Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

A brief introduction to the sociology of health, healing, and illness -- The development of scientific medicine -- Social epidemiology -- Society, disease, and illness -- Social stress -- Health behavior -- Experiencing illness and disability -- Physicians and the profession of medicine -- Medical education and the socialization of physicians -- Nurses, mid-level health care practitioners, and allied health workers -- Complementary and alternative medicine -- The physician-patient relationship: background and models -- Professional and ethical obligations of physicians in the physician-patient relationship -- The health care system of the United States -- Health care delivery -- The social implications of advanced health care technology -- Comparative health care systems.