Evolutionary Medicine Month at UCLA

February 2012 was Evolutionary Medicine Month at UCLA, organized by Barbara Natterson-Horowitz, M.D., Director of Imaging in the Division of Cardiology, and Daniel Blumstein, PhD, Chair of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.  A report is below.

Evolutionary Medicine Month (EMM) at UCLA sponsored interdisciplinary clinical and educational activities throughout the month of February to advance interest and awareness of this emerging field.  We developed this program as a collaboration between the UCLA Division of Internal Medicine and UCLA Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.  Major support for the activities came from the UCLA Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI).

The project brought together academics in medicine, psychiatry, evolutionary biology, psychology and anthropology in a variety of educational and clinical settings. The initiative’s goals were to increase awareness of the emerging field of Evolutionary Medicine at UCLA, to create interdisciplinary conversations and interdisciplinary training opportunities, and to identify and connect interested academics across the greater university whose work connects to evolutionary biology and health concerns.

There were four components to EMM.

First, four weekly Internal Medicine Grand Rounds lectures were given by leaders in Evolutionary Medicine. Invited speakers included: Randolph Nesse, M.D., Stephen Stearns, Ph.D., Bernard Crespi, Ph.D., and John Torday, Ph.D. These talks were very well received.

Second, speakers participated in “Darwin on Rounds” project in which they attended rounds with the internal medicine physicians.  The “Darwins” brought an evolutionary perspective to discussions of key clinical issues and dilemmas. Both our guests and resident physicians were excited by this interdisciplinary opportunity.

Third, we embedded evolutionary biologists from across campus in Morning Reports to expose evolutionary biologists to medical training and to expose residents to functional questions. Without exception, embedded biologists wanted to do more of these.  We feel that this is an important way to both train biologists about clinical needs, as well as to start meaningful conversations with physicians about how functional thinking can lead to new clinical insights (which ultimately must be evaluated with formal studies).

Fourth, EMM had an evening screening of the movie “Contagion” (generously supported by Participant Media) followed by a panel discussion with experts in global health, infectious disease, and evolutionary biology.  Both the audience and the panel enjoyed this immensely.

Based on responses from faculty and students from the Division of Internal Medicine, and the Departments of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Anthropology, and Psychology, we believe the month was a success. Many new relationships emerged through EMM and there has been very strong interest in continuing and expanding interdisciplinary evolutionary medicine training and research at UCLA.  We believe that the relationships we forged over EMM will help us develop meaningful future educational and research collaborations.