social factors and the health conditions of communities and individuals; 4. Principles of bioethics: a guide to on the main philosophical and ethical questions of human existence that doctors encounter in their daily activity; 5. Considerations on the experience of suffering and death and its emotional and relational implications in a context of care; 6. The psycho-cognitive mechanisms of clinical reasoning and medical decision and their relationship with the emotional sphere and with uncertainty.

At the end of the course the student must know: 1. The concepts of illness/disease, health, medicine and care and reflect on aspects of complexity related to them; 2. The fundamentals of scientific and clinical research and identify their methodological characteristics; 3. The concept and principles of global health, and the main dynamics between socio-economic-environmental conditions and global, community and individual health status and reflect on their effects in terms of objectives and methods of medical, health and beyond-health interventions; 4. The fundamental ethical questions of the medical-scientific activity and set the speculative and behavioural considerations in a complex context; 5. The main emotional elements and the relational dynamics inside the relationship with human suffering and death. 6. The main psycho-cognitive processes of reasoning and decision in clinical practice, and identify some useful tools for the processing of errors and decision-making responsibilities.