Undergraduate Catalog 2024-2025

HSCS 2220 Introduction to Health Processes

Focus is on common diseases and disorders of each body system. Topics include etiology, signs and symptoms, diagnostic procedures, treatment, management, and prevention. Epidemiology and the role of social and environmental health determinants will also be introduced.

Registration Name

Introduction to Health Processes

Lecture Hours

3

Lab Hours

0

Credits

3

Prerequisite

BIOL 2100 and BLAB 2100 (HSCS 1105 recommended).

Offered

Demorest: Fall

Student Learning Outcomes

Learning Outcomes:

  1. Describe the basic functions of inflammation and the pathogenesis of immune deficiencies and allergies.
  2. Describe the character of modern pathology and its link to societies in the developed and underdeveloped nations.
  3. Determine disease processes according to predisposing factors, pathology, and etiology and determine diagnostic, therapeutic procedures, and medications for the disease process they indicate.
  4. Gather epidemiological evidence to understand causes of human disease at the population level and describe the relevance or impact to human development and wellbeing.
  5. Explain the basic components of how the immune system fights invading pathogens and the role of antibiotics.
  6. Explain the basic functions of most of human body systems and describe the pathogenesis of common diseases of those systems, including: Normal structure and function, Pathogenesis and etiology, Signs and symptoms, Common diagnostic tests, General treatment, and Outcomes of diseases.
  7. Explain the difference between diagnosis and prognosis and between patient and disease oriented outcomes.
  8. Explain the process of malignant transformation, invasion and metastases as well as the pathogenesis of cancer.
  9. Explain the role of nutrition in health and disease.
  10. Explain what genes are and the role they can play in human disease, including the pathogenesis of genetic and hereditary diseases.
  11. List the characteristics of transmissible agents of disease, including: the basic mechanisms of pathogenesis in prion-, virus-, bacteria-, fungus-, and parasite-mediated diseases, common tests used to diagnose disease states, and standard precaution guidelines for disease prevention.
  12. Summarize key features and differences of global patterns of disease with a focus on social aspects of health, health inequalities, and environmental exposures can damage health.