Department History

The Department of Social Medicine was created in 1978 as a new academic unit to incorporate the long-standing interest of the University of North Carolina School of Medicine in community medicine and health care delivery systems. This interest, which had been represented early by a Department of Preventive Medicine and subsequently by divisions within Family Medicine, Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, and by the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research, was further advanced with the establishment of the new Department. Social Medicine soon incorporated teaching and research in the medical humanities and social sciences within its purview. More recently it has added to its program post-doctoral training for physicians in preventive medicine and a major portion of the School of Medicine's efforts in health promotion and disease prevention.