Course Description

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this learning opportunity participants will be able to:

• Describe the history of the question of understanding the self dating back to 17th-century Europe
• Clarify fundamental questions about the categories in which selfhood has been conceived and theorized and describe both the intellectual and chronological contexts for the ways particular people have chosen to think about the self
• Address the complexity of the self metaphor in biomedicine and probe the theory structure of immunology
• Discuss general features of bacterial diversity within the human microbiome, address variation in patterns of bacterial diversity within and between individuals and recognize general aspects of stability and response to perturbation in the human microbiota
• Address the link between self/non-self discrimination and immunoregulation, examine the role of self/non-self discrimination in autoimmunity and discuss how the immune system distinguishes self from non-self
• Define the self as a bio-social-psychological construction, distinguish how the self is influenced by historical factors and explain the role of existential concerns in the human experience
• Describe how brains build, rebuild and regulate each other, and define how individual identity emerges from relationships
• Express the moral dimension of clinical medicine and provide an overview of the interface of ethics and biomedicine

About Roland D. Pinkham, M.D.

Thanks to a bequest by the late Dr. Roland Pinkham, Swedish Hospital Medical Center has provided the Annual Roland D.Pinkham M.D. Basic Sciences Lectureship for the past 24 years. This unique day-long CME activity is designed around a core topic in the basic sciences, which brings together outstanding regional and national experts to share exciting insights and ideas.

The Annual Roland D. Pinkham, M.D. Basic Sciences Lectureship provides an opportunity for physicians to stretch their intellectual horizons and reconnect with fundamentals in basic science. Dr. Pinkham’s interest in medical education sprang from his commitment to teaching surgical housestaff. Having been raised in Seattle and following his training at the University of Washington and Stanford University, he practiced on the staff at Swedish from 1948-1979. In addition to being Chief of Surgery 1971-1979, he was a leader in improving the standard of care and teaching in the Seattle medical community and served as a president of the Washington State Medical Association. Through the on-going efforts of his family, continuing now with his son Dr. James Pinkham, his tremendous legacy has been perpetuated through this highly anticipated annual event.