What Is Medical Sociology?

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Abstract
AS WE have seen, medical sociology has found some place in medical schools. But clearly, its status there is not high. In medicine's core department, internal medicine, it receives quite a low rating: most responding chairmen consider it unimportant, and many are strongly negative. True, in departments of pediatrics, and still more, in family medicine, its rating is better. Also, one might question the degree to which department chairmen are representative even of their own fields: perhaps age or other variables introduce a bias. But despite whatever questions might legitimately be raised about the results of the study, I believe the picture Petersdorf and Feinstein give us is essentially accurate. It would be a mistake to dismiss the evidence that many, if not most, medical educators—who, after all, have more contact with medical sociology than physicians generally do—have a view of the field that is not particularly flattering. I should

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