91˿Ƶ

UGME Teaching

Faculty members in the Department of Social Studies of Medicine contribute to teaching at all levels of undergraduate medical education over the four years of training. Recently, departmental faculty members have given orientation talks to new medical and dentistry students, they are frequent guest lecturers in individual courses on the history of chronic disease, history of infectious disease, introduction to the clinic, history of the hospital, history of the stethoscope, medical aid in dying, neuroethics, boundaries and truth telling, and Faculty members give regular lecturers in learning blocks (e.g., INDS 113: Block C [Cardiovascular], INDS 114: Block E [Digestion and Metabolism], and Medical Ethics and Health Law).


INDS 426: Putting it All Together (PIAT)

In the fourth year of undergraduate medical education, faculty offer dedicated selectives in the INDS 426: Putting it All Together (PIAT) course. These selectives may change year to year. Recent selectives include:

  • Addiction Worlds
  • Architecture and Medicine
  • Cutting into the Living Body: The History of Modern Surgery
  • Dissecting the Placebo Effect
  • Ethics and Medical Research
  • Empowering Patients? Patient Activism and Medical Work
  • Gender and Medicine
  • Medicine by Design
  • Medicine, Sexuality, and Culture
  • The Patient in the First Person
  • What is “Global Health”?

More information about the current PIAT selectives can be found here:


INDS 123J1, J2, J3: Research Fundamentals

In the first and second years of training, students take a multi-stage course on research literacy. Faculty members in the department regularly contribute to teaching in the INDS 123J1, J2, J3: Research Fundamentals course. Recent research topics include:

  • Hospital Ethnography
  • Narrative Medicine
  • Socio-technical dynamics of genomic/precision/personalized medicine
  • Pain

More information about Research Fundamentals course can be found here: /study/2023-2024/courses/inds-123j1


ELEC 400: Research Elective

Students typically take research electives in the fourth year of their medical education. Students may explore such questions as new approaches to health and healing; healing in cross-cultural perspectives; the nature of the therapeutic process; the nature of the scientific method; or some aspect of medical ethics, etc. Or a student may wish to pursue some specific subject in the realm of medical sociology, medical anthropology or medical history. All of these and related subjects are pursued on a personal tutorial basis with various members of the Department.

Students interested in research or academic studies in other fields such as economics, political science, etc. may wish to consult with the Department of Social Studies of Medicine on possible electives, since it may be possible to direct the student toward specific individuals on the 91˿Ƶ campus and to provide the appropriate administrative arrangements. Work in an elective elsewhere can be combined with work in this Department if something can be arranged to the satisfaction of both departments involved. In all electives, students are encouraged to become involved in courses being given by members of the department and to attend departmental seminars. It is essential that students considering an elective in this department consult with a supervising faculty member as far ahead of the elective as possible. Faculty members in the department supervise individualized study on various research topics, which have recently included:

  • Feminist Science and Technology Studies
  • Philosophy of Medicine
  • Sex, Age and COVID-19

Students interested in pursuing a Research Elective with the Department of Social Studies of Medicine should complete the following form with a faculty member: /ugme-electives/files/ugme-electives/research_elective_approval_form.pdf

Once completed, students will submit the form through the AFMC student portal:

More information about elective courses throughout the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences can be found here: /ugme-electives/elective-courses

Questions regarding Research Electives can be directed to: electives.med [at] mcgill.ca

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