Medicine, Technology, and Society

Catalog description

Over the last few decades, new technologies have radically transformed medicine, surgery, and health care delivery. The course addresses how radical technologies, such as MRIs, lasers, CT scans, digital video monitors, computers, and others, move through medicine and stabilize. The course examines how medicine and health care is organized as a professional occupation with a well-developed division of labor, and how interested actors both within - i.e., doctors, surgeons, and nurses - and outside of - i.e., patients and communities - these systems respond to the promises and challenges that such new technologies bring. Addressing these and related issues will increase the understanding of how medicine and technology work to deliver health care in contemporary society. Prerequisite(s): A SOC 115. May not be offered in 2024-2025.