- 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.
- I am very much obliged to the editorial boards of the journals ‘Healthcare Economics’ (Ekonomika Zdravookhraneniya) and ‘Bulletin of Mandatory Medical Insurance’ (Vestnik Obyazatel’nogo Meditsinskogo Strakhovaniya) which in 1998–2002 published a series of papers on sociology of medicine.
- I am grateful to my colleagues, the members of editorial board of ‘Sociology of Medicine’, on advancing the achievements of domestic sociology of medicine on the pages of this journal, which is unique Russian theoretical and practical periodical that in 2002 started to publish the major scientific results of the theses nominated for the academic degrees of Candidate and Doctor of Science in the faculty of Sociology of Medicine (classification code 14.02.05).
- I also sincerely wish to thank the leading Russian scientists Yu.P. Lisitsyn,
L.A. Ilyin, V.I. Pokrovsky, V.A. Trufakin, M.A. Pal’tsev, O.P. Shchepin, V.A. Knyazhev, V.I. Dobren’kov, N.F. Izmerov, A.M. Stochik, I.N. Denisov, V.Z. Kucherenko, and V.A. Mansurov for their contribution in formation of this novel branch of science and the many professionals and teachers for their valuable notes and criticisms. Hopefully, this book will be both useful and interesting. The author will spare no efforts to take into consideration the comments and suggestions during preparation of further editions of this book.
Professor, doctor of sociology, doctor of medicine
Andrew Veniaminovich Reshetnikov