Medical Humanities
A.Y. 2024/2025
Learning objectives
Modulo A - Progetto "First Approach to the Patient (FAP)" (Attività professionalizzante -
Clinical clerkship)A three-week attendance period following nurses in the assigned clinical divisions, will introduce each student to an early experience of patients' care. Briefing encounters in small groups before each attendance week, along with systematic debriefings after each week with the Chief Nurse and doctors in charge of patients, will foster an attitude towards attentive observation and reflection on care relationships; awareness of the inner experience and emotions moved by the encounter with the patients' world; appraisal of the importance of communicating emotions among health care professionals.
Modulo B - Progetto "Un metodo per il clinico"
This teaching project is closely linked to Modulo A. It aims to explore the illness experience through interactive, small-group activities followed by plenary sessions and formal classes; to inscribe such experience within the broader context of human frailty, vulnerability, relationality, empathy and care which characterize the "human condition" in the different philosophical traditions; to provide the groundings for a rational approach to patient care by exploring the logic, cognitive and ethical aspects of medical professionalism; to understand the processes enacted by patients to give meaning to illness symptoms; to attain the concepts of communication of the prognosis and decision sharing in health care.
Modulo C - Storia della Medicina
To enable the student reflect, within a historical perspective, on the response to human disease and illness, frailty and vulnerability, comparing their past and current interpretation; to appraise the changes occurred in the concept of medical professionalism over time.
Clinical clerkship)A three-week attendance period following nurses in the assigned clinical divisions, will introduce each student to an early experience of patients' care. Briefing encounters in small groups before each attendance week, along with systematic debriefings after each week with the Chief Nurse and doctors in charge of patients, will foster an attitude towards attentive observation and reflection on care relationships; awareness of the inner experience and emotions moved by the encounter with the patients' world; appraisal of the importance of communicating emotions among health care professionals.
Modulo B - Progetto "Un metodo per il clinico"
This teaching project is closely linked to Modulo A. It aims to explore the illness experience through interactive, small-group activities followed by plenary sessions and formal classes; to inscribe such experience within the broader context of human frailty, vulnerability, relationality, empathy and care which characterize the "human condition" in the different philosophical traditions; to provide the groundings for a rational approach to patient care by exploring the logic, cognitive and ethical aspects of medical professionalism; to understand the processes enacted by patients to give meaning to illness symptoms; to attain the concepts of communication of the prognosis and decision sharing in health care.
Modulo C - Storia della Medicina
To enable the student reflect, within a historical perspective, on the response to human disease and illness, frailty and vulnerability, comparing their past and current interpretation; to appraise the changes occurred in the concept of medical professionalism over time.
Expected learning outcomes
Modulo A - Progetto "First Approach to the Patient (FAP)" (Attività professionalizzante - Clinical clerkship)
The student will learn to: interpret the disease/illness process and their care in a wider cultural context; gain full awareness of the relational aspects of care and the emotions arising from the patient encounter. He will be able: to reflect on the complex balance between involvement and detachment of health professionals in patients' care; to share his first experience in health care with other students and health professionals. The student will gain a full perspective of the integration between medical and nurse care of the patient.
Modulo B - Progetto "Un metodo per il clinico"
The student will gain a reflective approach to the cultural and relational aspects of health care; to patient-centered care; to the response of medical professionals to their involvement in health care relationships.
Modulo C - Storia della Medicina
The student will be able to put the current practices of care into a historical context, and to appreciate the changes over time in the notions of disease, illness, sickness, cure, and care.
The student will learn to: interpret the disease/illness process and their care in a wider cultural context; gain full awareness of the relational aspects of care and the emotions arising from the patient encounter. He will be able: to reflect on the complex balance between involvement and detachment of health professionals in patients' care; to share his first experience in health care with other students and health professionals. The student will gain a full perspective of the integration between medical and nurse care of the patient.
Modulo B - Progetto "Un metodo per il clinico"
The student will gain a reflective approach to the cultural and relational aspects of health care; to patient-centered care; to the response of medical professionals to their involvement in health care relationships.
Modulo C - Storia della Medicina
The student will be able to put the current practices of care into a historical context, and to appreciate the changes over time in the notions of disease, illness, sickness, cure, and care.
Lesson period: First semester
Assessment methods: Esame
Assessment result: voto verbalizzato in trentesimi
Single course
This course cannot be attended as a single course. Please check our list of single courses to find the ones available for enrolment.
Course syllabus and organization
Single session
Responsible
Prerequisites for admission
No prerequisites required for admission
Assessment methods and Criteria
Training Module B - Progetto "Un metodo per il clinico"
Each student will undergo an oral examination consisting of a discussion of the subjects presented during the course lessons and reported in the course slides, which will be available to the student in the ARIEL teaching platform.
Training Module C - History of Medicine
Each student will upload on the ARIEL platform a text discussing a particular aspect of history of medicine chosen by the student. The text will be discussed by the student during the final oral examination concerning PARTS A, B, and C.
Each student will undergo an oral examination consisting of a discussion of the subjects presented during the course lessons and reported in the course slides, which will be available to the student in the ARIEL teaching platform.
Training Module C - History of Medicine
Each student will upload on the ARIEL platform a text discussing a particular aspect of history of medicine chosen by the student. The text will be discussed by the student during the final oral examination concerning PARTS A, B, and C.
Medical history
Course syllabus
Medicine has a history: origins and meaning of Medicine and of the History of Medicine; sources for historical and medical study and research.
- Medicine in ancient Greece and Rome. Medieval Medicine; Knowing the body: Renaissance and animated anatomy. Latrofisica and Iatrochimica. Microscopic anatomy. The cell: from the first description to DNA technologies
- Enlightenment period and public health: occupational diseases, hygiene and preventive medicine, vaccine prophylaxis, orthopedics, humanitarian treatment of the mentally ill
- The birth of the Clinic and its tools: semiotics, diagnostics and therapy; Surgery problems and their resolution: analgesia, anesthesia, asepsis and antisepsis
The 20th century: new concepts, tools and therapies
Evolution and transformation of hospital places
- Medicine in ancient Greece and Rome. Medieval Medicine; Knowing the body: Renaissance and animated anatomy. Latrofisica and Iatrochimica. Microscopic anatomy. The cell: from the first description to DNA technologies
- Enlightenment period and public health: occupational diseases, hygiene and preventive medicine, vaccine prophylaxis, orthopedics, humanitarian treatment of the mentally ill
- The birth of the Clinic and its tools: semiotics, diagnostics and therapy; Surgery problems and their resolution: analgesia, anesthesia, asepsis and antisepsis
The 20th century: new concepts, tools and therapies
Evolution and transformation of hospital places
Teaching methods
Each university credit (CFU) consists of a number of hours devoted to teaching classes ("didattica formale") and innovative teaching ("didattica innovativa"). Innovative teaching consists of deepening selected topics, which are included into the course syllabus and are agreed with the students upon their request or the teacher's proposal.
Teaching is based on interactive classes, with both small group working and plenary sessions.
Teaching is based on interactive classes, with both small group working and plenary sessions.
Teaching Resources
- A. Porro A., Storia della medicina 1 (fino al XIX secolo), Rudiano, GAM, 2009
- A. Porro, B. Falconi, A.F. Franchini, Lezioni di Storia della Medicina 1, Rudiano, GAM, 2009
- A. Porro, C. Cristini, B. Falconi, A.F. Franchini, P. M. Galimberti, L. Lorusso, Lezioni di Storia della Medicina 2, Rudiano, GAM, 2011
- A. Porro, A. F. Franchini, C. Cristini, P.M. Galimberti, L. Lorusso, B. Falconi; Lezioni di Storia della Medicina 3. Gli strumenti, Rudiano, GAM, 2013
- A. Porro, B. Falconi, A.F. Franchini, Lezioni di Storia della Medicina 1, Rudiano, GAM, 2009
- A. Porro, C. Cristini, B. Falconi, A.F. Franchini, P. M. Galimberti, L. Lorusso, Lezioni di Storia della Medicina 2, Rudiano, GAM, 2011
- A. Porro, A. F. Franchini, C. Cristini, P.M. Galimberti, L. Lorusso, B. Falconi; Lezioni di Storia della Medicina 3. Gli strumenti, Rudiano, GAM, 2013
Logic and Philosophy of Science
Course syllabus
· Illness world and healthcare within a wide cultural context
· Frail and vulnerable beings, relational roots, empathy and care: some characterizing factors of the "human condition" in our cultural and philosophical tradition
· The patient and his symptoms. A rational approach to their characterization: starting a journey to understand the "meaning" of a symptom, the shared choice of treatment plans, the meaning of "care" and "cure", the assessment and communication af a prognosis
· The discriminative value of a symptom, exploring patient beliefs
· patient symptoms: assessment and the inference on causal relationships with associated factors:
- Induction, deduction, abduction
- Causation
- Reverse causation errors
- Temporal relationships and post-hoc fallacy
- Causation logic: necessary conditions, sufficient conditions, causal complexes
- Excluding and confirming diagnostic hypotheses
· Some indicators useful to appraise the informative value of symptoms or clinical findings; the operational characteristics of a diagnostic test: sensitivity, specificity, negative and positive predictive values, likelihood ratios, an introduction to Bayes' theorem
· Frail and vulnerable beings, relational roots, empathy and care: some characterizing factors of the "human condition" in our cultural and philosophical tradition
· The patient and his symptoms. A rational approach to their characterization: starting a journey to understand the "meaning" of a symptom, the shared choice of treatment plans, the meaning of "care" and "cure", the assessment and communication af a prognosis
· The discriminative value of a symptom, exploring patient beliefs
· patient symptoms: assessment and the inference on causal relationships with associated factors:
- Induction, deduction, abduction
- Causation
- Reverse causation errors
- Temporal relationships and post-hoc fallacy
- Causation logic: necessary conditions, sufficient conditions, causal complexes
- Excluding and confirming diagnostic hypotheses
· Some indicators useful to appraise the informative value of symptoms or clinical findings; the operational characteristics of a diagnostic test: sensitivity, specificity, negative and positive predictive values, likelihood ratios, an introduction to Bayes' theorem
Teaching methods
Each university credit (CFU) consists of a number of hours devoted to teaching classes ("didattica formale") and innovative teaching ("didattica innovativa"). Innovative teaching consists of deepening selected topics, which are included into the course syllabus and are agreed with the students upon their request or the teacher's proposal.
Teaching is based on interactive classes, with both small group working and plenary sessions.
Teaching is based on interactive classes, with both small group working and plenary sessions.
Teaching Resources
- Jamison L. The empathy exams: Essays. Graywolf Press. 2011
- Halpern J. From detached concern to empathy. Humanizing medical practice. Oxford University Press. 2001
- Whitehead A, Woods A (ed). The Edinburgh companion to the critical Medical Humanities. Edinburgh University Press. 2016
- Wulff HR, Pedersen SA, Rosenberg R. Philosophy of medicine. Oxford: Blackwell scientific publications. 1991
- Wulff HR. Rational diagnosis and treatment. Oxford: Blackwell scientific publications. 1981
- Martin AR. Exploring patient beliefs. Steps to enhancing Physician-patient interaction. Arch Intern Med 1983;143:1773-5
- Edwards DAW. Defining vs. discriminating features. Proc Roy Soc Med. 1971;64:676-7
- Halpern J. From detached concern to empathy. Humanizing medical practice. Oxford University Press. 2001
- Whitehead A, Woods A (ed). The Edinburgh companion to the critical Medical Humanities. Edinburgh University Press. 2016
- Wulff HR, Pedersen SA, Rosenberg R. Philosophy of medicine. Oxford: Blackwell scientific publications. 1991
- Wulff HR. Rational diagnosis and treatment. Oxford: Blackwell scientific publications. 1981
- Martin AR. Exploring patient beliefs. Steps to enhancing Physician-patient interaction. Arch Intern Med 1983;143:1773-5
- Edwards DAW. Defining vs. discriminating features. Proc Roy Soc Med. 1971;64:676-7
Logic and Philosophy of Science
M-FIL/02 - LOGIC AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE - University credits: 3
Lessons: 24 hours
: 12 hours
: 12 hours
Professor:
Battezzati Pier Maria
Shifts:
Turno
Professor:
Battezzati Pier Maria
Medical history
MED/02 - MEDICAL HISTORY - University credits: 1
Lessons: 12 hours
Professor:
Marazia Chantal
Shifts:
Turno
Professor:
Marazia ChantalProfessor(s)