3 credits
Spring 2025 Lecture Upper Division
This course examines the history of medicine in the United States from the early twentieth century to the present by starting with patient voices, which provide a glimpse into the experience of illness. Using patient reflections as the primary lens through which to examine the history of medicine, topics covered include historical changes and historical decision making related to the diagnostic process, therapeutic interventions, access to care, and medical institutions. The course also examines how assumptions about gender, race, and class have shaped differential health outcomes such as mortality rates, time to diagnosis, and determination of treatment approach and efficacy.
Learning Outcomes1Identify in written and oral communication key features of the U.S. medical system by examining how patient experiences have changed over time and in different contexts.
2Analyze how assumptions about race, gender, and class can affect the experience of illness, access to care, and health outcomes.
3Engage with primary sources such as journal entries, memoirs, newspaper articles, artwork, and audiovisual material to identify patient perspectives and place them in historical context, and to illustrate how social, cultural, political, and economic factors have shaped the practice of medicine.
4Reflect on the ethical issues that have arisen in medicine using patient voices as a lens to examine the impact of technology on the illness experience.
5Examine patient experiences to make an argument about the history of medical practice, such as the diagnostic process or therapeutic approaches, using historical methods.
Attachments
made by Purdue students.