The Area of Concentration in Social Sciences in Medicine

The Social Sciences in Medicine AoC includes fields of inquiry in anthropology, sociology, and integrative medicine. Students who enroll in the Social Sciences in Medicine track will participate in a two-week long core course titled "The Clinician as Ethnographer," which will train students in principles of ethnographic research and introduce them to a variety of social science topics and methods to prepare them to conduct a field research project. The broad range of research possibilities includes issues in cross-cultural healing, health disparities, and complementary and alternative medicine. Examples of projects include:

• interview study of traditional Latina folk healers in the Mission District
• comparative ethnography of alternative and conventional medical clinics in the Outer Sunset
• the role of physicians' self-care in promoting the process of change in patient well being
• focus group study at the SFGH Refugee Clinic of spiritual and health beliefs of recently arrived Afghani refugees
• differing conceptualizations of depression among Ayurvedic, Traditional Chinese, and Native American medical practitioners

For more information about the Social Sciences in Medicine AoC, please visit their Web site or contact either of the co-directors:

Shelley Adler, UCSF Dept. of Family and Community Medicine and the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine

Ellen Hughes, UCSF Dept. of Medicine


The first step in getting involved in the AoC is to log onto iROCKET, go to the "Areas of Concentration" course, and fill out the Interest Form the AoC that interests you.