Unit 8Section 6 Technology, Policy and Culture

Doctors can do little about social systems. Surveying the social cataclysms of the twentieth century, they fear that social sciences have made little difference to our world. In medical science, in contrast, they find the reassurance of hard science and delight in how vastly science and technology have improved their knowledge and practice. Physicians pore over their scientific journals for explanations of disease and how to treat it, but put aside as too soft anything that has to do with people and society.

From The Power of Hope, by Howard Spiro (p. 58)

The purpose of this section is to explore the insection beween the individual and different components of the health care system. The arts are especially helpful in personalizing the impersonal aspects of the system.