Health Sciences

This course builds upon compulsory level 4 courses with a review of the muscle cell and an understanding of the biochemical processes involved in the metabolism of carbohydrates, fats and aminoacids to provide the energy for muscle contraction. It also provides an understanding of how metabolism changes and is regulated in different types of exercise, and the role of nutrition in modulating these changes. 

The course covers the basic concepts and practice of personal injury and forensic identification, including a focus on legal knowledge. It covers the concepts, procedures, and principles of forensic appraisal; the concept of forensic appraisal of personal injury and its relationship with other related disciplines such as forensic clinical science; the manifestations and characteristics of mechanical injuries; common machinery that intentionally harms various systems of the human body, and identification of the degree of injury.

Public health nutrition is concerned with the promotion and maintenance of nutrition-related health and wellbeing of populations through the organized efforts and informed choices of society. Such approaches are required to solve many of the complex nutritional challenges, such as obesity, type-2 diabetes, micronutrient deficiencies, and hunger, which we face today. This class examines the fundamental concepts related to nutrition, frameworks used to examine public health issues, and key historical and current public health nutrition challenges and policies.

This course provides an understanding of the important and common infections, and the diseases that they cause, in the population. Teaching relates not only to UK infectious disease epidemiology but also to other global regions. Students cover a range of topics, including: basic principles of infection and immunity, social, economic and structural changes as drivers of change in infectious disease, Spanish Flu 2018 to Coronavirus 2020: successes and challenges in response to epidemics/pandemics, sexual health and sexually transmitted diseases, vector-borne infections, how climate, geography and environment affect infectious diseases in human populations, public health interventions (e.g. behavior/surveillance) to improve infection control, vaccine-preventable diseases, vaccine policy and implementation, and antibiotics and antibiotic resistance. Infections that cause “non-communicable” diseases.

The recent policy reforms launched in the UK National Health System coupled with the challenges faced by health systems globally with the Covid-19 pandemic, emphasize the need for a better understanding of how healthcare systems function, how they are financed, and how strategic policies are developed to ensure the provision of care to the highest quality standards. In this course, students understand how the state and other private and public health-related institutions and processes influence health systems' performance. Moreover, the module explores the demographic and socio-economic challenges faced by healthcare systems, particularly in terms of power and resources contested in the health sector. It is intended to address the gap in health economics that often ignores the developments of the political economy in health systems. This course is relevant for students from several backgrounds, as the focus are both on politics and economics and their interface in terms of health and healthcare.

Medical humanities acknowledge that instead of being fixed entities, health and illness are constantly changing, ambiguous phenomena. What is called healthy (sane) or ill (insane) depends indeed on a large variety of issues and dynamics: cultural, socio-economical, and religious aspects; moral system; legal system; science; technology; art and media etc. This course approaches the question of health and illness through a philosophical, anthropological and sociological exploration of “bodies” and “minds”. Through a historical and cross-cultural perspective it will discuss various concepts of body and mind. We will discuss how and why some bodies and minds are considered as normal and others as abnormal or pathological. For this we will draw on scientific, social, cultural and economic contexts, but also on how bodies and minds are represented in art and (popular) culture. Cases include cosmetic surgery; the modern hospital; boxing in the ghetto; organ transplantation; depression; menopause; prostheses in Paralympic athletes; medical imaging technologies; the war on cancer; depression.  

This is a special studies course involving an internship with a corporate, public, governmental, or private organization, arranged with the Study Center Director of Liaison Officer. Specific internships vary each term and are described on a special study project form for each student. A substantial paper or series of reports is required. Units vary depending on the contact hours and method of assessment. Graded P/NP only.

The course provides an introduction to public health studies with an international focus. The main contents of the course are the development, definitions, models, theories of public health studies, health determinants and indicators, the global distribution of health, global health from a sustainability perspective, and the main challenges in the context, and current research within public health studies. 

Students are introduced to the fundamental principles of clinical research studies, with emphasis on clinical trials rather than observational studies. Students are guided through the design, conduct, and analysis and reporting of clinical trials and the common sub-studies often added to them (e.g. health economics). Students are also introduced to systematic reviews and meta-analyses and the important role they play in answering important clinical research questions. A session of the course is dedicated to the role patients and consumers can play in clinical trial design, conduct, and reporting.