The
Division of Medicine in Society
presently occupies an important corner of the Department of
Preventive Medicine and consists of a small multi-disciplinary group of medical
humanists (including an MD, a philosophy PhD, JD, a PhD in English literature,
a Catholic priest with a PhD in theology, and our course administrator) who run
the four-year Medicine in Contemporary Society course taken by all students at
the Stony Brook School of Medicine.
In
1971, when Stony Brook's Health Sciences Center opened, Ed Pellegrino founded
the Division. At its inception the group had faculty members representing the
disciplines of history, sociology, anthropology, economics, political science,
and philosophy and law. It was responsible for courses integrating social sciences
and humanities into the medical school curriculum. Over the past twenty-five
years, though the locus, size, and composition of the division have changed,
the importance of interdisciplinary teaching in the medical school at Stony
Brook has continued unabated.
The
Medicine in Contemporary Society
(MCS) curriculum begins with
fifty class hours - largely small group work - in each of the first two years.
MCS 3 and MCS 4 are integrated into clinical instruction. This extensive
curriculum has been supported by funds from the dean's office and by committed
medical school faculty, more than thirty of whom volunteer each year to lead
discussion sessions. The current content and configuration of MCS reflects
local expertise, available resources, and the long-held philosophy of the
school. The division is nationally recognized as having one of the strongest
programs in spite of its relatively small faculty base. MCS remains a defining
and positive feature for medical school applicants. Aspects of our course have recently
been featured in Academic Medicine and Teaching and Learning in
Medicine.
The
Institute for Medicine in Contemporary Society
(IMCS) was established in 1990
to develop interdisciplinary programs exploring the relationships between
medicine and other aspects of contemporary culture. The Institute publishes the
newsletter Contexts, sponsors visiting fellows and artists in
residence, and in a number of other ways creates a bridge between the division
and intellectual and cultural activities outside of the medical school.
Last updated by Catherine Belling
on October 7, 2002.