Medical Humanities Commons^™

Why I Brought My Mother Home, Barbara L. Gracious

HCA Healthcare Journal of Medicine

According to the Alzheimer’s Association, in the United States more than 16 million adult family members provide care for a relative with Alzheimer’s disease or other dementia. The economic value contributed by unpaid caregivers is $234 billion dollars. Such caregivers are vital to the ability of the U.S. to meet caretaking needs, as the projected number of individuals suffering from dementia will nearly triple over the next 30 years. A meta-analysis found that decisions to provide family caretaking are rooted in long-standing family relationships. This essay explores one family’s decision to move from long-term institutional care back to family-based care …

Wellness Review 2019, Part 2, Brian A. Ferguson, Martin Huecker

Journal of Wellness

Welcome to Part 2 of the Journal of Wellness review of 2019 wellness literature (July-December). In this review, we continue the goal of bringing a cohesive awareness of recent publications within the wellness domain, encompassing wellness leaders from all disciplines in healthcare. We provide insight into unique perspectives and new science published outside of JWellness, dealing with burnout prevention and wellness initiative implementation.

The Effect Of Physician Held Stigmas And Bias On The Health Outcomes Of Patients With Obesity: A Review Of The Literature, Rachel Cohen, Catherine Jones

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice

Obesity is a growing epidemic that continues to garner attention throughout healthcare. The goal of this study was to review the literature on physician bias and stigmas surrounding obesity to assess the current state of research on connections between obesity-related stigma and the health outcomes and care of patients with obesity. A specific search string was used to obtain articles via PubMed and psychINFO, yielding 14 studies found that investigate these connections. The studies were categorized into three distinct pathways leading from physician stigma and biases to differing health outcomes of patients with obesity. These three pathways- perceptions, patient interaction, …

Safety And Immunogenicity Of The Oral, Inactivated, Enterotoxigenic Escherichia Coli Vaccine Etvax In Bangladeshi Children And Infants: A Double-Blind, Randomised, Placebo-Controlled Phase 1/2 Trial, Firdausi Qadri, Marjahan Akhtar, Taufiqur R Bhuiyan, Mohiul I Chowdhury, Tasnuva Ahmed, Tanzeem A Rafique, Arifuzzaman Khan, Sadia I A Rahman, Farhana Khanam, Anna Lundgren, Gudrun Wiklund, Joanna Kaim, Madeleine Löfstrand, Nils Carlin, A Louis Bourgeois, Nicole Maier, Alan Fix, Thomas Wierzba, Richard I Walker, Ann-Mari Svennerholm

Faculty and Staff Publications

Background: Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli causes diarrhoea, leading to substantial mortality and morbidity in children, but no specific vaccine exists. This trial tested an oral, inactivated, enterotoxigenic E coli vaccine (ETVAX), which has been previously shown to be safe and highly immuongenic in Swedish and Bangladeshi adults. We tested the safety and immunogenicity of ETVAX, consisting of four E coli strains overexpressing the most prevalent colonisation factors (CFA/I, CS3, CS5, and CS6) and a toxoid (LCTBA) administered with or without a double-mutant heat-labile enterotoxin (dmLT) as an adjuvant, in Bangladeshi children.

Methods: We did a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, dose-escalation, age-descending, phase …

A Cuticular Romance, Anne F. Liu

Journal of Wellness

No abstract provided.

Books: The Original And Final Refuge For Mental Wellness, Kyle Christopher Miller

Journal of Wellness

An appreciation for literature and how reading fights to stay relevant in the fast moving era of technology.

Surgeons’ Views On Shared Decision-Making, Suraj Kannan, Jayhyun Seo, Kevin R. Riggs, Gail Geller, Emily F. Boss, Zackary D. Berger

Journal of Patient-Centered Research and Reviews

Purpose: Shared decision-making (SDM) has a significant role in surgical encounters, where decisions are influenced by both clinician and patient preferences. Herein, we sought to explore surgeons’ practices and beliefs about SDM.

Methods: We performed a qualitative study consisting of semi-structured individual interviews with 18 surgeons from private practice and academic surgery practices in Baltimore, Maryland. We purposively sampled participants to maximize diversity of practice type (academic vs private), surgical specialty, gender, and experience level. Interview topics included benefits and challenges to patient involvement in decision-making, communicating uncertainty to patients, and use of decision aids. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed. …

In Gratitude Of 2019 Jpcrr Peer Reviewers

Journal of Patient-Centered Research and Reviews

Journal of Patient-Centered Research and Reviews gratefully acknowledges the contributions of its submission reviewers from the previous year. Peer review is an essential component to publishing high-quality scientific literature. The editors thank these individuals for their generous volunteerism.

Medicine And The Museum: An Experiential Case Study In Art History Pedagogy And Practice, Marcia Brennan

Art History Pedagogy & Practice

This article brings three scholarly and professional perspectives to bear on museum-based learning experiences for undergraduate pre-medical and STEM students. In the first section, Marcia Brennan describes the seminar on “Medicine and the Museum: Clinical Aesthetics and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston” that she teaches at Rice University. Brennan is a modernist art historian, and her discussion focuses on the ways in which classes such as this can contribute meaningfully to undergraduate pre-medical and STEM education. Brennan collaborated with Joshua Eyler, who served as Executive Director of Rice University’s Center for Teaching Excellence. In the second section, Eyler discusses …

Healing, Srinivasan Ragothaman

Creative Work

This is a poem reflecting on the current human conditions in the USA, India-China conflict, racism, and other human conflicts. It calls for healing and asks every one to follow the golden rule: treat others as you want them to treat you!

Ethical Imperatives Critical To Effective Disease Control In The Coronavirus Pandemic: Recognition Of Global Health Interdependence As A Driver Of Health And Social Equity, George A. Gellert Md, Mph, Mpa

Journal of Health Ethics

Ethical imperatives critical to effective disease control in the coronavirus pandemic: Recognition of global health interdependence as a driver of health and social equity

George A. Gellert MD, MPH, MPA

ABSTRACT

Decades into the era of emerging infectious diseases, the 2019-2020 coronavirus pandemic has caught the world, and the United States in particular, poorly prepared to engage effective public health disease prevention and control measures. In part, this reflects poor public health planning, response, logistical preparation and pandemic readiness, and complacency by governments and disease control agencies. In terms of future responses to emerging infection pandemics, these deficiencies can be …

Tuskegee Syphilis Study Not America's Only Medical Scandal: Chester M. Southam, Md, Henrietta Lacks, And The Sloan-Kettering Research Scandal, Leonard F. Vernon

Journal of Health Ethics

The words “human medical experimentation” conjure up visions of Nazi medicine, which has come to exemplify the worst evils in the history of humankind. Places like Auschwitz and Dachau, where human life was cheap and test subjects plentiful were used as laboratories.

In 2010 the US government apologized to Guatemala for allowing U.S. doctors to infect Guatemalan prisoners and mental patients with syphilis 65 years earlier, while acknowledging dozens of similar experiments in the United States. These included studies that often involved making healthy people sick. such as in the Tuskegee syphilis study.

These experiments were often life threatening and …

Service-Learning As Global Citizenship Education: Acting Locally On Global Challenges And Concerns, Genejane M. Adarlo

Health Sciences Faculty Publications

Service-learning is a method of teaching that is increasingly used in higher education. Studies are few though on how local placements in service-learning can bring about global citizenship and promote social justice. Hence, this study used multi-sited ethnography to examine the teaching-learning process of service-learning to better understand the construction of civic identity and sense of agency among students when this method of teaching was approached within the larger context of social justice. Study participants included students taking part in service-learning efforts for literacy and maternal health from Miriam College and Ateneo de Manila University, respectively. Data were gathered and …

An Innovative Editing Service For Medical Students, Lisa Price

Libraries Scholarship

Background: The Library serves students, staff and faculty of the Rowan University School of Osteopathic Medicine and related Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. Students face the daunting yet crucial tasks of preparing Personal Statements for residency, scholarship and other applications. Students and residents are also encouraged to seek publication opportunities. We recognized a need for proofreading and editing assistance, and one of our librarians had the background and experience to provide such a service.

Description: We developed a flyer announcing available services and distributed it within the library, at student and residency orientations, committee meetings and other appropriate campus events. …

Immunotherapy: Therapy Vs. Enhancement, Mariah Daly

Honors Program Theses

The battle against cancer is a long-standing struggle that has resulted in new information and the development of novel medical technologies. Current research aims to figure out a way to reprogram cells and bodily mechanisms to eliminate those cells that are cancerous without destroying healthy cells in the process. Methods which use the body’s own mechanisms, such as immunotherapy, have shown and continue to show potential for specifically targeting cancer cells. Adoptive T cell therapy is one form of immunotherapy that has gained significant attention and focus in the field. Therapies improve conditions up to the normal state of being, …

On The Proposed Legalization Of Commercial Surrogacy: I Thought We Had Abolished The Sale Of Human Beings, Phyllis Chesler

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

No abstract provided.

Stress And Cancer Treatment: How A Family’S Adaptability And Cohesion Affects Financial Stress, Emily Marie Johnson

Theses and Dissertations--Family Sciences

According to the American Cancer Society (2019), it is estimated that 1,762,450 new cancer diagnoses occurred in 2019 in the United States. Currently, cancer remains one of the leading causes of death worldwide (American Cancer Society, 2019). As cancer affects the family, roles within the family will shift (e.g., transitioning to a caregiving relationship), causing each family member to adapt. With the costs of cancer steadily increasing, this potentially leaves a devastating impact on the family. When considering family function in terms of Family Systems, John Rolland created the Family Systems Illness Model to explain how families adapt to an …

Vulvodynia, It’S In My Head: Mad Methods Toward Crip Coalition, Renee Dumaresque

Journal of Feminist Scholarship

This article employs a mad transdisciplinary approach to autoethnography to detail vulvodynia — or chronic vulvar pain — within the system of (dis)ability. Through autoethnography, the self operates as a mobile orientation from which to identify and disrupt the colonial rationalities that differentially construct and narrate vulvodynia across sites of madness and disability. Through historical, discursive, and autoethnographic analysis, I locate vulvodynia’s role in various processes of subject, race, and settler-state formation from the nineteenth century up to the neoliberal present.

Racial Residential Segregation And Infant Mortality In The United States, Annmarie Jones

Student Research Symposium

People of color in the United States experience poorer health and higher mortality rates than their white counterparts and these outcomes are a result of structural racism. Structural racism refers to the ways in which societies foster racial discrimination, through mutually reinforcing inequitable systems (in housing, education, employment, earnings, benefits, credit, media, health care, criminal justice, and so on) that in turn reinforce discriminatory beliefs, values, and distribution of resources. These together affect the risk of adverse health outcomes (1). Research shows that racial disparities in prenatal, infant and neonatal mortality is a serious public health problem in the United …

Examining The Impact Of Baldrige On Hospital Performance, Jennifer O. Strahan

All ETDs from UAB

The national Baldrige program has supported performance excellence within healthcare for over twenty years, yet it has seen recent declines in the number of applications despite Baldrige award recipients claiming noteworthy improvements across operational, clinical, and financial outcomes. Previous studies have compared Baldrige hospital recipients to non-recipients, but no studies have empirically investigated the value of pursuing the Baldrige award, regardless of award recognition or not. Furthermore, it is unclear if specific categories of the Baldrige Excellence Framework (BEF) are associated with standardized industry performance outcomes. This study used propensity score matching with linear and quantile regression techniques to understand …

Perspectives On Student Hunger And Poverty, Ruchi Patel

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Poverty is a factor that affects many aspects of one’s life. For a student looking to get a bachelor’s degree at a university or college, money is one of the top priorities to look at. The high cost of universities and colleges create financial strain affecting the ability of students to obtain better opportunities. Furthermore, many college students struggling financially come from economically challenged backgrounds. Economic struggles related to college cost, housing and food insecurity can lead to malnourished students as well as high stress levels. Approximately 36% of Univeristy students and 42% of community college students were food insecure …

Internet Of Things For Sustainable Human Health, Abdul Salam

Faculty Publications

The sustainable health IoT has the strong potential to bring tremendous improvements in human health and well-being through sensing, and monitoring of health impacts across the whole spectrum of climate change. The sustainable health IoT enables development of a systems approach in the area of human health and ecosystem. It allows integration of broader health sub-areas in a bigger archetype for improving sustainability in health in the realm of social, economic, and environmental sectors. This integration provides a powerful health IoT framework for sustainable health and community goals in the wake of changing climate. In this chapter, a detailed description …

Assessment Of Emergency Department High Utilizer Program In Public Health System Setting, Michael Malaise

All ETDs from UAB

is study examined whether a case management model designed to reduce emergency department utilization among patients described as super-utilizers in a public health system could also reduce the per patient cost of those super-utilizers. The setting for this study was a large public health system in a major metropolitan area. The study focused on a low-income, urban population. Given the program’s stated desire to improve the self-efficacy of patients over time so that they could take more ownership of their own health status, this study reviewed the program within the framework of self-efficacy theory. This research predicted that the case …

Impact Of Ncqa Pcmh-Level On Low Income Diabetics In Louisiana, Michael G. Griffin

All ETDs from UAB

While past studies have examined the relationship between safety-net provider sites that are certified as Patient Centered Medical Homes (PCMH) and quality health care outcomes, no previous studies have evaluated the relationship between NCQA PCMH certification levels at primary care sites and quality health care outcomes. NCQA is the largest national certification program for PCMH, and for 10 years was the only national program that offered a tiered level of certification based on provider level of patient engagement and deployed resources. The Donabedian Model, which focuses on structure, process, and outcomes, was used to develop the theoretical framework to address …

Restless Legs Syndrome And Multiple Sclerosis: The Possible Role Of Physical Activity For Managing Symptoms, Katie Cederberg

All ETDs from UAB

Restless legs syndrome (RLS) is an idiopathic neurological disorder characterized by unpleasant sensations in the legs that affects 26% of persons with multiple sclerosis (MS). The current pharmacological treatments for RLS are associated with a number of side effects, including the worsening of symptoms (i.e., augmentation). Physical activity represents a promising, behavioral approach for managing symptoms of RLS in MS. To date, physical activity has demonstrated tremendous benefits for managing many consequences of MS, but there is no evidence on its efficacy for managing RLS in MS. This dissertation described the current literature regarding physical activity and RLS in adults …

Mechanisms Of Virtual Reality To Improve Walking And Reaching Behavior In Individuals With Chronic Low Back Pain, Rebecca Hennessy

All ETDs from UAB

Chronic low back pain (cLBP), low back pain persisting longer than three to six months, is a prevalent condition that can greatly interfere with movement quality. Specifically, cLBP can result in slower walking speeds and negatively affect reaching movements. Virtual reality (VR) encompasses a variety of technologies which may potentially improve therapeutic interventions for individuals with cLBP by presenting users with fun, distracting, and engaging challenges that align with their rehabilitative goals. While VR systems have become more accessible to everyday users, there is limited research which specifically examines VR mechanisms to improve walking and reaching quality. This dissertation presents …

An Analysis Of The Impact Of The Long-Term Care Partnership Program On The Number Of Lives Covered By Long-Term Care Insurance And Medicaid Expenditures In Nursing Homes, Cheris Kline

All ETDs from UAB

The growing number of people over the age of 65 in the U.S. will exacerbate already inadequate resources for long-term care, producing increased public health costs. The Long-Term Care Partnership Program (LTCPP) was proposed to save Medicaid expenditures by incentivizing the purchase of long-term care insurance. At this juncture, it is unclear if the partnership program saves the government money. This study draws from the expected utility theory and resource dependency theory to determine whether the LTCPP has increased the purchase of private long-term care insurance and reduced Medicaid expenditures in nursing homes in states that have adopted the partnership …

The Comparison Of Two Diabetes Self-Management Education Programs In The Reduction Of Patient A1c Levels, Edward Sharpless

All ETDs from UAB

This dissertation was a quasi-experimental research study exploring the effectiveness of two educational teaching methods with patients with diabetes. One teaching method utilized an education framework called the Conversation Map tools, a group-based, highly interactive learning experience using colorful visual tools, activity cards and sharing of real-life experiences. The other method was a traditional, lecture-style class taught by a health educator using overhead slides and handouts.

Secondary data from a regional health system in the Western U.S. was used to test the hypothesis that participants in the Conversation Map classes would report a larger drop in A1c levels compared to …

Fixed And Variable Costs At Critical Access Hospitals, Jeremy J. Lyman

All ETDs from UAB

Cost structures (the ratio of fixed to variable costs) vary across and within indus-tries. Hospital managers and policymakers can make better decisions when they under-stand cost structures, including marginal costs (the change in the total cost that arises when the quantity produced is increased by one unit). Although some studies have inves-tigated hospital cost structures, the results have been mixed and less than definitive, and very little attention has been given to critical access hospitals and marginal costs specifi-cally. Rural hospitals, including critical access hospitals, have increasingly experienced financial distress. Between 2005 and 2019, 159 rural hospitals closed across the …

Impact Of Registered Nurse Staffing Ratio On Nursing Home Operating Margins And Quality Measure Star Ratings, Douglas R. Whitman

All ETDs from UAB

Today’s nursing homes are under immense pressure from government regulators to improve quality while the government simultaneously tightens reimbursement rates. These two forces squeeze operating margins. The question facing nursing home operators is how to improve quality without breaking the bank. This study looks at the association of more registered nurses (RN) with quality and margins in U.S. nursing homes. This research project fills literature gaps which previously found improved nursing home quality correlates with more RNs. However, prior studies used self-reported data and typically considered only two or three quality measures. This study uses recently released electronic payroll data …