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Social Medicine faculty are deeply involved in the education of medical students. We teach in the Social and Health Systems 1-3 course sequence that is part of the Foundation Phase of UNC’s medical school curriculum. These courses are taught by multidisciplinary faculty in small-group settings and introduce students to issues in medical ethics, health policy, and the social contexts of illness and medicine.

Medical students can also opt to take a Social Medicine Elective with departmental faculty. These supervised independent studies may include mentored projects in research, reading, or fieldwork.

Social Medicine faculty members teach and consult regularly in other medical school courses on social dimensions of preclinical or clinical topics. Social Medicine and Center for Bioethics faculty members regularly teach medical students, residents, and hospital staff about clinical ethics in the context of patient care at UNC Health Care. Social Medicine faculty also teach in residency curricula and give grand rounds in clinical departments. Our faculty members are active in educational and training projects across North Carolina, as well as in national and international contexts—in communities of clinicians, of biomedical researchers, and of the many academic disciplines engaged by our multidisciplinary Department.

In addition to their core teaching in the medical school, some Social Medicine faculty members teach undergraduate and graduate student courses in the College of Arts & Sciences and the Gillings School of Global Public Health.