Columbia Interactive - America's Battle for a Cure: The Culture and Politics of Breast Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment

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America's Battle for a Cure: The Culture and Politics of Breast Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment
Taught by: Barron H. Lerner, M.D.

Description

E-Seminar Description

To understand a disease, you must first understand the culture in which that disease exists. Understanding breast cancer in the United States requires understanding the war metaphor that defines it. In this e-seminar, Barron Lerner, associate professor of medicine and public health at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, reveals how America's fight against breast cancer has shaped our treatment of the disease from the turn of the nineteenth century to today.

This seminar contains images of actual medical procedures and/or real patients experiencing the disease or conditions discussed in the seminar.

E-Seminar Length:	3-5 hours
Start Date:	Anytime
Credits:	Not-for-Credit
Prerequisites:	None
Moderator:	None
Columbia Students, Faculty, Staff, and Alumni:	FREE

Interested in this e-seminar? Go to the e-seminar now*. Note: Columbia students, faculty, staff, and alumni will need to use their University Network ID (UNI) to access e-seminars.

E-Seminar Objectives | Outline | Instructor's Background | Recommended Reading | Technical Requirements

E-Seminar Objectives

•	Gain insight into how the culture of war influences health-care options and decisions for breast-cancer patients and women at high risk for the disease.

Outline

1.	Introduction
2.	Halsted and the Radical Mastectomy
3.	Birth of the Breast Cancer War
4.	Surgeon as Hero and Heretic
5.	Women Speak Out
6.	The Battle Over Early Detection
7.	Modern Treatments and Modern Activism
8.	War as a Metaphor
9.	Conclusion: Quid Pro Quo

Instructor's Background

Barron H. Lerner is an Associate Professor of Medicine and Public Health at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. He is the author of a new book, The Breast Cancer Wars: Hope, Fear and the Pursuit of a Cure in Twentieth-Century America (Oxford University Press, 2001), on which this e-seminar is based.

Lerner received his M.D. degree from Columbia in 1986 and his Ph.D. in history from the University of Washington in 1996. He is also the author of Contagion and Confinement: Controlling Tuberculosis Along the Skid Road (Johns Hopkins, 1998). In addition to his research in the history of medicine, Dr. Lerner teaches medical ethics and practices internal medicine at Columbia. He is the author of over twenty peer-reviewed medical articles and writes for the Washington Post and Mamm Magazine.

Recommended Reading
Lerner, Barron H. The Breast Cancer Wars: Hope, Fear and the Pursuit of a Cure in Twentieth-Century America. Oxford University Press, 2001.

Technical Requirements
You will need to use a computer with Internet access to complete this course. We recommend the following minimum configurations:

IBM-COMPATIBLE PC
Windows 95, 98, 2000, XP, or NT
64 MB of RAM (128 recommended)
Monitor: 800x600 resolution recommended
Connection: Internet service and 56K modem minimum
Browser: Internet Explorer 4 or above (Internet Explorer 5 strongly recommended) or Netscape 4.7 or above
Sound Card (if you can hear audio you have a sound card)
Plug-ins: RealPlayer 7 or later; Flash Player 5 or later; Acrobat Reader 5 or later
(all plug-ins are free)

MACINTOSH
MAC OS 8.6 or higher
64 MB of RAM (128 recommended)
Monitor: 800x600 resolution recommended
Connection: Internet service and 56K modem minimum
Browser: Internet Explorer 5 or above or Netscape 4.7 or above
Sound Card (if you can hear audio you have a sound card)
Plug-ins: RealPlayer 7 or later; Flash Player 5 or later; Acrobat Reader 5 or later
(all plug-ins are free)

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