Undergraduate

Programme Co-Directors: Catherine Montgomery and Ian Harper 

Insight into the social and cultural factors that shape medicine and healthcare is vital to improve access to and the quality of healthcare in the future. The intercalated year in the Anthropology and Sociology of Medicine is designed to give aspiring medical practitioners a critical scholarly understanding of the social dimensions of modern medicine. It is undertaken in Year 3 of the MBChB programme by undergraduate medicine students at Edinburgh Medical School and external students wishing to intercalate in Edinburgh.

The programme provides students with a well-rounded academic grounding in anthropology and sociology as distinctive scholarly disciplines with their own approaches, histories and traditions. This includes questions such as: what counts as ‘good’ healthcare in different settings; how culturally specific understandings of health and healing might influence infection control; how medical innovation is shifting understandings of disease and illness; and how the role of medical professionals is changing with the rise of digital technologies. 

Students develop valuable transferable skills in critical thinking, written and verbal presentation, and project management. They are exposed to a range of different types of social science research, case studies, and data, and learn to make effective use of different forms of evidence in their personal, professional, and community life. The programme aims to enhance students’ ability to proactively adapt to different social and cultural contexts, while maintaining their personal and intellectual autonomy. 

BMedSci Anthro Programme Info 

Programme Director: Ingrid Young

An understanding of the wider ethical, legal and social context of biomedicine is increasingly recognised as an essential element in the practice of medicine and medical professional development. Our programme offers intercalating medical students an opportunity to gain in-depth and interdisciplinary knowledge of bioethical, legal and social science approaches to contemporary challenges in biomedicine and health. It is undertaken in Year 3 of the MBChB programme by undergraduate medicine students at Edinburgh Medical School and external students wishing to intercalate in Edinburgh.

Weekly teaching on our core modules includes contributions from CBSS members, as well as our research and community partners. Through discussions, group activities and in-depth independent research, our students grapple with pressing issues such as: 

• What rights do we - or should we - have to new biotechnologies and what are the implications for social inequalities? 

• What does reproductive justice look like in the context of limited resources and an increasingly hostile environment? 

• How have - and should - governments, health systems and communities respond to public health crises, such as COVID-19? 

• Who owns genetic information and why does it matter? 

We welcome medical students from the university and beyond to join us in exploring key issues in biomedicine and health. 

BMedSci Bioethics Programme Info

Course Co-Leads: Steve Sturdy and Lukas Engelmann

The History of Western Medicine course explores changing ideas about health and illness from Ancient Athens to the AIDS crisis, asking big questions about the historical origins of modern scientific medicine. It explores the changing role of patients and practitioners in society; traces historical shifts in medical concepts of the body; examines different understandings of disease over time; and discusses the impact of epidemics in different periods.

Lectures on the nineteenth and twentieth century focus on the extent and limits of scientific thinking and reflect on the ethical implications of technological innovation in medicine. Some themes include:

• Philosophical medicine in ancient Greece
• Medieval anatomy
• Plagues and people
• Medicine and the body in the Enlightenment
• Visualising and classifying disease
• The changing role of hospitals
• Laboratory medicine
• Eugenics and human experiment
• Colonial medicine and Global Health
• The pharmaceutical industry
• Patient power

The course is open to first- and second-year students from across the university.

HWM Course Info

Course Co-Leads: Martyn Pickersgill

REBM provides students with a critical understanding of how different kinds of research are vital for improving individual and population health. Students explore the role of research and evidence in health and health care, and the ethics and politics of research and evidence-making. 

This interdisciplinary course brings together anthropology, epidemiology, health services research, history, philosophy, postcolonial studies, public health, science and technology studies, sociology, statistics and more. 

REBM Course Info

SEAM is core course for year 1 and 2 medical students in Edinburgh Medical School, including those taking the part-time HCP-Med programme. CBSS members have played a key role in the recent redevelopment of this aspect of the curricula, and in designing and delivering the content. Ingrid Young has designed a number of core components of the course, including exploring the role of technologies in health, responsibility and activism in health practice. The course has also benefited from contributions to and teaching by a number of CBSS staff and students, including Ingrid Young, Nicola Boydell, Chase Ledin, and Lisa Raeder.

As part of SEAM, Year 2 MBChB students undertake supervised group projects that explore the Future of Medicine. CBSS researchers supervise many of these groups as they undertake these projects. Project focus has included issues such as reproductive technologies, equity in trans health, novel approaches to mental health and addressing racism in healthcare.

CBSS members have also taken an active role in designing and delivering LGBTQ+ learning materials across SEAM and a range of other UG courses.

SEAM Course Info