Social Change and the Practice of Medicine

ME 727 Subject & Catalog Number

Description

The shootings in Buffalo, NY and Uvalde, TX have been recent examples of how traumatic events can lead to movements of social change. Historically, social change has been an important part of large-scale public health efforts, and often this has been driven by those in the practice of medicine. Physicians and other clinicians have-been important advocates for social change to improve public health. For example, a pediatrician developed the child-proof cap to prevent lethal ingestions of aspirin by children. A physician was a leader in the movement towards safer cars and roads to decrease injuries and deaths from motor vehicle crashes. This 2-month elective seminar course will illustrate through expert faculty speakers and active class discussion how public health initiatives have been driven by social change, which have been and continues to be associated with the practice of medicine. Topics include firearm injuries, opioid ingestions, injury prevention, racism in medicine and the medical consequences of disasters. The course in sponsored by the Division of Emergency Medicine, Boston Children’s Hospital and is hosted by Harvard Medical School.