Medicine: The Need for a New Paradigm
David Healy
Instructor
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David HealyProfessor in Psychological Medicine, critic of lack of neutrality on psychotropic drugs
Categories
About the Course
Health and how to deliver medical services is a central topic that continues to polarise both experts and the general public. And from doctors claiming knowledge they don't have, to pharmaceutical giants co-opting academic opinion, our relationship with medicine is fraught with difficulty. Join David Healy, a world-leading Professor of Psychiatry, as he highlights how 'evidence-based medicine' has led to unscientific medical practice and the need to shift to a new paradigm.
By the end of the course, you will have learned:
- Why neoliberalism reshaped healthcare and the meaning of "evidence-based medicine."
- How pharmaceutical companies influence medical research, practice, and patient autonomy.
- What “relationship-based medicine” is and why it challenges the dominance of clinical trials.
- How judgments formed collaboratively between doctor and patient can offer more scientific insight.
- The political, social, and ethical consequences of treating patients as consumers in a health marketplace.
- Case studies of neoliberal reforms in global health and their impact on inequalities.
- The role of narrative, trust, and autonomy in redefining medicine for the 21st century.
As part of the course there are in-video quiz questions to consolidate your learning and discussion boards to have your say.
IAI Academy courses are designed to be challenging but accessible to the interested student. No specialist knowledge is required.
About the Instructor
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David Healy
'We are losing sight and sense of health.'
David Healy is a true powerhouse in the world of pharmacology and psychiatry! This trailblazing professor and historian has made a name for himself by fearlessly tackling some of the most pressing issues in medicine today. His research focuses on the contribution of antidepressants to suicide and the history of pharmacology. He is also known for criticising a lack of neutrality regarding psychotropic drugs and his role in ‘Toronto Affair’ over academic freedom.
Healy's work isn't just influential - it's downright revolutionary. His groundbreaking book, Pharmageddon, pulls back the curtain on the American medical industry, exposing the ways in which pharmaceutical giants market diseases and manipulate the authority of academics and journalists for their own gain.
"An enfant terrible―and a very brave man. I doubt he is on Pfizer’s Christmas card list." - Times Literary Supplement
Course Syllabus
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Part One: The Medicine MistakeIs 'evidence based medicine' real or just marketing hype? Have we surrendered control of our lives to medical professionals and Big Pharma?
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Part Two: A New Medical ApproachWhat is 'relationship based medicine'? How could the judgments we and our doctors arrive at together be more scientific than clinical trials?
Suggested Further Readings
Neoliberalism and healthcare
- Harvey, David. A Brief History of Neoliberalism. Oxford University Press, 2005. (Chapters on neoliberal governance and economic rationality)
- Brown, Wendy. Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s Stealth Revolution. Zone Books, 2015. (Chapter on the marketization of social life, including health)
- Navarro, Vicente. "Neoliberalism as a Class Ideology; Or, The Political Causes of the Growth of Inequalities." International Journal of Health Services, vol. 37, no. 1, 2007, pp. 47-62.
- Rose, Nikolas. The Politics of Life Itself: Biomedicine, Power, and Subjectivity in the Twenty-First Century. Princeton University Press, 2006
Patient as client
- Rose, Nikolas, and Joelle M. Abi-Rached. Neuro: The New Brain Sciences and the Management of the Mind. Princeton University Press, 2013.
- Petersen, Alan, and Deborah Lupton. The New Public Health: Health and Self in the Age of Risk. Sage, 1996.
- Metzl, Jonathan M., and Anna Kirkland, eds. Against Health: How Health Became the New Morality. NYU Press, 2010.
Practical examples
- Horton, Richard. "COVID-19 and the Collapse of Neoliberalism: Reimagining Social Medicine." The Lancet, vol. 397, no. 10280, 2021, pp. 345-348.
- Klein, Ezra. "How Capitalism Killed My Mother." The New York Times, March 19, 2023.
- McGoey, Linsey. The Unknowers: How Strategic Ignorance Rules the World. Zed Books, 2019. (Chapters on philanthropy, Gates Foundation, and global health)
