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In 1968 the Columbia University School of Public Health became the first institution in the country to offer a graduate degree in Sociomedical Sciences (SMS).
What began as a collaborative research project on rural health care in 1956, spearheaded by a physician, an epidemiologist, and a sociologist, evolved over a decade's time into a formal doctoral program. Dr. Jack Elinson, first head of SMS, coined the term "sociomedical sciences" to incorporate the social sciences of sociology, anthropology, economics, history, political science and social psychology, into a multidisciplinary study of health and medicine. A more recent addition to this academic framework is philosophy, especially relevant with the ever-increasing focus on ethics in medicine and public health. The Department's multidisciplinary approach provides students with a distinctive opportunity to examine health and health care issues from broad and diverse perspectives.
Today, the SMS Department faculty is widely involved in both research and teaching, with the goal of applying social science theory and methodology to health and medical issues. Research projects are focused on such contemporary health topics as sociocultural aspects of drug behavior and alcoholism, tobacco use reduction interventions and policy, adolescent health, the behavioral and ethical impact of AIDS, services for people with HIV/AIDS, Latino health, the role of social supports and social networks, health of the aged, social aspects of disability, the organization of health care and health care program evaluation, stress and coping, social factors in pain, preventive health behavior, chronic illness and caregiving, end-of-life and bereavement, sexuality and sexual orientation, gender and health, and response of the medical profession to major issues in the organization and delivery of health care. The Department also includes the Harlem Health Promotion Center, and the Center for the Psychosocial Study of Health and Illness, and the newly created Center for the Study of Gender, Sexuality and Health, which sponsor a wide array of research, training and service programs.
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