Evolutionary Thinking in Medicine

The aim of this edited book is to provide health professionals, across a wide variety of specialisms, with a targeted access to evolutionary medicine. Throughout the book, the views of both medical and evolutionary scientists on the latest relevant research is presented with a focus on practical implications. The inclusion of boxes explaining the theoretical background as well as both a glossary for technical terms and a lay summary for non- specialists enable medical researchers, public health professionals, policy makers, physicians, students, scholars and the public alike to quickly and easily access appropriate information. This edited volume is thus relevant to anyone keen on finding out how evolutionary medicine can improve the health and well-being of people. 

Alexandra Alvergne is Associate Professor in Biocultural Anthropology at Oxford University and a Fellow of Harris Manchester College in the University of Oxford. She trained as a human behavioural ecologist in France, focusing on the evolutionary and ecological determinants of male reproductive and parental behaviour. She then held a Newton International Fellowship in the Anthropology Department at University College London, where she researched how biological and cultural evolutionary processes intersect in shaping diversity in health decision-making, particularly contraceptive uptake. Now in post at Oxford University, she runs the course “Evolutionary thinking in medicine” for students in Human Sciences (BA), Archeology & Anthropology (BA) and Medical Anthropology (MSc), and she is developing research programs linking evolution, medicine and anthropology.

Charlotte Faurie is a CNRS researcher in Human Evolutionary Biology at the Institute for Evolutionary Sciences in Montpellier University, France. She trained as an evolutionary biologist, focusing on the evolution of the polymorphism of hand preference in human populations. She then held a Marie Curie Post-doctoral Fellowship in the UK, in the Department of Animal and Plant Sciences at Sheffield University, where she investigated the effects of competitive and cooperative interactions among siblings on life-history traits. Back in France, she focused on questions about parental investment, and how sexual selection shapes the evolution of cooperation in humans. She currently leads research programs on human genetic and behavioural adaptations, and on the medicalization of birth. She teaches evolutionary biology and medicine in several master’s programs in France. She is also a student at the Medical School of Montpellier.

Crispin Jenkinson is Professor of Health Services Research, and Director of the Health Services Research Unit (HSRU), at the Nuffield Department of Population Health and a Senior Research Fellow of Harris Manchester College in the University of Oxford. He graduated from Bedford College (University of London) before coming to Oxford where he gained an MSc in Psychology and then undertook research on the psychological impact of long-term illness for a DPhil. Prior to joining the HSRU in 1992, he was a research fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford. His main research interests include patient reported outcomes and health status measurement, the evaluation of patient experiences of medical care, and methodology. He has extensive experience of developing and validating outcome measures and, in collaboration with others, has conducted randomised controlled trials in which such instruments have been primary end-points.  

“This book challenges the current thinking on some of the basics of disease. … This is a book for the visionaries and researchers in medicine, to provoke thought and expand the realm of possibilities for future research. … this is a book for those whose careers are more focused on questioning the status quo and where medicine should be headed. For all its controversial ideas, it is a very interesting and thought-provoking book.” (Vincent F. Carr, Doody's Book Reviews, March, 2016)