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Web pages of

THE SCHOOL OF HEALTH AND NEURAL SCIENCES

‘ -a private medical school with arguably the most scientifically creative medical course of any school.

A life changing experience – please read on to see why!’

sohans.org

please note the degree awards are overseas based, significant teaching can be UK based*.

Forward: We are a private medical school offering an external MD course (4 years with Destiny University, St Lucia), an internal B.TH.MD (4 years) and PHD programme (3 years), all of the highest academic calibre for a very new age in medicine. Patient centred, globally aware, and scientifically underpinned philosophy is central to our teaching. All courses can be predominantly studied in the UK using the latest electronic classrooms. Important: Should you wish to apply for UK registration, preclinical attendance in St. Lucia to at least 50% of class time is currently mandatory*. This may change. Please understand SOHANS does not have a 4 year distance MD degree that leads to UK registration - and never did have such a course. Please kindly refrain from making enquiries to the GMC with this statement. We believe in ‘small is beautiful’. Please note that the success of our courses will not dictate higher entry numbers. We do not field applications to the Home Office. WE ARE NOW CURRENTLY CLOSE TO OVERSUBSCRIBED IN NUMBERS. YOU WILL HAVE TO BE EXCEPTIONAL to gain admission. THANK YOU.

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to SOHANS

SOHANS is an independent scientific body that pursues and performs research in clinical medicine, neuroscience and neuroeconomics. We use special approaches including game theory and social interaction theory, as well as evolutionary and anthropological perspectives to interpret new medical models, clinical therapies, and doctor-patient interaction. The clinical dimensions are heavily guided by Evidence-based Medicine assisted by medical mathematics studies of Uncertainty, Probability, Risk, and Decision Theory. The heavy scientific, experimental, mathematical, and neuro-behavioural slant on medical education makes this establishment like no other medical school. The subjects are extremely stimulating and broadly integrative. Our students consider our teaching approach as truly 'Life Changing'.

We apply our research to the teaching of medicine and health sciences by influencing other courses, eg. our partner link with Destiny University, St Lucia, for the 4 year MD course, or stimulating our own UK based teaching of the new Theoretical Medicine course, the 4 year B Th.MD and our PHD programme

We also develop consulting strategies to mobilise evidence-based health care around the world and to help our medical graduates access careers within this global framework of medicine arising from our research work. The career potential for students who apply themselves well is exceptional and extremely stimulating. We select new candidates extremely carefully and in a manner quite distinct from conventional medical schools - see below.

JUST STUDYING ON OUR COURSE, REGARDLESS OF CAREER AMBITIONS, WILL PROBABLY BE THE MOST INTELLECTUALLY STIMULATING EXERCISE YOU WILL EVER UNDERTAKE. FOR YOU AND YOUR FAMILIES HEALTH, THE COURSE WILL BE QUITE INVALUABLE.

In an age when fewer degrees seem to reward study effort, reading medicine (MD) or theoretical medicine (B.Th.MD) through SOHANS may be one of the most significant and thoroughly exciting life investments you can make. Medicine graduates are valued the world over. SOHANS has developed some, if not many, of the new subjects that are starting to form a much better understanding of health. Graduates of SOHANS will form the conceptual front-runners armed with new medical subjects that are considered of vital importance.

-This website explains why our courses are so highly thought of, why we value being a small highly creative institution, and why we may be interested in you, irrespective of your age, type of academic background, ethnicity, or nationality. Our entry standards are demanding, requiring extremely high social and political awareness as well as strong academic ability - the ability to get three grades A’s at A2 level is not the highest priority. THE SENSE TO APPLY YOURSELF IN A BETTER WAY THAN WASTING TIME GETTING THREE GRADE A’s at A2 (in what is now a thoroughly production line educational system), is more what we are LOOKING FOR!

PHILOSOPHY and name of the School of Health and Neural Sciences (SOHANS).

-in brief-

SOHANS is intensely interested in three main foundation disciplines, namely, Brain and Behaviour, Integrative Bio-science, and Evolutionary Anthropology. These three subjects, particularly when working together, unlock intriguing new paradigms in medicine for our research programme. The philosophical basis for our progress is ambitious. Without understanding the biology of behaviour and decision making, we believe the chances of making positive scientific and medical (and indeed social) progress are compromised. We believe decisions are made more for survival, gain and hierarchy, and not for truths. (Occasionally, truths, e.g. of the mathematical type, do emerge despite these limitations). How does this reflect in medicine?

Human experience as a rule (rather than, e.g. the systematic study of mathematics) is still the central informatics driving force within medicine. The narrative in medicine still rules. Many medics still incongruously refer to their practise as an ‘art’. But, human experience has been dominated by great triumphs of achievement, and also by deeply innate and highly entrenched default behaviours. These include complex strategies for covert and overt gain often assisted by manipulation of local behaviour or tacit acceptance of quite poor (e.g. highly exploitative) local decisions. The primacy of neural activity working for ones own ‘Economic Stridency’ is extremely powerful. We have found that very fast neural computations of ‘personal economic gain’ are performed before conscious thought takes place. This behaviour is pretty universal and is regretfully found even within some nominally strong medical arenas. It is particularly evident in politics and the social order. Where pursuance of these default strategies fails to produce desired gain, a higher level strategy is called upon governed by conflict, squirmish, violence, and even warfare. From social class conflicts within a region or country, to the competitive games conflicts in medicine and pharmaceuticals, right through to international belligerence, primary decision making and behavioural foraging by material stridency and conflict is both dominant and debilitating. (-We think this is the legacy of the wiring within our 200,000 year old brain). Human cohesiveness is a major casualty, so well observed in modern times (financial crises, failure to admit institutional mistruths, mis-apportioning blame, etc. All this by supposedly some of the most educated people of the day.) The (temporary) victors are the strident individuals/groups. Importantly, medical hierarchies exhibit all these failures and traits. Patient care becomes a by-product of this ‘neuro-economic’ driven behaviour, and not a suitably primary focus for scientific clarity and objective scientific truths.

The structure and practise of modern medicine, particularly commercialised medicine, reflects different levels of ‘contamination’ of these competitive and contradictory traits. Within medicine, synthesised superficial behaviour can then work to disguise this contamination and ‘re-present’ an acceptable social image (-e.g. the 'bow-tied altruist' presentation). But, our research findings can systematically reverse engineer clinical decisions to understand even minor contradictory neuro-economic drivers affecting everyday health. Whilst our research findings may well be iconoclastic, our research objective is merely to arrive at better health interventions and not to directly challenge submerged individuals or groups. We have had considerable success with this approach, particularly by tightly integrating studies of the special subject disciplines (mentioned above). The resulting patient interventions have been, arguably, extremely powerful. SOHANS uniquely teaches this integrated behavioural/scientific approach, supported by evidence of the startling dynamics of neural components, economic drivers, and the conscious behavioural features of our neural circuitry. We use evidence centred thinking as our main tool; a very deep understanding of the evidence-based approach is therefore taught from day one (-even today, most medical schools in the UK have only a few lectures on evidence-based medicine, many prominent world medical schools have nothing on this topic). The Theoretical Medical Course is the logical derivation of our understanding as a whole; the final constructs are scientifically extremely powerful and creative, the knowledge is truly life changing.

The UK has one of the most socially advanced and egalitarian health systems in the world. It is fitting and appropriate that further research into better healthcare should be conducted here. Indeed it might be more difficult to fund in other countries. Towards that end, we believe a new social, technical, and scientific language for greater effectiveness in health has to be studied and disseminated. The resulting mind tools for both scientific and medical thinking are now being continuously developed through our research. Improving medical practise, using these tools, has brought us face to face with newer disciplines for medicine such as evolutionary biology, mathematical game theory, and the neuro-economics of decision-making. All these areas now have a direct impact on actual patient care. We do not know any other academic institute applying this specific rationale to medicine (and clinical science) as yet. Our conclusions have changed the physician-patient interaction irrevocably for the better, in our opinion. One day, other medical schools will have to take this approach.

SOHANS summarises:

"The scientific understanding that the brain, its programmes, and resulting decision-making is primarily built for survival and hierarchy, not for truths. - Individual and collective group survival behaviour can and often does, deflect from fundamental principles and goals, including ethical practices in medicine, particularly if strategic or direct material gain and other competing interests remain unchecked. The strategies employed for gain can be very complex. Greater scientific rigour and well designed protective protocols to overcome these deflections are now imperative for all Health Practises and Clinical Care. The study of Neural Sciences alongside Health Sciences, is therefore essential. SOHANS as a study and teaching group, is the logical conclusion from this understanding. There are implications for society.*

Details of TEACHING at SOHANS

Section 1

a. What are the main objectives of SOHANS?

To continually develop a fundamentally scientific, mathematical, and fully experimental platform for the practise and teaching of medicine and health science, respecting the new knowledge system above.

-To apply this knowledge to curriculum development.

-To provide research degrees and training to further expand the academic growth of this understanding.

-To facilitate commercial innovations and partnerships derived from this understanding, providing new platforms for our graduate students to engage better health promotion and clinical practise.

An underlined success from this synthesis has been a set of new courses (eg. the Theoretical Medicine course), emanating directly from our academic research.

1b. What does this mean for students?

SOHANS students are probably the first to receive the new medical science perspective in detail. This itself is of great career benefit, as they become the new ambassadors of frontline medical thinking.

To continually innovate the new material, we actively dialogue with research programmes from cutting edge UK and world universities, sharing and updating the absolute latest knowledge consonant with the new philosophy.

1c. How does this thinking affect medical practise?

We as teachers and clinical professionals ourselves, now fully aware of the conceptual advances, would choose to simultaneously consult a clinical and statistical subject reader in experimental and mathematical foundations of medical knowledge, in parallel with a clinical practise subject specialist deeply acquainted with Evidence-based Medicine* as the best way of securing ‘gold standard’ optimal medical attention. At the moment, senior level medical service is via a consulting physician/surgeon operating as an alpha male in a complex political and economic hierarchy. The SOHANS gold standard recourse is currently not in evidence. The value of our conclusion will, one day, be realised. Our students are taught the full clinical impact and benefit of the SOHANS approach. So is current medical practise wrong? Well no, it is just pretty inefficient, and often clinically very sub-optimal with tens of billions of pounds potentially going to waste and human health being a political football - good, bad, and ugly practises co-existing side by side.

Evidence-based Medicine (EBM) is very sparingly introduced in some medical schools (perhaps a few lectures at best in the final years). SOHANS believes that EBM must be a mainstay of medical education throughout, and it must be linked with Evidence-based Healthcare, and Evidence-based Well-being. Studying medical ecology, clinical anthropology, epidemiological nutrition, evolutionary medicine, and a number of support subjects, therefore becomes obligatory. Our Theoretical Medicine Course reflects the culmination of this concept.

Exploring and extending this model is why we exist, we do not therefore compete with mainstream medical education, we believe we are using our experience to expedite the raising of new standards all round.

1d. For SOHANS, sustained good physical and mental health ranks equally with specialist medicine. In practise, we (the west in particular) have a specialist illness service with the ‘good health service’ as the weaker partner. Part of this problem arises from resources and their limitation. Most of the problem however is training and culturally based, inasmuch that medical students in conventional schools are taught to TREAT ILLNESS using high technologies (indeed, the higher the better) in strong partnerships with pharmaceutical companies (-who must make huge profits from complex drugs). Low technology sustainable medicine that works becomes a secondary priority, otherwise the GAME THEORY in medicine and associated economic loops would be compromised. Hence patient illness has to be sympathetic with these powerful GAME THEORY MEDICAL LOOPS, not necessarily in sympathy with the need for sustainable health and well-being in society.

AT SOHANS we study all these factors and suggest ways to redress the problems guided by our research. Material quickly gets integrated into the curriculum and used in our teaching.

Main Conceptual Platforms

1e. THE IMPORTANCE OF MATHEMATICS IN MEDICINE (-MUCH BEYOND STUDENT STATISTICS). The importance of numerate sciences in sifting medical evidence and managing clinical risk cannot be understated. H G Wells is reported to underline…

….“Statistical thinking will one day be as necessary for efficient citizenship as the ability to read and write”

-indeed the rise of democracy in the western world has been linked specifically to the availability of two agents, namely clean water and good statistical information (e.g., Hacking, 1975, Porter 1995). We fundamentally subscribe to the philosophy of this understanding. H G Wells was in our opinion, entirely prescient.

AN EXAMPLE:

Further illustrated by -SOHANS 2005: ……future competence in medical practise hinges entirely on a little known mathematical theorem about event probability proposed by a 19^th Century English village vicar, Thomas Bayes. Few medical practitioners know about this veritable light, few medical students bother with his illuminations. Yet neither the management of 1.2 million new bio-medical papers every year, nor the provision of professional well optimised healthcare for patients is possible without effective understanding of Bayes’ Theorem.

Put simply, reading research findings requires a detailed knowledge and working of Bayes Theorem. We believe only 1 in 100 medical professionals in the UK possess an adequate knowledge of this mind tool at the moment.

These and many similar principles significantly influence our syllabus and teaching. Areas such as MEDICAL RISK, RELEVANCE OF KNOWLEDGE, FALSE POSITIVES, FALSE NEGATIVES, REAL THERAPEUTIC VALUE OF DRUGS, and many more issues are heavily influenced by mathematics. Medicine is seen to be emerging as a computational, data driven, and experimental bio-science, and away from a bow tied medic with a small encyclopaedia of drugs in the top draw.

1f. The Theoretical Medicine Course (B. Th.MD). A key success story is our unique course in Theoretical Medicine (see link to page). We believe no other course in the world comes close. Core clinical, social, anthropological, evolutionary, behavioural, and neuro-economic knowledge vitalises this new type of medical study. Why did we develop this? It gives us a complete opportunity to teach the new subjects viewed so important to the behavioural components of medical practise and to significantly further raise the scientific integrity of medicine. Most important for world health, understanding the theoretical basis for health determinants is perhaps more important than technical advances at the front line of medicine. The WHO confirm that far more lives can be saved with fundamental theoretical health initiatives than specialist medicine. Most conventional medical students go for specialist medical avenues and financial and status based rewards. This is anthropologically understandable! We are less inclined to these obvious neuro-economic ambitions (pejorative intended).

DETAILS OF COURSES AVAILABLE at SOHANS.

SECTION 2.

TO SUMMARISE: We have three courses; the MD is controlled through a parent body - COMHS/Destiny University, St Lucia.

*The BThMD/PhD (Theoretical Medicine) is awarded through three overseas Foundations, standards for the latter are strictly controlled by UK Russell Group University selected Staff.

The offered courses and their duration are:

1.The BThMD level Course in Theoretical Medicine

- (award ‘B Th.MD’) (10 terms).

2. The individual PHD (7 terms); this can be integrated with the 10 term BSc level course (total 13 terms).

3. The MD course (10 terms) – in association with and provided by COMHS/DESTINY, St Lucia. GMC registration is currently unlikely using the distance learning programme of the COMHS/DESTINY MD course, but practising medicine in many other countries and some states in the USA is possible. Enquiries should be made to each licensing body, as required, closer to the time of seeking licensure. The picture is one of change. COMHS/DESTINY also run a campus based MD course, taught and examined by them in St Lucia, where GMC registration is likely, on a case by case basis.

Distance learning in pre-clinical medicine will come of age, it is perhaps not too far away. Various economic and political factors will determine precisely when.

SOHANS INDEPENDENTLY RUNS THE NEW Degree Courses in Theoretical Medicine and the associated PHD programme.

The Theoretical Medical Course is for those who wish to study the complete medical curriculum (possibly as an allied subject), DO NOT want to practise frontline ‘patient physical contact’ clinical work (although physiological diagnostics is necessary), but may wish to pursue a career in medical information, clinical development, world public health matters, law, medical sign-posting etc.

The NEW COURSE would be valuable for healthcare professionals, nurses, medical technical staff, etc. We particularly welcome humanities and inter-disciplinary students. It is designed for those interested in studying the very new and very exciting theoretical subjects of rising importance in medicine. Careers in GLOBAL HEALTH CARE and HEALTHCARE ORGANISATION are key options. SOHANS is developing many links to facilitate jobs in these areas already. These careers are based all over the world, in both developing and developed countries. The cost of the Theoretical Medical Course is £1021 per term* (semester), there are 10 terms. Our academic year runs from Sep – June.

THE MAIN MEDICAL DEGREE LEADING TO REGISTRATION

SECTION 3.

The MD medical degree is also very special. IT IS PREDOMINANTLY DISTANCE LEARNING SO THE COMPLETE PRE-CLINICAL STUDY PHASE CAN BE COMPLETED FROM THE UK. Please note carefully the conditions for UK Medical registration. (There is also a complete campus based pre-clinical MD taught entirely from the main COMHS/DESTINY site in St Lucia) should you wish to use the PLAB route for UK registration. CLINICALS IN THE UK (e.g. LONDON) ARE AVAILABLE. The MD is also very scientifically anchored around in-depth critical analysis skills geared for life-long learning. It is further designed around an experimental and research based medical training. It also contains much (but not all) of the material of the considerably detailed Theoretical Medical Programme. An intercalated facility is possible.

At SOHANS, we have a very special environment and very special interests. This is no ordinary project, we are very fortunate to be in the position of developing this area. WE are not a wealthy group, indeed we live from hand to mouth so far as this project is concerned. We welcome applications from innovative people wanting to share in something that is special and forward looking. A natural desire for broad concept based learning is singularly important.

We welcome donations for our research and study projects.

We anticipate you may wish to come and experience this unique academic facility and the resulting excitement generated for yourself.

We welcome your application, but please read all the SOHANS website first.

Please also visit the new ‘Journal of SOHANS’ CLICK j.SOHANS