Department of Medical Humanities
alt="Dubovsky" longdesc="/medhum/2010Templates/2010Images/Dubovskywinter1.jpg" />The Mission of the Department of Medical Humanities is to ensure critical dialog about health, health care and the human condition.
The Department of Medical Humanities at Southern Illinois University offers a curriculum designed to provide medical students with a core knowledge in the humanities, emphasizing application of the content and methodologies of humanities disciplines to the practice of medicine. These humanities disciplines include: ethics, health policy, medical history, medical jurisprudence, psychosocial care, and religious studies.
Special Presentation
You are invited to attend a presentation of the life and legacy of Alexander Lane, one of the first African-American legislators in Illinois. The event will be held at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday,
May 22, at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine in Springfield. The event is sponsored
by the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute and SIU School of Medicine Department of Medical
Humanities.
Dr. Pamela Smoot, a Lane biographer and assistant professor at SIU Carbondale, will discuss Lane's remarkable life.
Born into slavery in pre-Civil War Mississippi, Lane was the first African-American male to
attend Southern Illinois University Carbondale in 1876. He became the first principal of the black
primary school in Carbondale. He went to medical school in Chicago later became a well-known
physician there. In 1906, he became the ninth African-American elected to the Illinois General
Assembly. He was reelected in 1908.
A reception will begin at 5:30 p.m. in the Pearson Museum at 801 N. Rutledge St. in
Springfield. The program will begin at 6:30 p.m. SIU President Glenn Poshard and SIU Chancellor
Rita Cheng will be special guests.
CONGRATULATIONS TO THE CLASS OF 2012!
Graduation for the sixty-nine medical students in the senior class of 2012 was held on Saturday, May 19, at the Sangamon Auditorium at UIS.
Two members of the class received MD/JD degrees: Michael Sinha and David Slade, both members of the SIU MD/JD Degree Program.
During the noon ceremony, the annual Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award, was awarded by the senior class to associate professor of internal medicine and hospitalist Dr. Christine Todd. Dr. Todd is also an adjunct faculty member of the Department of Medical Humanities.
Department News
Through a grant from the Consortium of Academic and Research Library in
Illinois (CARLI) to the Medical Library, the Department of Medical
Humanities' journal:Caduceus, has been digitized and is now available
through the Internet Archives (IA). All issues are available in multiple
formats, including IA's read online, pdf, epub, and Kindle, among others.
Dr. Spielman was appointed editor-in-chief of Medicolegal and Bioethics, an international, peer-reviewed, open access journal exploring the application of law to medical and drug research and practice and the related ethical and moral considerations. The journal is published by Dove Medical Press, Auckland, New Zealand.
Recently, Dr. spielman reviewed 2010 applications for a Clinical Research Fellowship in Biomedical Ethics for the Wellcome Trust, London, UK.
1/30/2012: Dr. Spielman authored a book chapter, “Offshoring Experiments, Outsourcing Public Health,” which is scheduled to appear in The Globalization of Health Care, ed. Glenn Cohen (Oxford University Press, 2012).
On November 5, Dr. Spielman judged the final round of the National Health Law Moot Court Competition at the SIU Law School in Carbondale. She wrote the problem and the bench brief for Pharmex v. Mole, which 28 teams of law students argued during the competition. Further information can be found at http://www.law.siu.edu/healthlaw/final_round%20_judges.php and at http://news.siu.edu/news/November09/110409par9180.html .
On November 2, Dr. Spielman team taught "Social Responsibilities of Researchers" with Dr. Christine Gorka in the School of Medicine's Responsible Conduct of Research Course. The course is required for individuals on NIH training grants (K, T, and F series) and open to anyone at the School of Medicine.
Dr. Spielman has written a chapter titled, "Posthumous Human Reproduction: Ethical and Legal Perspectives," included in the volume: Ethical Dilemmas in Assisted Reproductive Technology, edited by Joseph G. Schenker and published by Walter deGruyter, Berlin (Sept. 2011).
Professor Spielman has written a case that will be used in the 19th Annual National Health Law Moot Court Competition held on November 4-5, 2011 at the SIU School of Law in Carbondale, Illinois. The National Health Law Moot Court Competition is sponsored jointly by the School of Law and the School of Medicine, Department of Medical Humanities, at Southern Illinois University, the American College of Legal Medicine, and the American College of Legal Medicine Foundation. The National Health Law Moot Court competition web site can be found here.
On June 11, 2011, Professor Spielman acted as session chair for the ACSS session on interdisciplinary social sciences during the Asian Conference on Sustainability, Energy and the Environment: The Asian Conference on the Social Sciences (ACSS). Dr. Spielman also presented "Offshoring Experiments, Outsourcing Public Health: The Concept of State Responsibility and Pfizer's Nigerian Trovan Experiments" during the conference. The ACSS web site may be found by clicking here.
Professor Spielman spoke as a member of a panel on Research and Development at the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School. The title of the conference, held on May 20-21, 2011, was "The Globalization of Health Care: Legal and Ethical Challenges," and the link to the video of Dr. Spielman's panel is available here. A link to the conference web site can be accessed here.
The abstract "Helping medical students become community advocates for victims: Depositions, standardized patients, and community in an innovative collaborative domestic violence curriculum," by Professor Silverman and co-authored with Tami Silverman, was accepted for presentation at the National Conference on Health and Domestic Violence in San Francisco, March 2012.
On September 30, 2011, Professor Silvrman presented "Obesity and Public Policy" as part of the Department of Medicine's Grand Rounds "Obesity, Beyond the Calorie Equation: Food Deserts, the Law and A Good Night's Sleep."
Dr. Dorsey invited Professor Silverman to participate in four meetings on 9/21/11 with visiting researchers from the Beyond Flexner Project. The project is examining six medical schools in North America that have had success in addressing their social missions. The meetings included SIU's Entry Interview, the Social Mission Program, Student Admissions, and the Structure and Content of our Curriculum.
On Wednesday, August 31, Professor Ross Silverman, Jo Powers, Curriculum Coordinator for the Department of Medical Humanities, staff from the Internal Medicine residence program, and representatives and service recipients from the Springfield Urban League, Habitat for Humanity of Sangamon County, and M.E.R.C.Y. Communities collaborated to conduct a Poverty Simulation exercise with the first and third year Internal Medicine residents. The event was a success and was featured in articles in the Springfield State Journal-Register and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. To access articles, go to: "SIU Med Students Go Through a Month of Poverty in 80 Minutes" at http://www.behealthyspringfield.com/sections/local-news/siu-med-students-go-through-a-month-of-poverty-in-80-minutes and "SIU Medical School Students Focus on Poverty" at http://www.stltoday.com/lifestyles/health-med-fit/fitness/article_389ba070-9b96-5595-b36e-18c8c3f9e48c.html
On June 16, Dr. Kelly Armstrong presented "The Role of Ethics During All Hazard Events" at the 2011 Illinois Public Health Emergency Preparedness Summit in Lombard, Illinois. From the IPH brochure:
In all hazard events, many ethical issues will arise in terms of health risks, resource allocation, and management decisions. The goal of this session is to share a framework and fundamental principles that should guide the process of establishing altered standards of care protocols, enable understanding of the decision-making process, and optimize health care worker and community acceptance of decisions.