Courses

2 Credits
Course Instructors: Jessica Jones & Faculty

This is a graduate level biochemistry course covering a range of topics across four units. These include: Thermodynamics, Acid Base Chemistry, Protein Structure and Function, Membranes, DNA Structure, Chromatin, Transcription, RNA Processing and Stability, Translation, Small RNAs, DNA Replication, Recombination and Repair, and Metabolism.

1 Credit | Pass/Fail Grading
Course Instructors: Nancy Harazduk & Faculty

This course utilizes experiential learning modalities to promote self-awareness, stress management and self-care.

2 Credits
Course Instructors: Scott Dorris, Angela Barr, & Grant Connors

This course provides an overview of what is required in the practice of Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) with an emphasis on developing know-how in information retrieval and research literacy. Students will learn of the resources available for searching the literature to gather scientific evidence pertaining to the efficacy and other aspects of various CIM modalities. Additionally, students will become familiar with common study designs and associated statistical concepts used to evaluate the quality of the data and derive reasonable conclusions. Throughout the course, the application of EBM for CIM will be emphasized. By the end of the course, students will model the steps of the EBM process as well as practice and demonstrate their proficiency, culminating in a final project and presentation.

4 Credits
Course Instructors: Hakima Amri & Faculty

Students will be introduced to the five domains of Complementary and Integrative Medicine: Global Medical Systems (Traditional Chinese Medicine, Ayurveda, Unani, Homeopathy, and Naturopathy); Mind-Body Interventions (yoga, meditation); Energy Medicine (biofeedback, Qi Gong, Tai Chi); Pharmacognosy; and Manipulation and Body-based Techniques (osteopathy, chiropractic, massage). This course is designed to (i) inform students about medical systems used in the US and all over the World, (ii) sensitize students to the ways in which cultural diversity influences the approach to human health and disease and the practice of medicine, and (iii) encourage students to examine medical practices from different cultures, and critically assess the efficacy and safety of the practices.

0.5-1 Credit
Organizers: Hakima Amri and Aviad Haramati

Weekly seminars will be presented by national and international experts in CIM and related fields. All full-time students are required to attend the seminar series during each semester of enrollment. Attendance is mandatory. Part-time students must complete at least two semesters of PBIO 703/704.

5 Credits
Course Instructors: Michael Lumpkin & Faculty

This graduate course covers the major areas of human physiology, including neurophysiology, cardiovascular physiology, endocrinology, gastrointestinal physiology, renal physiology and respiratory physiology. Our students should emerge from this course well-prepared for any future biomedical education and/or careers. It is team taught by the faculty of the Division of Integrative Physiology and the Medical Center.

1 Credit

Biochemistry is fundamental to understanding the underlying cause of diseases and their treatments. This didactic course will be an intensive course, covering many aspects of biochemistry including biomolecules and metabolism. This course will be approached from a medical perspective. The course is designed as a combination of lectures and practical computer-based exercises utilizing functionalities of web-based resources. The students will experience the effect of mutations and polymorphisms on the genes that are causative of the underlying disease in each metabolic pathway. The lectures will be presented as a series of case-studies. Most encountered clinical cases will form the core of the course. Aspects of Complementary and Integrative Medicine (CIM) approaches to health and disease states will be discussed. At the end of the course students will be able to understand these diseases from a biochemical, informatics, and integrative medicine perspective.

3 Credits | Fall Semester
Course Instructors: Jonathan Missner & Faculty

The number of clinics and hospitals that integrate some modalities of CIM alongside conventional medicine is growing rapidly. The Institute of Medicine, a part of the National Academy of Sciences, has held recent conferences on the values of CIM, and the NIH is using significant resources to fund research in this area. Expansion of the use of CIM is raising legal issues, and there is a growing but still unsettled body of law on the subject. Some but not all CIM modalities are now licensed and regulated in a number of states. Federal regulatory bodies, such as the FDA and FTC are also required, within the limits of their statutory authority, to protect the interests of the public. It is important that the issues surrounding the use of CIM be examined through the lens of alternative as well as conventional medicine. Much of conventional law regarding medical practices has focused on protecting the public from purveyors of proverbial “snake oil” frauds and consequently has resulted in discouraging alternatives to established health-care modalities. This seminar studies the tensions, legal, economic, and social, of this struggle as it unfolds. This seminar covers several areas of law including administrative law, medical malpractice, informed consent, FDA/FTC law, among others.

1-2 Credits | Fall or Spring Semester
Course Instructors: Hakima Amri

Students will perform a library research project in a specific topic related to CIM under the mentorship of a faculty member.

1-3 Credits | Fall or Spring Semester
Course Instructors: Hakima Amri

Students anticipating further graduate education in a research-oriented field or a career involving research will participate in a CIM-related research project in a GUMC laboratory. The student will be instructed in research techniques under the supervision of a faculty member.

3 Credits
Course Instructors: Anca Dragomir, Ming Tan, & Staff

This course provides an overview of the fundamental principles and concepts related to experimental design and data analysis with the goals of achieving statistical literacy and acquiring the skills needed for critical reading and evaluation of the research literature. The students will learn about the most commonly used statistical methods and experimental and observational study designs by studying fundamental methods and by practice examples of statistical analysis using STATA software on epidemiological data from studies related to CIM. Additionally, students will become familiar with graphical representations of data and the proper interpretation of the results from the statistical analyses. After finishing this course the students will be able to be competent members of team science research projects in the area of CIM.

2 Credits
Course Instructors: James Giordano

This course builds on the EBM course (PBIO 521), by focusing on the primary methods of evidence acquisition and discrimination, types of evidence and their relative utility, and the ethical, legal and practical considerations in the field of CIM.

4 Credits
Course Instructors: Deirdre Orceyre & Faculty

This course will cover the clinical applications of clinical and functional nutrition including the impact of various diets on health and wellness. It will also include lectures on dietary supplements, botanicals, and lifestyle modifications in health and disease.

2 Credits
Course Instructors: Hakima Amri

Mind-Body Medicine and the closely related field of biofeedback are areas of CIM for which there is a growing scientific literature. This course will explore the major psycho-neuro-endocrine and immune pathways governing the mind-brain-body interactions.

1 Credit
Course Instructors: Hakima Amri

Students will read, analyze, and discuss original research papers from the CIM field. This course is aimed at introducing students to basic science research design with a focus on explaining underlying mechanisms of action from evidence obtained in CIM research studies. 

2 Credits
Course Instructors: Hakima Amri & Faculty

In this course students will study the underlying mechanism(s) of the most prevalent diseases and adverse health conditions in the US and will review the current therapeutic use of CIM therapies. Consideration of the various CIM therapies will emphasize the scientific evidence or lack thereof in support of their efficacy.

0.5 Credits
Organizers: Hakima Amri & Aviad Haramati

Weekly seminars will be presented by national and international experts in CIM and related fields. All full-time students are required to attend the seminar series during each semester of enrollment. Attendance is mandatory.  Part-time students must complete at least two semesters of PBIO 703/704.

1-2 Credits | Fall or Spring Semester
Course Instructor: Hakima Amri

Students will perform a library research project in a specific topic related to CIM under the mentorship of a faculty member.

1 Credit | Spring Semester
Course Instructor: Pamela Saunders

This course will introduce students to the field of narrative medicine. Students will explore how doctors/practitioners understand themselves and their practice of medicine using narrative approaches.

1 Credit | Spring Semester
Sumegha Asthana

The course on Integrated Health Systems Policy and Medical Pluralism aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the integration of Complementary and Integrative Medicine (CIM) in healthcare systems worldwide. It emphasizes the concept of medical pluralism and places the idea of integrated health systems in the context of existing policies for healthcare system development and approaches to improve healthcare systems’ performance globally.

1 Credit | Spring Semester
Course Instructor: James Giordano

Complementary and integrative medicine (CIM) is increasingly used not only in concert with mainstream approaches but also as a ‘stand-alone’ intervention. Although they have assumed a progressive position in the current hierarchy of medical practices, CIM disciplines remain somewhat fractionated in philosophy, practice ideologies, ethos, and ethics. This discoordination gives rise to questions of what treatments should be used, how should they be used, and for whom should they be used? Basic approaches that adhere to ethical principles will be presented to allow students to understand how these perspectives can contribute to the right and good conduct of patient care and research.  Evidence-based research models will be presented and evaluated in light of their relative appropriateness to CIM outcomes and mechanisms. The ethical obligations to conduct effective research will be discussed with particular emphasis upon how such research fulfills epistemological, humanitarian and social dimensions of medicine.

1 Credit | Spring Semester
Course Instructors: Leonard Wisneski, Julie Staples, & Daniel Mintie

This course is an overview of Western medical research studies and ancient Eastern philosophical concepts that verify the importance of the link between mind, body, and spirit in health and healing. Studies will be presented on the science of acupuncture, yoga, and meditation that address the mechanisms by which these modalities improve health and promote healing. There will also be an experiential component including the Eastern practice of yoga and meditation. This course is taught in a 4-week period in the spring semester.

2 Credits | Spring Semester
Course Instructor: TBD

This course is an introductory level course designed for Master level students. Students will gain familiarity with gross anatomy and become conversant with any medical professional, including the allied health field. Body regions that will be covered include the thorax, abdomen, pelvis, upper and lower limbs. Students will be assessed by weekly quizzes, both formative and summative. At the completion of the thorax, abdomen and pelvis sections, students will be introduced to the cadaver and have an opportunity to view prosected cadavers in the laboratory. This latter activity will be considered enrichment, but will be mandatory for all students enrolled. This course does not include hands-on dissections. Lectures will be delivered via pre-recorded videos, but the instructor will meet the students for a weekly discussion session.

1 Credit | Spring Semester
Course Instructors: Johanna Kitlinska & Faculty

This course will focus on CIM methods used in cancer treatment and management of cancer symptoms. The CIM modalities will be compared with conventional therapies, and the strategies for integrating them into holistic cancer treatment will be presented. Advantages and challenges of such an approach will be discussed.

1-3 Credits | Fall or Spring Semester
Course Instructor: Hakima Amri

Students anticipating further graduate education in a research-oriented field or a career involving research will participate in a CIM-related research project in a GUMC laboratory. The student will be instructed in research techniques under the supervision of a faculty member.