PHVIT9000 Helsevitenskap I Emneplan

This course adopts a critical perspective of the empirical and theoretical basis for the significance of health for people as individuals and as participants in society, and will elucidate health as a means and as an end. Health can be regarded as a good in itself, but it can also be regarded as a key premise for quality of life and social participation. Looking at how health and illness are constructed through interaction between health sciences, health service actors and professions, and members of society opens for important discussions that can raise awareness within multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary fields of health sciences. The course covers the development of different views of health and illness, and places these concepts in a complex physical, psychological, and social context. The ethical and health policy challenges posed by new biomedical technology are also discussed.

None

On completion of the course, the PhD candidate has achieved the following learning outcomes, defined in terms of knowledge, skills, and general competence:

Knowledge

The PhD candidate

• can critically assess different theories of and approaches to health and illness
• can assess the usefulness and application of multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research into health and illness
• can assess the usefulness and application of biomedical and technological developments

Skills

The PhD candidate can

• address complex theories of health and illness and challenge established knowledge in the health sciences and in his or her own discipline and/or profession

General competence

The PhD candidate can

• identify relevant ethical and health policy issues
• present and discuss research-based knowledge of health and illness
• assess the need for new measures to promote health and prevent illness

Work and teaching methods consist of lectures, seminars, and self-study. The outcomes of the seminars are presented and discussed in plenary sessions.

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Individual home examination, to be submitted no more than two weeks after the end of the course, in which candidates discuss their own research projects from different perspectives of health and/or illness. Answer papers must consist of up to 3500 words.

All

Pass / Fail

Healthcare decisions for individual patients and for public health policies should be informed by the best available research evidence. The evidence comes from good reviews which is a state-of-the-art synthesis of current evidence on a given research question.Systematic reviews and meta-analyses play an important role in clinical guidelines, patient information, in clinical and political decision-making and in an evidence-based practice. A systematic review can also play an important role in a PhD Thesis by providing an overview of the thesis topic.

This course offers an overview of the use of systematic reviews, the method of systematic reviews, qualitative evidence synthesis (QES) and meta-analysis and how to critically appraise a systematic review or QES. The course will focus on systematic reviews of qualitative and quantitative studies, and will be partly organized as parallel sessions. The course will be run as a five day course over a period of three months.