To my nearest and dearest
• This issue is the second edition of the textbook enlarged and revised with due account for appearance and the development of novel vistas in domestic and international science referred to as 'sociology of medicine'. The scientific premises to write the first version of this book originated during my work on my PhD Thesis. The studies were continued during many years of personal work in the healthcare system paralleled by persistent examination of foreign and domestic medicine, which is a most important universal social institution. The final version of this textbook resulted from systematization of the data on medico-sociological studies to shape the curriculum 'Sociology of Medicine', which is presently studied in humanitarian departments of many universities in the Russian Federation. Logically, this very book originated from course of lectures, which the author delivered for more than 10 years to the student of I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University.
• Possibly, even the second edition of this book did not avoid a kind of fragmentariness in the description of some problems, although the author surmises that such mosaicity reflects the objective regularities, which are the intrinsic features of the modern stage of the developing sociology of medicine characterized with the search for some unifying scientific paradigm. At present, sociology of medicine enters into a new stage of its development challenged with the need to reappraise the past approaches, methods, and the research avenues advancing the novel views on the political and cultural changes manifested in the healthcare system. Namely, this stage needs evaluation of the contribution which sociology of medicine makes into understanding of the social nature of modern efforts to strengthen the public health. The author hopes that this textbook will be a useful tool to train professionals in the field of sociology of medicine whose qualification will underlie not only the successful development of this science, but also the further improvement of the overall healthcare system.