Introduction to Health Sciences
Code: 106686 ECTS Credits: 5| Degree | Type | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Medicine | FB | 1 |
Contact
- Name:
- Sandra Elena Guevara Flores
- Email:
- sandraelena.guevara@uab.cat
Teachers
- Jaume Valentines Álvarez
- Miquel Carandell Baruzzi
- Anna Macaya Andres
Teaching groups languages
You can view this information at the end of this document.
Prerequisites
None
Objectives and Contextualisation
The fundamental objective of this course is to introduce first-year students to the humanistic perspective of medical training and practice, to facilitate their analysis, subsequent learning, and professional development. It is, therefore, a preparatory course that helps students acquire perspectives, skills, and tools that will be useful in achieving the specific learning outcomes of the other subjects in the Medicine degree.
In the first thematic block, students will learn the basic vocabulary structure of the medical sciences. This block is complemented by a practical session in which students will complete the skills and abilities included in this section.
In the following blocks, students will examine various basic problems in the health sciences from a historical perspective. In this sense, and given the dispersion of specialized content that students will encounter throughout their degree, this part of the course offers an integrated and humanistic view of medicine, in which the human being is considered a multidimensional entity where the interrelation of factors of all kinds (biological, psychological, and social) determine and modify both states of health and disease, as well as their manifestations. These factors will be studied historically and from different perspectives (social class, gender, and race) to determine their influence on the states of health and disease of populations throughout history.
In both theoretical and practical classes and seminars, students will be required to complete a series of activities that will familiarize them with the various conceptual, methodological, and instrumental tools necessary to develop an autonomous, yet critical and rigorous, view of the role of medicine in the healthcare and social care system.
Due to its characteristics, this course is scheduled for the first semester of the first year. Its objectives and content complement those of the Clinical Practice I (CPI) and Integrated Self-Learning in Medicine I (ISIM) courses, and, especially, the Introduction to Research Workshop (ITI).
Competences
- Communicate clearly, orally and in writing, with other professionals and the media.
- Critically assess and use clinical and biomedical information sources to obtain, organise, interpret and present information on science and health.
- Demonstrate basic research skills.
- Demonstrate, in professional activity, a perspective that is critical, creative and research-oriented.
- Demonstrate knowledge of the historical principles underlying health, illness and the medical profession.
- Demonstrate knowledge of the national and international health organisations and the factors and circumstances affecting other healthcare systems.
- Demonstrate understanding of the importance and the limitations of scientific thought to the study, prevention and management of diseases.
- Formulate hypotheses and compile and critically assess information for problem-solving, using the scientific method.
- Maintain and sharpen one's professional competence, in particular by independently learning new material and techniques and by focusing on quality.
- Organise and plan time and workload in professional activity.
- Recognise the basic elements of the medical profession as the result of an evolving, scientific, social and cultural process, including ethical principles, legal responsibilities and patient-oriented professional practice.
- Use information and communication technologies in professional practice.
Learning Outcomes
- Communicate clearly, orally and in writing, with other professionals and the media.
- Define the factors determining healthcare transition in today's world.
- Demonstrate a diachronic vision of healthcare institutions and the healthcare strategies implemented.
- Demonstrate basic research skills.
- Demonstrate, in professional activity, a perspective that is critical, creative and research-oriented.
- Describe the dynamics of information in the health sciences through information retrieval systems.
- Describe the historical background of the healthcare professions from the perspective of medical pluralism.
- Describe the historical factors determining the process of globalisation of health problems and international strategies on health.
- Detail the historical factors determining the shape of the various national health systems.
- Evaluate the consequences for patients of the diversity in healthcare practice and professions.
- Explain the principles of telemedicine.
- Explain the role of the healthcare professional as a critical and empathetic agent of social change, working for the health of the community.
- Formulate hypotheses and compile and critically assess information for problem-solving, using the scientific method.
- Identify changes and continuities in the forms and contents of the medicalisation process.
- Identify the origins and the institutionalisation of scientific activity, and the epistemological bases of scientific thought in the health sciences.
- Identify the processes of professionalisation in the field of the health sciences and the tendency towards specialisation.
- Identify the various medical systems, including alternative medicine, and identify their founding principles.
- Maintain and sharpen one's professional competence, in particular by independently learning new material and techniques and by focusing on quality.
- Make correct use of databases and works of reference (bibliographies, encyclopedias, and dictionaries) in the health sciences.
- Organise and plan time and workload in professional activity.
- Recognise and distinguish the different medical traditions that make up the current health panorama.
- Recognise health and illness as socially determined constructions that change over time.
- Recognise the scope and the limitations of scientific thought in the health sciences.
- Understand medical science as knowledge in construction, subject to constant change, posing new challenges and opportunities.
- Use information and communication technologies in professional practice.
Content
Contents
Origins, transmission, and evolution of medical language. Historical foundations of the scientific method in the field of health. The origins of disease. Medical systems. History of medical knowledge and healthcare practices. Concepts of health and illness. The social history of disease. Models of medical care. From individual hygiene to social medicine. The emergence of the modern hospital and primary health care. The teaching of health sciences. The health professions. Gender and ethnic perspectives in medical practice and research.
DISTRIBUTIVE BLOCKS
A. ANALYSIS OF MEDICAL TERMS
B. CLASSICAL HISTORY OF HEALTH
C. CONTEMPORARY HISTORY OF HEALTH
D. HISTORY OF HEALTH IN THE 20TH CENTURY
E. HEALTH TODAY
F. MEDICINE AND GENDER
G. MATERIAL CULTURE OF MEDICINE
Activities and Methodology
| Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type: Directed | |||
| LABORATORY PRACTICES | 3 | 0.12 | 1, 5, 11, 18, 20, 10 |
| SPECIALIZED SEMINARS | 12 | 0.48 | 1, 2, 5, 4, 3, 24, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 22, 21, 23, 25 |
| THEORY | 23 | 0.92 | 2, 3, 8, 7, 6, 9, 24, 14, 15, 16, 17, 22, 21, 23, 19 |
| Type: Supervised | |||
| ORAL PRESENTATION / EXPOSITION OF WRITTEN WORKS | 10 | 0.4 | 2, 3, 8, 9, 24, 14, 15, 16, 17, 22, 21, 23 |
| Type: Autonomous | |||
| COMPREHENSIVE READING OF ARTICLES AND REPORTS OF INTEREST | 45 | 1.8 | 25 |
| PREPARATION OF WRITTEN WORKS | 12 | 0.48 | 13, 25 |
| SELF-STUDY | 14 | 0.56 | 6, 19, 25 |
LEARNING ACTIVITIES
I. Guided Activity:
THEORY (TE)
Master Classes (60 min)
A. CLASSICAL HISTORY OF MEDICINE
1. Introduction - Thinking and Practicing in the Medical Humanities
2. Health, Illness, and Medical Systems - General Concepts
3. Medicine and Gender
4. Health and Illness in History - Paleopathology and Paleoepidemiology
5. Non-Western Medical Systems (Arabic, Chinese, Indian, American)
6. Greek and Roman Medicine
7. Medieval Medical Professionals and Spaces
8. From Humanism to the Medical Enlightenment
B. CONTEMPORARY HISTORY OF HEALTH
9. The invention of microbiology
10. Consequences of the germ theory
11. City, tuberculosis, and the social question
12. Medicines in dispute: sanitary colonialism in the 20th century 15th-17th Century
13. Medicine and Colonialism, 19th-20th Century
C. History of Health in the 20th Century
14. International Health, 19th-20th Century
15. Global Health and Eradication
16. Penicillin in Spain
17. Medicine and War
18. The Struggle for Reproduction
19. Health Communication, Agnotology, and Health Risk
20. The HIV/AIDS Pandemic and Patient Activists
D. Health Today
21. Alternative/Complementary Medicine
22. Zoonoses and Environmental Health
23. Medical Humanities
LABORATORY PRACTICE (PLAB)
Practical class in a specialized space - computer lab - (180 min)
24. Analysis of medical terms (E)
SPECIALIZED SEMINARS (SEM)
Seminar in a specialized space (60 min)
25, 26, 27. Material Culture of Medicine (F)
II. Independent Activities:
Comprehensive reading of articles and reports of interest (45 hours) Personal study (14 hours)
Preparation and presentation of papers (12 hours)
III. Supervised Activities:
Presentation/oral presentation of papers (6 hours)
IV. Submissions:
Copies of the papers completed in the seminars
Location: Office of the Secretary of the History of Medicine Unit
28, 29, 30 Medicine and Gender (G)
II. Independent activities:
Comprehensive reading of articles and reports of interest (45 hours)
Personal study (14 hours)
Preparation and presentation of papers (12 hours)
III. Supervised activities:
Presentation/Oral Presentation of Papers (6 hours)
IV. Submissions:
Copies of the seminar papers
Location: Office of the Medical History Unit
Note: 15 minutes of a class will be reserved within the schedule established by the center or program for students to complete the surveys evaluating faculty performance and the subject or module evaluation.
Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.
Assessment
Continous Assessment Activities
| Title | Weighting | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Practices: Written evaluations through objective tests: Selection items: Elements of multiple choice | 20% | 2 | 0.08 | 1, 6, 18, 19, 25 |
| Seminars: Evaluation through practical cases and resolution of problems and oral defence of works | 30% | 2 | 0.08 | 1, 2, 5, 4, 3, 8, 9, 24, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 23, 25 |
| Theory: Assessments written through objective tests: Items of selection: Multiple choice. | 50% | 2 | 0.08 | 2, 3, 8, 7, 6, 9, 24, 12, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, 22, 21, 23, 19, 10 |
The assessment system for the acquisition of competencies in this subject is organized into three modules, which correspond to the thematic blocks and teaching types.
- Theory: Written assessments using objective tests and multiple-choice items (50%). The assessment of the theoretical part of the subject is equivalent to 5 points out of 10 of the overall grade and will be carried out through an exam of 35 multiple-choice questions, which will include material corresponding to thematic blocks A, B, C, and D. Students must obtain at least 2.5 points to pass this section.
- Practical: Written assessments using objective tests and multiple-choice items (20%). The assessment of the practical part (block E) is equivalent to 2 points out of 10 of the overall grade for the subject. It will be carried out through an exam of 15 multiple-choice questions corresponding to practicals 1 and 2. Students must obtain at least one point to pass this section.
- Seminars: Assessment through case studies, problem-solving, and oral defense of papers (30%). The assessment for the seminars (blocks F and G) is equivalent to 3 points out of 10 of the overall grade for the course. It will be assessed through participation in the seminar (PBL) and the completion and presentation of papers. Students must obtain at least 1.5 points to pass this section. The final score will be the sum of the points obtained.
For the assessment to be effective, students must pass each of the different tests separately.
At the time of each assessment activity, the professor will inform students (Moodle) of the procedure and date for grade review.
Those who have not passed the course may take a make-up test for thematic blocks A, B, C, and D (Theory) and block E (Practical). Make-up tests for blocks F and G (Seminars) are not contemplated due to their PBL teaching methodology.
To participate in the make-up test, students must have previously been assessed in the thematic blocks whose weight is equivalent to at least two-thirds of the total grade for the course.
Furthermore, to participate in the make-up test, students must have obtained at least a 3.5 on the overall grade for the course.
Students who fail to complete both the theoretical and practical assessment tests will be considered "Not Assessable," thus exhausting their enrollment fees for the course.
If a student commits any type of irregularity that could lead to a significant change in the grade for an assessment, they will be given a 0, regardless of any disciplinary action that may result. If multiple irregularities are found in the assessments for the same course, the final grade for that course will be 0.
This course does not include a single assessment system.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Assessment
The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies is not permitted in any phase of this course. Any work that includes AI-generated fragments will be considered a breach of academic dishonesty and will result in a 0 mark for the assignment, which cannot be retaken, or incurring greater penalties in serious cases.
Absences and Non-Attendance
Students may only justify their absence from seminars and/or practical sessions in cases of health/illness with a medical certificate, and/or for work-related reasons.
Advising
Students must contact the professor to request a date and time for the advising session in the History of Medicine Unit.
Bibliography
Bibliography
Specific bibliography
López Piñero, José María. La medicina en la historia. Madrid: La Esfera de los Libros; 2002.
Barona Vilar, Josep Lluís, editor. Manual de Historia de la Medicina. Valencia: Editorial Tirant lo Blanch; 2023.
Reference bibliography
Cooter, Roger: Pickstone John V. Companion to medicine in the twentieth century. London-New York: Routledge; 2003.
Porter, Dorothy. Health, Civilization and the State : A History of Public Health from Ancient to Modern Times. London-New York: Taylor & Francis Group; 1999
Ripoll Miralda, Jaume. Grec mèdic: guia per identificar termes. Barcelona: Publicacions de l'Abadia de Montserrat; 2018.
Bernabeu Mestre, Josep. El llenguatge de les ciències de la salut. Introducció a la formació de termes mèdics. València: Conselleria de Sanitat i Consum de la Generalitat Valenciana / Universitat d'Alacant; 1995.
Harding, Sandra G. Ciencia y feminismo. Madrid: Morata; 1996.
López Piñero, Jose María; Terrada Ferrandis, Maria Luz. Introducción a la terminología médica. 2ª ed. Barcelona: Masson; 2005.
Medicina Clínica. Manual de estilo. Publicaciones biomédicas. Barcelona: Doyma; 1993
Navarro Acebes, Xavier. Curs pràctic de terminologia mèdica. 2a ed. Bellaterra: Servei de Publicacions de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona; 1998.
Internet Resources
ICJME. Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals
Diccionari Enciclopèdic de Medicina
Diccionario médico-biológico, histórico y etimológico
Software
No specific software required
Groups and Languages
Please note that this information is provisional until 30 November 2025. You can check it through this link. To consult the language you will need to enter the CODE of the subject.
| Name | Group | Language | Semester | Turn |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (PLAB) Practical laboratories | 101 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (PLAB) Practical laboratories | 102 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (PLAB) Practical laboratories | 103 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (PLAB) Practical laboratories | 104 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (PLAB) Practical laboratories | 105 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (PLAB) Practical laboratories | 106 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (PLAB) Practical laboratories | 107 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (PLAB) Practical laboratories | 108 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (PLAB) Practical laboratories | 109 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (PLAB) Practical laboratories | 110 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (PLAB) Practical laboratories | 111 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (PLAB) Practical laboratories | 112 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (PLAB) Practical laboratories | 113 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (PLAB) Practical laboratories | 114 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (PLAB) Practical laboratories | 115 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (PLAB) Practical laboratories | 116 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (PLAB) Practical laboratories | 117 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (PLAB) Practical laboratories | 118 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (SEM) Seminars | 101 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (SEM) Seminars | 102 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (SEM) Seminars | 103 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (SEM) Seminars | 104 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (SEM) Seminars | 105 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (SEM) Seminars | 106 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (SEM) Seminars | 107 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (SEM) Seminars | 108 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (SEM) Seminars | 109 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (SEM) Seminars | 110 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (SEM) Seminars | 111 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (SEM) Seminars | 112 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (SEM) Seminars | 113 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (SEM) Seminars | 114 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (SEM) Seminars | 115 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (SEM) Seminars | 116 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (SEM) Seminars | 117 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (SEM) Seminars | 118 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (TE) Theory | 101 | Catalan | first semester | afternoon |
| (TE) Theory | 102 | Catalan | first semester | afternoon |
| (TE) Theory | 103 | Catalan | first semester | afternoon |
| (TE) Theory | 104 | Catalan | first semester | afternoon |