Stanford Mini Med School: The Dynamics of Human Health

(SCI 27)

This year, Stanford Continuing Studies is proud to present the Stanford Mini Med School, a series arranged and directed by Stanford’s School of Medicine. Featuring more than thirty distinguished faculty, scientists, and physicians from Stanford’s prestigious medical school, this series of courses will offer students a dynamic introduction to the world of human biology, health and disease, and the groundbreaking changes taking place in medical research and health care. The three-course sequence begins with an overview of how the human body works, which will set the stage for more detailed talks by experts on such topics as genetics, aging, regenerative medicine, cancer research, and imaging technology. The Stanford Mini Med School will also feature discussions on timely topics, including health care reform and the prevention of pandemics. Each course will focus on the recent advances in the biomedical and clinical sciences that are radically changing the way we confront human disease. Directed by Philip A. Pizzo, Dean of the School of Medicine, this series commemorates the 50th anniversary of the School of Medicine’s move from San Francisco to Palo Alto. While these three courses build upon one another, each course can be taken independently.

The Dynamics of Human Health

This Fall, the Stanford Mini Med School will get started with a journey inside human biology. We will start by familiarizing ourselves with the world of very small things. We will take a close look at DNA, stem cells, and microbes, and see how these and other small players form the building blocks of the human body. This will allow us to understand how human organs develop (and can also regenerate), how our nervous and immune systems work, and how diseases can afflict us. From there, the course will move beyond the individual and take a more global view of health. How do pandemics take shape? How does the environment affect our collective health? And how can we finally implement a healthcare system that makes sense for our nation? Various experts from the Stanford School of Medicine will address these and other big picture questions during the first course in the Stanford Mini Med School.

Participating faculty this quarter will include:

PHILIP A. PIZZO, Course Director; The Carl and Elizabeth Naumann Dean, School of Medicine; Professor of Microbiology and Immunology

SHERRY WREN, Course Co-Director, Professor of Surgery

MICHELE BARRY, Professor of Medicine

GILBERT CHU, Professor of Medicine and of Biochemistry

RICARDO DOLMETSCH, Assistant Professor of Neurobiology

ALAN GARBER, Henry J. Kaiser Jr. Professor and Professor of Medicine and, by courtesy, of Economics, and of Health Research and Policy; Senior Fellow, by courtesy, Freeman Spogli Institute and the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy

JILL HELMS, Associate Professor of Surgery

GARY SCHOOLNIK, Professor of Medicine

MICHAEL SNYDER, Professor of Genetics; Chair, Department of Genetics

JULIE THERIOT, Associate Professor of Biochemistry and of Microbiology and Immunology

LUCY S . TOMPKINS, Lucy Becker Professor of Medicine and of Microbiology and Immunology

ABRAHAM C. VERGHESE, Professor of Medicine; Senior Associate Chair, Department of Medicine

LUCY S . TOMPKINS, Lucy Becker Professor of Medicine and of Microbiology and Immunology

ABRAHAM C. VERGHESE, Professor of Medicine; Senior Associate Chair, Department of Medicine

UPDATE: This course can now be taken for Credit/No Credit only. Letter grades are not available. In order to receive credit, students must attend 9 out of 10 class sessions, and they must sign up with the attendance monitor at the start of each class session.
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This Winter, we will continue the sequence with "Medicine, Human Health, and the Frontiers of Science." This course will focus on our bodies and the organ systems that comprise them, seeing how they work, what goes awry, and what scientists and physicians are learning every day about healing them. Topics include imaging technology, our cardiovascular and nervous systems, and mind-body interactions. A full list of topics will be available online in November.