UNC Social Medicine
The Department of Social Medicine is an academic unit within the School of Medicine at UNC-Chapel Hill committed to the promotion and provision of multidisciplinary education, leadership, service, research, and scholarship at the intersection of medicine and society. This includes focus on the social conditions and characteristics of patients and populations; causes of illness and contexts of medical care; the ethical and social contexts of biomedical clinical and research professionals and institutions; and questions of allocation, organization and financing of health resources including health law and policy.
Faculty from clinical medicine, public health, the social sciences, and the humanities collaborate to teach core curriculum to medical students, develop innovative research and scholarly endeavors, and connect the School of Medicine with the wider University campus. Through our teaching, research, and service we address social dimensions of health and health care in North Carolina and around the globe.
Three affiliated interdisciplinary research centers deepen and expand the Department’s focus in bioethics, health disparities, and ethical, legal, and social implications of genomics: The Center for Bioethics, the Center for Health Equity Research, and the Center for Genomics and Society. Social Medicine is a bridge between medicine and public health, public policy, law, the arts and humanities, social sciences disciplines, and communities across the state.
- What's New at UNC Social Medicine
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2015 January 24
Jim Bryan is Tarheel of the Week! “Care, care, care,” is how Bryan describes his philosophy. “We are raised in our education to think first of the cure, the biology and pharmacology and all the scientific stuff. But care should be the primary purpose of medicine.”
read more in the News and Observer »
2014 December
In the December 2014 issue of Current Opinion in Obstetrics and Gynecology, alumna Rebekah Gee discusses the legacy, disruptive innovation and impact of RWJF Clinical Scholars in the field of obstetrics and gynecology. Several current and former RWJF Clinical Scholars then highlight their research in separate articles.
read more »
2014 November
Chapel Hill, NC — Researchers have found an easy and effective way for hospitals to improve antibiotic
prescribing practices, but when it comes to helping patients lose weight, an easy fix doesn’t work,
according to new research in a special November supplement of the Annals of Internal Medicine
supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) Clinical Scholars program.
read more »
2014 Fall
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars ScholarConnect Fall 2014 Newsletter is out.
read the newsletter »
2014 FallMarci Cottingham won a UNC Postdoctoral Award for Research Excellence for her work on the HealthyVOICES Project as well as maintaining her own research program. Each year, the Postdoctoral Awards for Research Excellence are given in recognition of the research promise demonstrated by individual postdoctoral scholars.
2014 SeptemberSocial Medicine's Medical Humanities Masters Program in Literature, Medicine, and Culture featured in UNC Vital SIgns News.
"For years, the UNC School of Medicine curriculum has emphasized humanities perspectives in medical education with the goal of developing not only better, more well-rounded doctors, but also more complete people. Now, a new interdisciplinary master’s curriculum, Literature, Medicine, and Culture, offers medical students (and others) an opportunity to formalize their training in the humanities, and prepares them for a changing health care landscape."
2014 August 13
Eric Tran is this year’s Alan W. Cross Social Medicine Paper Award recipient and Hayley Barrier received an honorable mention for her submission. Eric’s award will be presented at the Whitehead Lecture and Award Ceremony on August 13th by Dr. Barry Saunders.
2014 SpringRobert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars ScholarConnect Spring 2014 Newsletter is out.
see the newsletter »
2014 MayThe Special Issue in AIDS and Behavior was Volume 18, Issue 2, Feb 2014. Contextualizing HIV/STI in China: Interdisciplinary Studies in a South China City. Guest editor is our Gail Henderson.
see the issue »
2014 April
At the 2014 UNC Teaching Awards Banquet, Sue Estroff received the Distinguished Teaching Award for Post-Baccalaureate Instruction. Dr. Estroff is described as inspiring, insightful, supportive, engaging, honest, and committed to challenging her students. There were substantial comments on how she has the uncanny ability to deconstruct complex issues and to simplify and connect and inspire students. One student noted, "she has a gift of making you think about things that are commonly shared but often defined differently when deeply explored. Sue is provocative in the best ways." Her colleagues were effusive in their praise. One commented that she is "a force of nature ... absolutely fearless and willing to say what others won't say," while another stated that "she pushes for the underdog issues and challenges individuals to think about commonly held beliefs, assumptions, and things that often go unexamined".
2014 February
The Alan W. Cross Social Medicine Paper Award is now accepting submissions from medical students. Scholarly papers, essays, fiction, poetry, as well as non-print works, are welcome. Deadline for submission is May 25, 2014. For more information contact Rosa Swanson.
read the flyer »
2014 FebruaryAn interview with Giselle Corbie-Smith is featured on the UNC School of Medicine home page: Research with the People: Giselle Corbie-Smith combines the knowledge of a physician, inquisitiveness of a scientist, and outlook of an activist to ensure that research touches the lives of North Carolinians.
see the SOM home page »
read the interview »
2013 November 7This year, Dan Nelson has been selected to receive one of the organization’s highest awards – the ARENA Legacy Award (ALA). The ALA was developed to recognize individuals who have made an exemplary contribution to the mission and goals of PRIM&R by significantly promoting the ethical conduct of research through mentoring, teaching, and leadership. (As you probably know/have experienced, Dan excels in all three areas) In addition, the ALA honors the living legacy created by the Applied Research Ethics National Association (ARENA). Dan’s helped build ARENA, and that along with his other contributions to the field of research ethics, IRB work, and the furthering of PRIM&R’s mission are truly great.
read more »
- In Memoriam
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Glenn Wilson, founding chair of the UNC Department of Social Medicine and important voice for improving access to medical care in North Carolina, died on July 17, 2014. He served as the director of the North Carolina AHEC Program from 1972 to 1977. Wilson assembled the team of faculty to write the initial federal AHEC grant, and was successful in receiving one of the initial 11 AHEC awards in 1971. At that time, the AHEC grant was the largest federal grant ever received by UNC-Chapel Hill. Wilson worked in close collaboration with hospital and other community health leaders at the initial AHEC sites to develop university-community partnerships which remain fundamental to the success of the AHEC Program in North Carolina. In 1974 he successfully led the effort to obtain permanent funding for AHEC, which supported expansion to a statewide program with nine centers and built the AHEC facilities across the state. After leading the AHEC Program through its formative stage in the 1970’s, Glenn Wilson stepped down as AHEC Program Director to become the founding chair of the Department of Social and Administrative Medicine, now the Department of Social Medicine, in the UNC School of Medicine. Read more about Glenn Wilson's life »
