“Behavioral medicine is the interdisciplinary field concerned with the development and integration of behavioral, psychosocial, and biomedical science knowledge and techniques relevant to the understanding of health and illness, and the application of this knowledge and these techniques to prevention, diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation.”
- The Society of Behavioral Medicine

The interprofessional nature of behavioral medicine is reflected in the core faculty of the department, and in the experienced physicians, psychiatrists, psychologists and clinical social workers within central Iowa that serve as guest lecturers in the required and elective courses offered by the department.

A cornerstone of osteopathic medicine is the relationship between structure and function. In its teaching, the department emphasizes the role mental and social structures play in shaping healthy behavior and people’s responses to illness. These structures include personality, family and institutional systems, cultural values, and religious and spiritual belief systems.

Our mission

The department of Behavioral Medicine is dedicated to improving the health and well-being of the human community through the education of healthcare providers who are committed to patient-centered care, and who skillfully blend the science of medicine and human behavior with the art of interpreting the symptomatic communication of patients.

The clinically skilled application of knowledge forms the foundation of effective patient-centered care. The department is committed to a case and evidence-based model of education that requires the mastery of knowledge of the medical sciences, while also recognizing the influence the broader psychological, social, cultural and spiritual dimensions of human life have on issues of health promotion and the prevention of disease.

The department strives to accomplish this mission through the following actions and commitments:

• Creating course offerings that engage students at intellectual and emotional levels, and challenge commonly held, but unhelpful, assumptions about human behavior
• Establishing learning environments characterized by interpersonal safety and mutual respect so as to foster open group discussion, self-reflection and self-nurture
• Teaching a working knowledge of individual and systemic dimensions of life that affect health, illness and the healing process
• Emphasizing the vital connection between the health of individuals and the health of the systems within which people work and live
• Emphasizing how the quality of human relationships affect development, and how interpersonal abuse, violence and neglect have long-term deleterious effects on the health and well-being of individuals and societies
• Teaching the importance of appreciating each patient’s unique views of illness and suffering.
• Helping students develop a beginning level of competency in addressing existential issues of meaning with patients and families
• Developing within students an understanding of ethics and professionalism that moves beyond procedure and policy to an appreciation for the larger social issues inherent in access to, and delivery of, health care services
• Forming professionals who are medically competent and interpersonally skilled in the areas of communication, hospitality, empathy, and compassion.