Medical Humanities Commons^™

"The Relevant History And Medical And Ethical Future Viability Of Xenotransplantation", Morgan Janes

Augustana Center for the Study of Ethics Essay Contest

Xenotransplantation, the transplantation of organs or tissues from one species to another, presents a complex nexus of medical, ethical, and cultural considerations. In this article, we delve into the multifaceted landscape of xenotransplantation, beginning with a thorough examination of its relevant historical trajectory. From early experiments to recent advancements, we chart the evolution of this field, setting the stage for a nuanced discussion. We then confront the central issue: the true medical viability of xenotransplantation and the looming specter of operative risk. By scrutinizing the ethical dilemmas inherent in xenotransplantation through a multicultural lens, we illuminate the diverse perspectives that …

Zooming In On Justice: The Case For Virtual Bioethics Conferencing., Bruce P Blackshaw, Daniel Rodger, Daniel J Hurst

Rowan-Virtua School of Osteopathic Medicine Faculty Scholarship

No abstract available.

Racial Disparities In Palliative Care Utilization In The Covid-19 Pandemic, Margaret S. Bove, Benjamin Huber, Myles Hardeman, Daniel Harris, Areeba Jawed, Amber Comer

Medical Student Research Symposium

BACKGROUND

Palliative care is a vital resource for the critically or terminally ill. It has myriad benefits such as improved quality of life, reduced depressive symptoms, and decreased scarce resource utilization. Self-identified Black/African patients, however, are less likely to utilize advanced care directives or engage in hospice/comfort care measures and are more likely to prefer intensive treatment at the end of life. There is no research, however, on how the COVID-19 pandemic may have affected these trends.

METHODS

A retrospective cohort study of patients who experienced in hospital mortality or in hospital hospice due to COVID-19 between March 2020 – …

Narratives Of Reproductive Control In The American Eugenics Movement, Cassandra M. Provost

Honors Theses

In this paper, I will explore the eugenics movement as a pseudo-scientific political, social, and legal phenomenon which had a devastating historical impact on America’s most vulnerable women, as well as briefly discuss its residual effects on contemporary reproductive rights conversations, through the lens of literature. Using an interdisciplinary discourse and narrative analysis approach, I identify two distinct themes within the explored narratives: (1) the importance of a government’s attempt to override a person’s autonomy by destroying the person’s ability to reproduce, and (2) the impropriety of actions based on a negative attitude toward disabled or undesirable persons. In my …

Medical Students Attending Schools Along The Us-Mexico Border: Experiences From Bilingual And Monolingual Students, Roger Banda Jr, Aaron Silva, Ney Alliey Rodriguez

MEDI 9331 Scholarly Activities Clinical Years

We present a study that aims to capture experiences of bilingual and monolingual medical students exposed to patient populations with limited English proficiency along the US-Mexico border. The study surveyed US-Medical students at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley in the clerkship years of medical education. A total of 121 medical students were surveyed consisting of both bilingual and monolingual students of which 32 responded (26%). Of the students surveyed, 0% reported being certified as medical language interpreters. 24% reported feeling somewhat uncomfortable and 10% extremely uncomfortable while interpreting, 48% reported sometimes making errors in translation, and 33% reported …

Is Racial Diversity Important When Applying To Jmu Pa Program?, Gaelyn E Young, Deonte J. Hope

Physician Assistant Capstones, 2020-current

The Physician Assistant profession is predominantly female and Caucasian. In order to increase the diversity of the profession at the level of the workforce, it is necessary to examine PA programs' role as the entryway into the profession. To that end, this evaluation aimed at surveying current and future PA students at James Madison University to understand whether racial diversity of both the program's cohort and/or its faculty was a factor in their decision to apply and/or attend the school.

Self-Care Practices For Common Acute Conditions In The Philippines: A Scoping Review, Arianna Maever Loreche, Veincent Christian F. Pepito, Manuel M. Dayrit

Ateneo School of Medicine and Public Health Publications

Purpose

This review aimed to identify and map published studies on self-care practices to manage common acute health conditions in the Philippines.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors conducted a scoping review in PubMed, Scopus, Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), ProQuest Central, Journal Storage (JSTOR) and the Philippine Council for Health Research and Development – Health Research and Development Information Network (HERDIN). The authors included all studies on self-care practices to manage common acute conditions, namely low back pain, allergic rhinitis, general acute pain, cough, cold, diarrhea, constipation and stress, published up to 2021 in the Philippines. Information on …

Medical Tourism & Communication, Alicia Mason

Faculty Submissions

Medical tourism (MT), sometimes referred to as health tourism or medical travel, involves both the treatment of illness and the facilitation of wellness, with travel. Medical tourism is a multifaceted and multiphase process involving many agents and actors that requires careful planning and execution. The coordinated process involves the biomedical, transportation, tourism, and leisure industries. From the communication perspective, the process can be viewed as a 5-stage model consisting of the: (a) orientation, (b) preparation, (c) experiential and treatment, (d) convalescence, and (e) reflection phases. Medical tourism is uniquely situated in a nexus of academic literature related to communication, business …

Social Determinants Of Health And Lung Cancer Surgery: A Qualitative Study, Dede K. Teteh, Betty Ferrell, Oluwatimilehin Okunowo, Aidea Downie, Loretta Erhunmwunsee, Susanne B. Montgomery, Dan J. Raz, Rick Kittles, Jae Y. Kim, Virginia Sun

Health Sciences and Kinesiology Faculty Articles

Introduction: Social determinants of health (SDOH) are non-clinical factors that may affect the outcomes of cancer patients. The purpose of this study was to describe the influence of SDOH factors on quality of life (QOL)-related outcomes for lung cancer surgery patients.

Methods: Thirteen patients enrolled in a randomized trial of a dyadic self-management intervention were invited and agreed to participate in semi-structured key informant interviews at study completion (3 months post-discharge). A conventional content analysis approach was used to identify codes and themes that were derived from the interviews. Independent investigators coded the qualitative data, which were subsequently …

An Exploration Of Complementary And Alternative Medicine Usage Within The Vietnamese Community In Lincoln, Nebraska, Helen Duong

Honors Theses

Lincoln, Nebraska is home to over 5,000 Vietnamese refugees and immigrants, many of whom practice complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) as a result of healing traditions passed down through family members. This thesis explores the use of CAM among the Vietnamese population of Lincoln. The study employs an analysis of the literature on CAM among Vietnamese populations and thematic analysis of interviews conducted with members of the Vietnamese community of Lincoln, NE. Interviews explore perceptions of healthcare quality and access within this community as well as investigate the link between CAM and allopathic (Western) medicine. Findings suggest that certain CAM …

Learning From Death: Health Education Considerations For Medical Tourists, Caregiving Companions, And Medical Tourism Providers, Alicia Mason, Sakshi Bhati, Ran Jiang, Elizabeth Spencer

Faculty Submissions

Medical tourism is a process in which a consumer travels from one’s health jurisdiction to receive biomedical treatments or services, thus becoming a patient. This chapter explores how global media frame cases of patient death associated with the medical tourism (MT) process between 2009-2019. A qualitative content analysis of 50 patient mortality cases found that (1) a majority of media representations of medical tourism patient death are of middle-class, minority females between 25-55 years of age seeking cosmetic surgery internationally; (2) sudden death, grief, and bereavement counseling is noticeably absent from medical tourism providers (MTPs); and (3) the acknowledgement of …

Microaggressions: Investigating Physical Therapy Student Perspectives During Clinical Experiences, Dakota Studley, Jocelin Friedman, Ashley H. Campbell, Laurie Shimko, Megan B. Flores

Physical Therapy Faculty Articles and Research

Purpose: Microaggressions are “brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, and environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory or negative racial slights and insults to the target person or group” (Gilliam & Russel, 2021). The effect of microaggressions has been explored among medical students, however, there is limited literature identifying the frequency and effect of microaggressions on Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) students. The purpose of this study is to explore the experiences of DPT students on clinical experiences to determine: 1) the frequency that students experience microaggressions, and 2) the impact of microaggressions on self-efficacy.

Methods: …

Social Inequalities And The Adoption Of Health Misinformation In Cameroon: Implications On Health Behaviour, Eugene Nche Che

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Public health restrictions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in an increase in the reliance on social media for peer interactions. This resulted in the proliferation of medical misinformation and conspiracy theories that undermined public support for disease control measures, and influenced negative health attitudes such as vaccine denial. The aim of this study was to determine how social inequalities influence the adoption of health related misinformation, and the extent to which the adoption of health misinformation results in poor health behaviours. The study employed an exploratory survey design, and relied on both quantitative and qualitative methods to collect …

Exploring The Effects Of Christian Worldviews On Heart Rate, Stress, And Adjustment After Loss In Bereaved Individuals, Emma Radini Ratnavel

Honors Scholar Theses

The objective of this study is to investigate the correlation between Christian values, perceptions of God, and physiological stress, assessed through heart rate, among individuals who are experiencing grief due to the loss of a loved one. Previous studies have analyzed various physiological effects on the body. There are very few studies that examine the correlation between Christian values and heart rate in bereaved participants. To explore these topics further, this study analyzes 59 undergraduate students who have recently lost a loved one, identify as a Christian, and are at least 18 years old. The participants' perceptions of God and …

Expressing Information Needs And Information Literacy Skills Amongst Final Year Undergraduate Students In Northern Nigeria, Zikrat Abdulsalam, Imoisili Ojeime Odigie

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Information literacy is the ability of an individual to locate, evaluate, and use information. This study expresses the conscious information needs and information literacy skills amongst final year undergraduate students of three Universities in Nigeria; being the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Federal University Lokoja (FUL), and Baze University. A survey research design alongside a questionnaire for the instrument were utilised on a sample size of 307 final year undergraduate students from select faculties within the above-mentioned universities. The findings of the study amongst other show that undergraduate students at the final year level had a conscious knowledge of their information …

Implementation Of Post-Covid Conditions Management Utilizing Interprofessional Collaboration In A Multi-Facility Healthcare Organization, Jocelin Friedman, Christina Dhesi-Bawa, Kathleen Kennedy, Stephen Lee, Leona Hidalgo

Physical Therapy Faculty Articles and Research

Background: The prevalence of Post-Covid Conditions (PCC) is estimated to affect 10-35% of infected individuals, with upwards of 85% of previously hospitalized individuals reporting prolonged effects. Literature indicates deficiencies in communication between healthcare providers which can negatively affect patients. Due to limited interprofessional communication, there was a scarcity of individuals with PCC receiving comprehensive therapy treatment on an outpatient basis. The multi-system nature of PCC was an indication for interprofessional collaboration and the development of workflows facilitating access to care.

Purpose: This qualitative study investigates the Post-COVID-19 Rehabilitation Program (PCRP) at a California, USA multi-facility healthcare system. The …

Empathy And The Medical Student House Call: The Effect Of Clinical Settings On Empathy In Third Year Medical Students, Philip B. Collins, Thomas Dinzeo, Jennifer C. Sepede, John F. Bertagnolli, Christian White

Rowan-Virtua School of Osteopathic Medicine Faculty Scholarship

OBJECTIVE: This study measured the effect the experience of house calls might have on third-year medical students.

METHODS: Students were surveyed via an anonymous online survey at the start of their geriatrics clerkship, again at the end of their clerkship, and once more three months later. Empathy was measured using the Jefferson Scale of Empathy - Student version (JSE) and student attitudes towards the geriatrics population was measured using the UCLA Geriatrics Attitudes Scale (GAS). Data were analyzed using SPSS version 27.0.

RESULTS: No changes in empathy were found when comparing students who completed house calls versus those who did …

Social Determinants Of Health Among Family Caregiver Centered Outcomes In Lung Cancer: A Systematic Review, Dede K. Teteh, Madeleine Love, Marissa Ericson, Marissa Chan, Tanyanika Phillips, Aroona Toor, Betty Ferrell, Loretta Erhunmwunsee, Susanne B. Montgomery, Virginia Sun, Jae Y. Kim

Health Sciences and Kinesiology Faculty Articles

Background: Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death globally. Both lung cancer patients and family caregivers (FCGs) have unmet quality of life (QOL) needs. An understudied topic in lung cancer research is the role of social determinants of health (SDOH) on QOL outcomes for this population. The purpose of this review was to explore the state of research on SDOH FCGs centered outcomes in lung cancer.

Methods: The databases PubMed/MEDLINE, Cochrane Library, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, and American Psychological Association (APA) PsycInfo were searched for peer-reviewed manuscripts evaluating defined SDOH domains on …

Anti-Vaccination: Addressing Vaccine Hesitancy And Its Consequences For Modern Public Health Policy, Joshua Bird

Senior Honors Theses

Modern vaccination is arguably the most significant medical achievement in human history. Through widespread vaccination, populations are no longer susceptible to diseases that plagued humanity for most of its existence (measles, rubella, smallpox). While vaccinations have largely shown themselves as safe and efficacious under most circumstances, small but considerable portions of the worldwide population reject vaccination for various social, religious, and political reasons. Research indicates that vaccine hesitancy spans all socioeconomic boundaries, affecting patients and their physicians. To explore the underlying themes of vaccine hesitancy and their relationship to loss aversion and omission bias, a study of various factors underlying …

Pandemic Review: South Los Angeles, Madeline Carmella Acosta

Whittier Scholars Program

IMPORTANCE The COVID-19 pandemic has deepened the discussion on social inequality and vulnerabilities of the Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) community. The understanding is that inequality is a multifaceted issue that stems from the historical mistreatment of BIPOC individuals—their sociodemographic and economic backgrounds are at the most risk in population studies. Many predictors of contracting COVID-19 included employment status (ability to work from home), education level, income (wealth), and housing conditions (environment) (Rozenfeld et al., 2020). Contracting COVID-19 in South Los Angeles was more likely to happen among those from racial and ethnic minorities and those living in …

Focusing Our Attention On Socially Responsive Professional Education To Serve Ethnogeriatric Populations With Neurogenic Communication Disorders In The United States, José G. Centeno, Loraine K. Obler, Linda Collins, Gloriajean Wallace, Valarie B. Fleming, Jacqueline Guendouzi

Communication Sciences and Disorders Faculty Articles and Research

Purpose:

This viewpoint discusses a plausible framework to educate future speech-language pathologists (SLPs) as socially responsive practitioners who serve and advocate for the burgeoning vulnerable ethnogeriatric populations with neurogenic communication disorders.

Method:

We provide an overview of the demographic, epidemiological, and biopsychosocial context that supports the implementation of equity-based, population-grounded educational approaches for speech-language pathology services in ethnogeriatric neurorehabilitation caseloads and discuss a plausible perspective based on the educational social determinants of health (SDOH) framework by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

Results:

The NASEM's three-domain SDOH educational perspective integrates education, community, and organization to create a self-reinforcing …

The Wpath Standards Of Care: Their History And Importance In Advocating For Transgender Health, Alexander Cross

Honors College

The World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) Standards of Care publication one most-often cited in the defense of increasing attacks on transgender rights to gender-affirming healthcare, as it is the reigning body of clinical guidelines and recommendations for the medical treatment of transgender and gender-diverse populations developed for application in a global context. This paper recounts the history of the WPATH organization––formerly called the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association––and the evolution of its Standards publication. In light of historical and recent attacks on gender-affirming care, an overview of the material implications of the Standards’ changes as they pertain …

Analyzing The Use Of Social Media To Communicate The Intersection Of The Gut Microbiome And Mental Illness, Grace Lafrance

Honors College

This study examines the availability and accuracy of information about the connection between the gut microbiome and the brain, specifically mental illness. Mental illness is a general term used to describe nearly 300 mental disorders, though the two most common, anxiety and depression, were of specific interest for this study. The current biological/ neural theories for anxiety and depression do not adequately illustrate many other factors that influence the development of mental illness. After determining that Generation Z is one of the age groups most affected by these mental illnesses, social media was used to analyze the availability of the …

University Students' Experience With Primary Care During Their High School Years And The Impact On Transition To Adult Primary Care, Grace Finley

Honors College

Focus: PC is associated with positive health outcomes and reduced costs. Estimates of adolescents who transition from pediatric PC to adult PC is low; yet it is reported those who have positive experiences with PC are more likely to access PC as adults. Studies describing adolescents’ HS experience with PC and how it affected transition to adult PC are lacking. The purpose of this study was to describe university students’ experience with PC during their HS years and the impact on transition to adult PC.

Methods: This study is a descriptive, non-experimental design whereby students reported their HS PC experience …

Imagining Gender Euphorias, Willow Wind

Honors College

Our society needs to talk about gender, but we aren’t very good at it. Avoiding these discussions has harmful impacts on body image and various health disparities (The Trevor Project, 2020). What if we have better and regular conversations about ways we can positively experience gender? This study’s model of negotiating gender can be used by families and educators seeking affirming exploratory learning opportunities. Insights into meanings of gender euphoria help validate diverse sets of experiences, informing a broader cultural discourse that increasingly questions gender binarism (Griffin, 2020).

This study explores conceptualizations and enactment of gender euphoria across demographics and …

Brain Volume, Energy Balance, And Cardiovascular Health In Two Nonindustrial South American Populations, Hillard Kaplan, Paul L. Hooper, Margaret Gatz, Wendy J. Mack, E. Meng Law, Helena C. Chui, M. Linda Sutherland, James D. Sutherland, Christopher J. Rowan, L. Samuel Wann, Adel H. Allam, Randall C. Thompson, David E. Michalik, Guido Lombardi, Michael I. Miyamoto, Daniel Eid Rodriguez, Juan Copajira Adrian, Raul Quispe Gutierrez, Bret A. Beheim, Daniel K. Cummings, Edmond Seabright, Sarah Alami, Angela R. Garcia, Kenneth Buetow, Gregory S. Thomas, Caleb E. Finch, Jonathan Stieglitz, Benjamin C. Trumble, Michael D. Gurven, Andrei Irimia

ESI Publications

Little is known about brain aging or dementia in nonindustrialized environments that are similar to how humans lived throughout evolutionary history. This paper examines brain volume (BV) in middle and old age among two indigenous South American populations, the Tsimane and Moseten, whose lifestyles and environments diverge from those in high-income nations. With a sample of 1,165 individuals aged 40 to 94, we analyze population differences in cross-sectional rates of decline in BV with age. We also assess the relationships of BV with energy biomarkers and arterial disease and compare them against findings in industrialized contexts. The analyses test three …

Ethics And Epidemiology Workshop Report: Towards Ethics-Informed Epidemiology And Epidemiology-Informed Ethics, Zoe Ritchie, Brendan T. Smith Phd, Maxwell J. Smith Phd

Health Studies Publications

Two key groups of researchers have worked in parallel to advance health equity—one on the descriptive component (those in public health sciences, e.g., epidemiologists) and one on the normative component (those in the humanities and social sciences, e.g., philosophers and ethicists). Yet a significant gulf exists between their respective research. Consequently, advances in thinking regarding the philosophical underpinnings and normative requirements of health equity have been largely divorced from the design of public health interventions that seek to reduce health inequities. As a consequence, public health interventions aiming to advance health equity may fail to target the most appropriate populations …

Comentarios Críticos Escritos Por Estudiantes De Medicina Sobre La Evaluación Del Paciente, David Sánchez-Jiménez

Publications and Research

La presente investigación analiza los comentarios críticos producidos por estudiantes chilenos de 3º y 4º de Medicina en la sección Comentario/Reflexión final de la Ficha Clínica con el objetivo de conocer su opinión sobre la experiencia de su estancia hospitalaria y la práctica médica en general, así como de entender los elementos retórico-discursivos que utilizan para posicionar su voz en el texto al evaluar dicha experiencia. Para investigar este fenómeno se realizó un análisis textual computarizado de las categorías gramaticales y los contenidos semántico-funcionales valorativos desde un enfoque cualitativo inductivo-deductivo. Los resultados del estudio mostraron un predominio de los comentarios …

Covid-Dynamic: A Large-Scale Longitudinal Study Of Socioemotional And Behavioral Change Across The Pandemic, Tessa Rusch, Yanting Han, Dehua Liang, Amber R. Hopkins, Carolyn V. Lawrence, Uri Maoz, Lynn K. Paul, Damian A. Stanley, The Covid-Dynamic Team

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused enormous societal upheaval globally. In the US, beyond the devastating toll on life and health, it triggered an economic shock unseen since the great depression and laid bare preexisting societal inequities. The full impacts of these personal, social, economic, and public-health challenges will not be known for years. To minimize societal costs and ensure future preparedness, it is critical to record the psychological and social experiences of individuals during such periods of high societal volatility. Here, we introduce, describe, and assess the COVID-Dynamic dataset, a within-participant longitudinal study conducted from April 2020 through January 2021, …

Is Biological Death Final? Recomputing The Drake-S Equation For Postmortem Survival Of Consciousness, Adam J. Rock, James Houran, Patrizio E. Tressoldi, Brian Laythe

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies Advance Publication Archive

This participatory team science project extended Laythe and Houran’s (2022) prior application of a famous probabilistic argument known as the ‘Drake equation’ to the question of postmortem survival. Specifically, we evaluated effect sizes from peer-reviewed, empirical studies to determine the maximum average percentage effect that ostensibly supports (i.e., "anomalous effects") or refutes (i.e., "known confounds") the survival hypothesis. But unlike the earlier application, this research included a study-specific estimate of the hypothesized variable of ‘living agent psi’ via a new meta-analysis of empirical studies (N = 17) with exceptional subjects vs participants from the general population. Our updated analysis found …