Medicine and Surgery "C" - Roma Azienda Policlinico Umberto I

Activity type

C_21. Tecnologie di informazione e comunicazione e discipline tecnico- scientifiche di supporto alla medicina

SSD

MEDS-24/A

Year

1st year

Semester

2nd semester

CFU

2

Hours distribution

25 classroom hours

Lecturers

SIMONA IACOBELLI

Activity type

C_02. Fisiopatologia, metodologia clinica, propedeutica clinica e sistematica medico-chirurgica

SSD

MEDS-24/B

Year

1st year

Semester

2nd semester

CFU

1

Hours distribution

12.5 classroom hours

Lecturers

MAURIZIO MARCECA

Activity type

C_02. Fisiopatologia, metodologia clinica, propedeutica clinica e sistematica medico-chirurgica, C_04. Clinica psichiatrica e discipline del comportamento

SSD

PSIC-04/B, PSIC-04/B

Year

1st year

Semester

2nd semester

CFU

3

Hours distribution

37.5 classroom hours

Lecturers

CARLO LAI
FEDERICA GALLI

Activity type

B_01. Discipline generali per la formazione del medico

SSD

BIOS-10/A

Year

1st year

Semester

2nd semester

CFU

2

Hours distribution

25 classroom hours

Lecturers

ALESSANDRA MARCHETTI
CATERINA CATALANOTTO

Activity type

B_01. Discipline generali per la formazione del medico

SSD

PSIC-01/A

Year

1st year

Semester

2nd semester

CFU

1

Hours distribution

12.5 classroom hours

Lecturers

CARLO LAI

Activity type

B_01. Discipline generali per la formazione del medico

SSD

BIOS-10/A

Year

1st year

Semester

2nd semester

CFU

1

Hours distribution

12.5 classroom hours

Lecturers

ALESSANDRA MARCHETTI

Activity type

C_20. Scienze umane, politiche della salute e management sanitario e lingua inglese

SSD

BIOS-03/B

Year

1st year

Semester

2nd semester

CFU

1

Hours distribution

12.5 classroom hours

Lecturers

FABIO DI VINCENZO

Knowledge and understanding
By the end of the course, students will have acquired fundamental knowledge of:
- The main concepts of descriptive statistics applied to medicine;
- Genetic and epigenetic variability, and their implications for human health and adaptation;
- The basics of biological and evolutionary anthropology, with particular attention to biological diversity and evolutionary mechanisms relevant to the interpretation of human health and disease
- The main psychological and behavioral processes that influence health, disease, doctor-patient relationships, and treatment compliance;

Ability to apply knowledge and understanding
At the end of the course, students will be able to:
- Use statistical tools to describe and analyze clinical and biological data;
- Apply genetic, epigenetic, and evolutionary concepts to the understanding of human diseases;
- Recognize the clinical implications of biological diversity and evolutionary mechanisms in patients;
- Apply psychological and behavioral knowledge to improve doctor-patient interaction and promote therapeutic adherence, even in the presence of psychopathological conditions.

Independent judgment
Students will be able to:
- Critically evaluate statistical, genetic, and psychological data, integrating them into clinical practice;
- Recognize the importance of an evolutionary, anthropological, and biopsychosocial perspective in the relationship with patients and different forms of illness;
- Identify psychological and relational aspects that influence patient behavior and disease management.

Communication skills
At the end of the course, students will have acquired the ability to:
- Communicate clinical and scientific information clearly and appropriately to both colleagues and patients;
- Manage the doctor-patient relationship with empathy, active listening, and the ability to adapt to the relational context;
- Deal with the care and communication with patients suffering from psychopathological disorders, promoting therapeutic compliance.

Learning skills
At the end of the course, students will develop the ability to:
- Independently keep up to date with emerging concepts and technologies, integrating knowledge from medical statistics, genetics, anthropology, and psychology to address the complexity of real clinical cases;
- Strengthen a medical-scientific approach oriented towards personalized care, supportive relationships, and respect for human variability.

None

The course aims to provide students with an integrated multidisciplinary preparation, designed to foster an understanding of the biological, psychological, social, and evolutionary factors that influence the state of illness and the relationship with the patient. Through in‑depth study of psychological, anthropological, genetic, statistical, and epidemiological disciplines, the course seeks to train future professionals to develop a critical and informed evaluation of the complexity of the doctor–patient relationship and of person‑centred care.

From a psychological perspective, students will acquire tools to understand the main mental and behavioural processes that may influence adherence and compliance, including defence mechanisms associated with specific psychopathological disorders and somatization processes.

Module: Psychology and Behavioural Sciences
This module aims to provide students with knowledge of the main psychopathological domains, including their possible causes. Different paradigms within contemporary psychopathological theorization will be critically examined, presenting and discussing possible intervention strategies in healthcare settings. Specifically, the programme includes:

- Psychopathological disorders on DSM‑5 Axes 1 and 2 in relation to the doctor–patient relationship
- Psychological aspects of the patient involved in adherence and compliance to treatment
-Introduction to mind–body relationships (psychosomatics)
- The role of clinical psychology in healthcare contexts
- Doctor–patient communication and relationship
-Somatoform disorders according to major international classification systems
-Psychological impact of illness and patient adaptation
-Compliance, adherence, and motivational factors
-Placebo and nocebo effects
-Interdisciplinary collaboration in patient care
-Discussion of clinical cases, practical exercises, role‑playing activities

Module: General Psychology
This module will provide basic knowledge regarding:
-Learning processes
-Different types of intelligence
-Communication
-Defence mechanisms

Course: Anthropology
The anthropology course will offer an evolutionary and biological perspective on the human species, highlighting how human variability and evolution are relevant to medical sciences and to the understanding of various health challenges. The module promotes an understanding of how human evolution and biological variability influence health and disease, through the study of Darwinian medicine, the effects of nutrition and lifestyle on the evolution of diseases, and paleopathological analysis. These general objectives aim to train physicians capable of integrating anthropological and evolutionary knowledge within an approach oriented toward the biological and historical foundations of human health. Specifically, the programme includes:
- Acquisition of fundamental knowledge: understanding human variability and human evolution, with particular attention to biological, ecological, and evolutionary aspects relevant to medical sciences. Students will acquire updated data on classification, body composition, morphological and genetic variability, local adaptations, and principles of Darwinian medicine.
- Understanding evolutionary dynamics: developing the ability to analyse and evaluate adaptive dynamics in the human species, including the acquisition of bipedalism, changes in the masticatory system, life‑history parameters (development, longevity), encephalization, metabolic modifications, balanced polymorphisms, and evolutionary constraints in relation to environmental and geographical contexts.

Course: Evolutionary and Molecular Genetics
This course will enable students to understand the mechanisms underlying genetic and epigenetic variability, their evolutionary functions, and their applications in medical and healthcare contexts. To achieve these objectives, the course is structured into five teaching units:

- Genetic variability and population structure (2h).
Genetic variability: origin and study methodologies (further explored in the module Techniques of Molecular Genetics). Population genetic structure: analysis of allele and genotype frequencies. Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium.
- Extensions of the Hardy–Weinberg law (2h).
Positive and negative assortative mating (non‑random mating), inbreeding, mutation, genetic drift, gene flow, natural selection. Linkage disequilibrium.
- Genome structure and evolution (2h).
Mechanisms underlying molecular evolution: mutation, duplication, recombination, mobile elements. Homologous, paralogous, and orthologous genes. Origin of new genes. Origin of new protein domains.
- Epigenetics and evolution (4h).
Epigenetic variation as raw material for natural selection. Transgenerational epigenetic inheritance. Epigenetic responses to environmental changes and their role in adaptation. Evolutionary impact on behaviour.
- Applications of evolutionary and population genetics to medicine (2h).
Genetic epidemiology. Drug response and personalized medicine. Predictive and preventive medicine (population genetic screening and identification of genes associated with complex diseases). Host–pathogen coevolution and spread of infectious diseases. Evolutionary history and disease.

Course: Techniques of Molecular Genetics
This course is structured as follows:

-Technologies for studying genetic variability and their applications (4h)
Molecular methods for studying variants
Molecular analysis of gene mutations
– Experimental methodologies for studying epigenetic variation (4h)
Overview of methods for analysing DNA methylation, histone modifications, ncRNA expression, ncRNA–protein binding, and ncRNA–chromatin interactions
– Techniques for epigenome modification (2h)
Epigenetic enzyme inhibitors. RNA interference for epigenetic enzymes. CRISPR/Cas9 technology for site‑specific methylation induction.
– “Omics” approaches to the study of genetic variability and gene expression (4h)
Omics technologies and systems biology. Genomics and genome sequencing. Functional genomics: transcriptomics, proteomics, epigenomics, and metabolomics.
– Analysis of genetic variability in relation to pharmacological susceptibility (2h)
Molecular bases of pharmacological variability. Genomic analyses and pharmacogenetic testing. Epigenetic and non‑coding aspects. Perspectives and personalized medicine.
– Genetic approaches to disease treatment (4h)
Gene replacement therapy. Genome editing (CRISPR‑Cas9 and next‑generation technologies). RNA‑based therapies. Epigenetic therapies. CAR‑T therapies and immune system engineering. Mitochondrial therapies.
– In‑depth activities on the methodologies covered (4h)
Simulations of theoretical questions, possible practical applications, and self‑assessment tests to consolidate competencies.

Module: Migration Medicine
This module aims to provide students with knowledge concerning the different dimensions of the relationship between the migration phenomenon and health. Specifically, the programme explores:
- Health implications at the individual level (and related clinical‑relational and professional indications for physicians) and at the collective level (and related guidance for policymakers regarding public interventions).
- Implications related to reflective awareness of one’s motivations and personal and future professional choices, including service to the community/society and health advocacy.

Course: Medical Statistics and Epidemiology
The aim of the course is to provide students with the basic elements for understanding the main synthetic measures of phenomena and their associations, as well as basic statistical concepts, preparatory to the future understanding of the evidence generated by clinical studies. Specifically, the programme includes:
- Introduction to medical statistics
- Basic descriptive statistics, part I: description of a single variable
- Types of variables. Frequency tables and charts. Mode. Quantitative variables: mean, median, standard deviation, coefficient of variation
- Class distribution; density; histogram. Quartiles, boxplots, percentiles. Distribution shapes. Normal distribution
- Measurement of event occurrence: introduction. Censored data. Probability, odds, rate. Survival curves and cumulative incidence
- Basic descriptive statistics, part II: description of associations between two variables
- Group comparison. Key concepts: statistical vs causal association; confounding
- Group comparison: separate descriptions. Contingency tables. Measures of effect on event occurrence: RR, OR, HR
- Paired samples: descriptions. Other dependent data
- Diagnostic tests
- Linear correlation and regression.

Overall, these objectives contribute to shaping a professional figure capable of integrating scientific, medical, and psychological approaches, with a broad and informed vision of health—understood not merely as the absence of disease, but as the result of a dynamic balance between mind, body, environment, and society.

Psychology and Behavioral Sciences / General Psychology
- Manuale di psicologia clinica, di Maria Cristina Verrocchio, edito da Piccin (2023).
- Materiale didattico fornito dai docent

Anthropology
- Sineo L. & Moggi Cecchi J. (eds.) manuale di Antropologia - UTET
- Manzi G. Il grande racconto dell'evoluzione umana - Il Mulino

Evolutionary and Population Genetics / Molecular Genetics Techniques
- Russell - Genetica. Un approccio molecolare- Pearson
- Strachan e Lucassen - Genetica e Genomica nelle scienze mediche - Zanichelli
- Materiale didattico fornito dai docenti

Migration Medicine
- Maurizio Marceca, Federica Turatto e Salvatore Geraci. ‘Migrazioni e Salute’. In: Paolo Bonanni,Guglielmo Bonaccorsi, Gavino Maciocco (a cura di): “Manuale di igiene e sanità pubblica’. Roma, Carocci Faber editore, 2021: 350-372

Medical Statistics and Epidemiology
- Bland M, Statistica Medica, Apogeo

Module: MEDICAL STATISTICS AND EPIDEMIOLOGY
N/D
Module: MEDICINE OF MIGRATION
N/D
Module: PSYCHOLOGY AND BEHAVIOR
N/D
Module: ANTHROPOLOGY
N/D
Module: GENERAL PSYCHOLOGY
N/D
Module: EVOLUTION AND POPULATION GENETICS
N/D
Module: TECHNIQUES OF MOLECULAR GENETICS
N/D

Frontal and interactive lessons.

Mandatory

The course includes written assignments designed to assess the skills learned in each individual course. The final grade will be the average of the scores obtained in the various written tests.

1-) According to the DSM-5, which disorder could we associate with this brief clinical vignette?
2-) What is meant by Darwinism?

• Psychology and behavioral cciences
  • Books: "Manuale di psicologia clinica", di Maria Cristina Verrocchio, edito da Piccin (2023)


• General psychology
  • Books: "Manuale di psicologia clinica", di Maria Cristina Verrocchio, edito da Piccin (2023) - Teaching materials provided by lecturers 


• Antropology 
  • Books: Sineo L. & Moggi Cecchi J. (eds.) manuale di Antropologia - UTETManzi G. Il grande racconto dell'evoluzione umana - Il Mulino


• Molecular genetics techniques
  • Books: 1) Russell - Genetica. Un approccio molecolare- Pearson   2) Strachan e Lucassen - Genetica e Genomica nelle scienze mediche - Zanichelli   Teaching materials provided by lecturers  


• Evolutionary and population genetics
  • Books: 1) Russell - Genetica. Un approccio molecolare- Pearson   2) Strachan e Lucassen - Genetica e Genomica nelle scienze mediche - Zanichelli   Teaching materials provided by lecturers  


• Migration medicine
  • Books: Maurizio Marceca, Federica Turatto e Salvatore Geraci. ‘Migrazioni e Salute’. In: Paolo Bonanni,  Guglielmo Bonaccorsi, Gavino Maciocco (a cura di): “Manuale di igiene e sanità pubblica’. Roma,  Carocci Faber editore, 2021: 350-372  


• Medical Statistics and Epidemiology
  • Books: Bland M, An Introduction to Medical Statistics, Oxford University Press