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For an epistemology of care: real, virtual and potential diseases Volume 12, issue 6, Juin 2016

Author
LabEx Ecofect (Dynamique éco-évolutive des maladies infectieuses), Université de Lyon, Université Lyon 1, Villeurbanne, France

The recent introduction of social sciences in medical education is facing two pitfalls that may wreck the curriculum, regardless of its intrinsic quality. On the one hand, its orientation is too philosophical in universities which are subject to the requirements of biomedical engineering. This leads to a certain marginalization or a form of confrontation, while the goal was infiltration. On the other hand, it takes place in the first year, whereas it is more at the end of the curriculum, after formatting programs and contests, that this education should take place when students are more serene and when their humanistic and clinic questions have become more relevant. The result is that the epistemology of diagnosis and care is never taught. However, such teaching, which is more clinical than philosophical, would be the best way to restore bridges between human sciences and biomedical engineering. This reflection wants to contribute.