Program Overview

Program Details

The program "Santé Personnalisée: un défi biomédical et social" is a course offered by the EPFL.

Course Description

The course analyzes the processes of personalized medicine through an interdisciplinary approach from Science and Technology Studies.

Course Content

The course provides students with conceptual, empirical, and analytical resources to understand personalized medicine as a social and political phenomenon, as well as a technical and scientific one. The course consists of:

• An introductory course presenting historical, philosophical, and sociological perspectives analyzing 4P medicine.
• Joint interventions by specialists in human and social sciences and biomedical experts on shared thematic axes.
• Several time slots dedicated to coaching, planning, coordinating, and finalizing poster projects integrating the course's analytical perspective.
• A Student Conference at the end of the course where students present their poster projects.

Language

The official language of the course is French, but it is de facto bilingual, with English being central to the course.

Course Objectives

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

• Interpret the scientific, technical, and social reconfigurations induced by the development of 4P medicine.
• Identify the conceptual and empirical tools to analyze the social dimensions of biomedical innovation.
• Relate their own disciplinary perspective to that of human and social sciences or engineering.
• Transpose this set of analytical and collaborative skills into their own technical and/or scientific field.

Transversal Skills

• Use an appropriate work methodology, organize one's work.
• Dialogue with professionals from other disciplines.
• Be aware of the social and human implications related to the engineer's profession.
• Demonstrate a critical spirit.
• Create and present a poster.

Teaching Method

The course includes lectures, interdisciplinary workshops, and interactive sessions.

Expected Work

• Attend the course and participate actively in discussions.
• Fill out project progress reports.
• Create and valorize group projects (posters) using the conceptual, analytical, and empirical tools acquired during the course.
• Create (UNIL students) or participate in the recording (EPFL students) of a podcast in addition to the poster.

Evaluation Method

• Continuous evaluation of active participation in course discussions.
• Continuous evaluation of group project preparation (poster and/or podcast).
• Creation and presentation of group projects (poster and/or podcast).

Supervision

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

Resources

Bibliography

Some non-mandatory readings that provide an overview of the course topic:

1. Barbara Prainsack. Personalized Medicine: Empowered Patients in the 21st Century? (New York: NYU Press, 2017).
2. Deborah Lupton (ed.). Self-Tracking, Health and Medicine: Sociological Perspectives. (Routledge, 2017).
3. Giovanni Boniolo and Marco J. Nathan (eds). Philosophy of Molecular Medicine: Foundational Issues in Research and Practice. (New York: Routledge, 2016).
4. Stephen Hilgartner. Reordering life: Knowledge and control in the genomics revolution. (MIT press, 2017).
5. Sarah S. Richardson and Hallam Stevens (eds.). Postgenomics: Perspectives on Biology after the Genome. (Durham: Duke University Press, 2015).
6. Peter Keating and Alberto Cambrosio. Cancer on Trial: Oncology as a New Style of Practice. (The University of Chicago Press, 2014).
7. Nikolas Rose. The Politics of Life Itself: Biomedicine, Power, and Subjectivity in the Twenty-First Century. (Princeton University Press, 2007).

Library Resources

• 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
• Nikolas Rose, The Politics of Life Itself: Biomedicine, Power, and Subjectivity in the Twenty-First Century
• Sarah S. Richardson and Hallam Stevens, eds., Postgenomics: Perspectives on Biology after the Genome
• Barbara Prainsack, Personalized Medicine: Empowered Patients in the 21st Century?

Study Plans

The course is part of the following study plans:

• Programme Sciences humaines et sociales, Bachelor semestre 6
• UNIL - Autres facultés, Semestre printemps

Semester Details

• Semester: Spring
• Number of places: 50
• Exam form: During the semester (summer session)
• Exam subject: Santé Personnalisée: un défi biomédical et social
• Course: 2 hours/week x 14 weeks
• Type: Obligatory for Programme Sciences humaines et sociales, optional for UNIL - Autres facultés

Reference Week

The course schedule is as follows: | Lu| Ma| Me| Je| Ve
---|---|---|---|---|---
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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