Social Medicine

Division Director: Dr. Brian Dolan, PhD

Social Medicine is a field of interdisciplinary academic investigation that examines the many ways that health, disease, and the practices of medicine, the bio-medical sciences and implementation of medical technologies are affected by societal forces.

Medicine is itself social by virtue of its intimate engagement with diverse populations, where the doctor/patient relationship is mediated through social conventions determined by cultural beliefs, community advocacy, family relations and individual attitudes. But the way the medical profession evolves and its judgments and practices understood are also implicated in diverse social dynamics, from how the media translate expert knowledge for wider public consumption, to the political and commercial interests that regulate and foster bio-medical research and the development of medical technology. Scholarship in Social Medicine provides insight to the creation and legacy of these social relations.  

The field of Social Medicine has thrived on interdisciplinarity and collaborative investigation which integrates the conceptual frameworks and methodologies of the humanities, the social sciences, clinical and population research. It provides philosophical and critical reflexivity about bio-medical and public health enterprises, the knowledge and practices on which they are based, and the impact of those phenomena on social, political, economic and historical transformation.  Its practitioners are humanists, social scientists, clinical and population scientists from specialties such as medical anthropology, history, sociology, cultural studies, psychiatry, health economics, clinical research and the public health sciences.

At UCSF, the division of Social Medicine in the Department of Anthropology, History & Social Medicine aims to facilitate the ‘meeting of minds’ among humanists, social scientists, clinicians and other health care professionals. Working together, projects are designed to advance our understanding of bio-medical science, clinical practice, biotechnology, and bio-entrepreneurship as products of culture which in turn impact upon the management of health in post-modern societies and in global social and economic systems.

We see twenty-first-century Social Medicine as engaged with new frontiers in medicine, public health, the life sciences, biotechnology and bio-entrepreneurship where "the social" arena is located in spaces around the clinic, laboratory, patent office and executive boardrooms. Research here investigates the social relations of bio-medicine and public health that motivate the movement of knowledge and practice from "bench to bedside to the community," and its practitioners from "scientist to CEO."

One area of active investigation in Social Medicine at UCSF is the impact of medical technologies on clinical skills and decision making, and its effect on patient management —particularly revolving around “internet interventions” and the "digital revolution" in disease diagnosis. We explore these areas in light of newly emerging collaborations between university and corporate research and development, and the promotion of the culture of bio-entrepreneurship.

A master's degree in "Science & Technology Studies in Medicine" is currently under development within the division of Social Medicine to provide students with the intellectual and analytic resources to recognize and respond to key social, cultural, and ethical issues in contemporary medicine, biotechnology and bio-entrepreneurship.

!!! Updated information on the Proposed Master's Degree in Science and Technology Studies in Medicine !!! Update: July 2008. DAHSM faculty and staff have continued to work with the Deans and finance officers of the Graduate Division and the School of Medicine to develop a viable degree program. Progress is being made but at the moment the earliest we could be admitting to this program is academic year 2009-2010.

Please see the links to the left for more information about this division.

Contact: Brian Dolan, PhD, Professor of Social Medicine and Medical Humanities