Health Sciences

This course introduces students to the social nature of health and illness, and to different models that inform aspects of our understanding of health phenomena. The varying experience of social groups according to demographic and economic patterning are viewed through a global perspective alongside the changing profile of health and illness.
 

This course focuses on ethical practice in the caring professions. Compassion in caring constitutes a key theme through the course. Starting from an overview of the philosophical foundations of professional ethics, students examine key debates around universality and context-dependence in professional ethics. The course explains how moral reasoning related to professional practice goes beyond the entirely rational and requires the capacity for empathic engagement with others. Students also apply the concept of professional wisdom to ethical practice. Through this exploration, students gain an awareness of their personal ethics and values. Particular ethical principles relating to care and treatment are explored, including beneficence, autonomy, self-determination, informed consent, confidentiality, human rights, dignity, respect and professional fidelity. Students will analyze the strengths and limitations of various professional ethical codes by applying them to complex ethical case studies. Ethical issues relating to the vulnerable service user/patient are examined, including ethical challenges in relation to capacity and decision-making in the context of mental health, dementia, end of life care, critical care, childhood and intellectual disability. 

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale program. The course is intended for advanced level students only. Enrollment is by consent of the instructor. This course identifies the major categories of inherited diseases, the genetic mechanisms contributing to disease etiology, and their inheritance patterns. The course describes strategies to identify the genetic causes of inherited diseases. The course discusses the use of genomic data and technology in the management of inherited diseases and innovations in human genomic research and their applications in medicine. The course evaluates research articles pertinent to medical genomics. The course discusses topics including sequencing the human genome; medical genetics; identification of disease genes; Mendelian diseases; chromosomal diseases; multifactorial diseases; and pharmacogenomics and personalized medicine. Students design and perform experiments of molecular genetics, including PCR and direct sequencing using Sanger method, and evaluate the presence of variations/mutations in human DNA and their role in Mendelian disorders. The course is divided in two parts: a wet-lab course, where the students prepare PCR and sequencing reactions, and a part using informatics tools, including public programs and databases, in order to analyze the obtained sequences and evaluate the presence of variants/mutations and determine their possible pathogenicity.

The course focuses on the different factors underlying consumers’ food behaviors. Centrally in the course are theories on determinants of food consumption, strategies to change behavior, and social significance and meaning of food. Social, cultural, cognitive, developmental, psychophysiological and neuroeconomic approaches as well as theory of human action and of decision making processes are discussed.

This course examines how epidemics can run rampant through society and how we can control them. It will include examples from the past and present, as well as outline future threats. A diversity of epidemics will be covered, from the plague, gambling, depression, pandemics, nun-biting and alien abduction.

This course introduces Chinese dietetic culture, traditional Chinese medicine and medicated diet in its background, and guides students to understand the concept and practice of traditional Chinese medicine. Students examine this practice for health preservation, so as to establish a correct and healthy diet and life concept, to explore and identify different health theories and viewpoints, to lay a professional foundation for students’ healthy diet lifestyle, and to pass on and carry forward the splendid Chinese diet and medicinal diet culture. The course looks at the similar origins of medicine and food. It introduces the Chinese traditional culture embodied in daily diet activities. This course introduces the ups and downs of Yin and Yang in the natural world, and through understanding the big universe in the natural world to understand the small universe of the human body, to appreciate the charm of the idea of harmony between heaven and man, and to guide students to inherit and carry forward Chinese traditional culture.

The purpose of this course is to provide health and safety information using the latest scientific evidence. Health Sciences aims to equip students with the necessary knowledge to aim for good health in everyday life, as it reduces the risk of illness and injury during their studies at ICU.