Program Overview

Program Overview

The program "Personalized health: biomedical & social challenge" is a university course that explores the concept of personalized medicine and its impact on society. The course is taught in French, but it is de facto bilingual, with some topics and speakers in English.

Course Description

The course analyzes the processes of personalized medicine through an interdisciplinary approach, drawing from Science and Technology Studies (STS). Students will gain conceptual, empirical, and analytical resources to understand personalized medicine as a social and political phenomenon, as well as a technical and scientific one.

Course Content

The course consists of:

• An introductory course presenting historical, philosophical, and sociological perspectives on personalized medicine
• Joint interventions by specialists in humanities and social sciences and biomedical experts on shared thematic axes
• Coaching, planning, and coordination sessions for student projects
• A Student Conference at the end of the course, where students will present their projects

Learning Objectives

By the end of the course, students should be able to:

• Interpret the scientific, technical, and social reconfigurations induced by the development of personalized medicine
• Identify conceptual and empirical tools to analyze the social dimensions of biomedical innovation
• Relate their own disciplinary perspective to that of humanities and social sciences
• Transpose analytical and collaborative skills to their own technical and scientific domain

Transversal Skills

• Use an appropriate work methodology and organize work
• Dialogue with professionals from other disciplines
• Be aware of the social and human implications of engineering
• Demonstrate critical thinking
• Create and present a poster

Teaching Method

The course will be taught through lectures, interdisciplinary workshops, and interactive sessions.

Expected Work

• Attend classes and participate actively in discussions
• Fill out project progress reports
• Create and present group projects (posters) that utilize the conceptual, analytical, and empirical tools acquired during the course

Evaluation Method

• Continuous evaluation of active participation in class discussions
• Continuous evaluation of group project preparation (posters and/or podcasts)
• Presentation of group projects (posters and/or podcasts)

Supervision

• Office hours: Yes
• Assistants: Yes
• Electronic forum: Yes

Resources

• Bibliography:
  • Barbara Prainsack, Personalized Medicine: Empowered Patients in the 21st Century?
  • Deborah Lupton (ed.), Self-Tracking, Health and Medicine: Sociological Perspectives
  • Giovanni Boniolo and Marco J. Nathan (eds), Philosophy of Molecular Medicine: Foundational Issues in Research and Practice
  • Stephen Hilgartner, Reordering life: Knowledge and control in the genomics revolution
  • Sarah S. Richardson and Hallam Stevens (eds), Postgenomics: Perspectives on Biology after the Genome
  • Peter Keating and Alberto Cambrosio, Cancer on Trial: Oncology as a New Style of Practice
  • Nikolas Rose, The Politics of Life Itself: Biomedicine, Power, and Subjectivity in the Twenty-First Century

Programs

• Humanities and Social Sciences Program, Bachelor semester 6
  • Semester: Spring
  • Number of places: 50
  • Exam form: During the semester (summer session)
  • Subject examined: Personalized health: biomedical & social challenge
  • Courses: 2 hours per week x 14 weeks
  • Type: mandatory
• UNIL - Other faculties, Spring semester
  • Semester: Spring
  • Number of places: 50
  • Exam form: During the semester (summer session)
  • Subject examined: Personalized health: biomedical & social challenge
  • Courses: 2 hours per week x 14 weeks
  • Type: optional

Reference Week

The course schedule is as follows: | Mo | Tu | We | Th | Fr | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 8-9 | | | | |
| 9-10 | | | | |
| 10-11 | | | | |
| 11-12 | | | | |
| 12-13 | | | | |
| 13-14 | | | | |
| 14-15 | | | | |
| 15-16 | | | | |
| 16-17 | | | | |
| 17-18 | | | | |
| 18-19 | | | | |
| 19-20 | | | | |
| 20-21 | | | | |
| 21-22 | | | | |

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