Medical Humanities Commons^™

A Nationwide Virtual Research Education Program For Medical Students In Pakistan: Methodological Framework, Feasibility Testing, And Outcomes, Ali Aahil Noorali, Maha Inam, Hamna Shahbaz, Hareem Rauf, Faiqa Binte Aamir, Farah Khalid, Saadia Abbas, Abdullah Saeed, Muhammad Daniyal Musharraf, Asma Altaf Hussain Merchant, Babar Hasan, Muneera A. Rasheed, Fyezah Jehan, Muhammad Tariq, Adil Hussain Haider

Medical College Documents

Introduction: Equipping young medical trainees with fundamental research skills can be a promising strategy to address the need for professionals who can understand and responsibly communicate evolving scientific evidence during a pandemic. Despite an ardent interest to partake in research, most educational institutions in Pakistan and other low-middle income countries have not yet adopted a comprehensive strategy for research skills education. The authors aimed to design and assess the feasibility of implementing the first nation-wide virtual research workshop for medical students in Pakistan.
Methods: The course "Beginners Guide to Research," designed as a nation-wide virtual research workshop series, was conducted …

Dia.Ries, Katherine A. Doyle

Theses and Dissertations

dia.ries is a pilot episode of an episodic series that offers insight into the lives of a few of the 500 million people around the world with diabetes—otherwise normal, everyday people who happen to be living each day with an “invisible illness.” Produced through video diaries and other user-generated content, the series tells stories from first-person points of view along thematic lines, using a collaborative approach rooted in Third Cinema.

Pivoting To Be Patient-Centered: A Study On Hidden Psychological Costs Of Tele-Healthcare And The Patient-Provider Relationship, Adam Neufeld, Vishal Bhella, Clark Svrcek

Internet Journal of Allied Health Sciences and Practice

Purpose: While the COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated a shift toward virtual medicine, there are some potentially important limitations with this modality of healthcare. One such concern, which has not yet been elucidated, is how telephone-based versus in-person visits differentially impact patients’ perceived autonomy and the resulting patient-provider relationship. Grounded in self-determination theory (SDT), this pilot study addresses this question by investigating the association between patients’ perceived autonomy support and relationship needs satisfaction (autonomy, competence, relatedness) in both types of visits with their family doctor and care team. Methods: Running from Sept. 2020 to Feb. 2021, data was collected via convenience …

"It Will Help Him Wonderfully": Placebo And Meaning Responses In Early Medieval English Medicine, Rebecca Brackmann

Faculty Peer-Reviewed Publications

Many early English medical remedies have been dismissed, even by sympathetic scholars, as “mere placebo,” with the implication that therapeutic benefits to the patient, if any, are thereby insignificant. My article challenges such dismissals of placebo responses in Old English medicine. I draw on current research demonstrating that in certain conditions, a placebo effect, or “meaning response” (to use Daniel Moerman’s term), can have striking success in bringing about healing. I describe contemporary clinical practices shown to enhance patient responses to pharmaceutical treatments both inert and active, and demonstrate that these strategies are also visible in early English medical practice. …

A Reflection On Modern Western Adolescent Transitional Care Of Patients With Chronic Conditions, Samuel Schepps

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Transitional care represents a critical juncture in the continuing care of patients with chronic conditions, particularly for adolescent patients. It also represents a significant point of failure in that process for adolescents, with many patients experiencing difficulties during the transition between adolescent and adult medicine that lead to negative long-term impact on health and wellbeing. This thesis aims at addressing adolescent transitional care processes and its obstacles through a broad medical humanities inquiry in a multidisciplinary dialogue between philosophy, social sciences, and medicine. The social, anthropological, and medical concepts of adolescence and autonomy were derived from a literature review and …

Medical Memoirs As A Teaching Tool Within Narrative Medicine, Shelby Mccubbin

Gaines Fellow Senior Theses

No abstract provided.

We Are Having This Conversation Now: The Times Of Aids Cultural Production (Introduction And Timeline 1), Alexandra Juhasz, Theodore Kerr

Publications and Research

This is a book about the history, present, and future of the cultural production of AIDS. It takes the form of thirteen short conversations between two AIDS activists, Alex and Ted, whom you will get to know more as you go along. The book focuses on what we call the Times of AIDS. All this talk is inspired by our longtime AIDS activism and is initiated by looking at related cultural production: objects like AIDS activist videos; events like protests; spaces like AIDS memorials; ideas we have learned from within and outside our community; and through our own memories and …

We Are Having This Conversation Now: The Times Of Aids Cultural Production (Introduction And Toc & 3 Timelines), Alexandra Juhasz, Theodore Kerr

Publications and Research

We Are Having This Conversation Now offers a history, present, and future of AIDS through thirteen short conversations between Alexandra Juhasz and Theodore Kerr, scholars deeply embedded in HIV responses. They establish multiple timelines of the epidemic, offering six foundational periodizations of AIDS culture, tracing how attention to the crisis has waxed and waned from the 1980s to the present. They begin the book with a 1990 educational video produced by a Black health collective, using it to consider organizing intersectionally, theories of videotape, empowerment movements, and memorialization. This video is one of many powerful yet overlooked objects that the …

Capallaries Of Care: Pato Hebert In Conversation With Alex Juhasz, Alexandra Juhasz, Pato Hebert

Publications and Research

Discussion about art show, Lingering: No Silver Linings, about longhaul COVID with artists and organizers, Pato Hebert and Alex Juhasz.

The Relationship Between State Level Funding, Designated Trauma Centers, And Trauma Related Morbidity, Ginger Henry

All ETDs from UAB

This study examined the relationship of funding and the number of designated trauma centers and age-adjusted trauma mortality across the 50 states. State level funding was defined as monies that were paid to the designated trauma hospitals in aggregate by state and by year for the years 2008 to 2017. The number of designated trauma hospitals were considered in the categories of total number of state trauma hospitals and designation levels 1 through 4. Age-adjusted mortality included the ICD-10 codes for trauma from the WISQARS database. The strategic adaptation theory was used to inform the trauma hospital manager’s need to …

Shared Savings Bonus In Mssp And Its Association With Length Of Participation, Terry D. Knight

All ETDs from UAB

Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) are integrated groups of providers responsible for reducing cost and improving quality for a group of individuals. Medicare began using these organizations in 2012, after the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), to move away from traditional fee-for-service reimbursement. This alternative payment model is the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP). MSSP affords ACOs the opportunity to receive a portion of the savings they achieve if specific cost targets and quality benchmarks are met. Length of participation time in the alternative payment model may increase the ACOs’ ability to achieve savings. The analysis of MSSP savings …

Behavioral, Environmental, Social, Psychosocial, And Physiological Factors That Impact The Relationship Between Chronic Lung Disease Status And Susceptibility To Electronic Cigarette Use Or Actual Electronic Cigarette Use, Mohammed M. Alqahtani

All ETDs from UAB

There is surge increase in e-cigarettes among adult vulnerable population such as individuals with chronic lung disease (CLD). Currently, there is a lack of understanding of the factors that may lead to the increase use of e-cigarettes or susceptibility of ecigarette use among individuals who have a history of CLD. Thus, it is crucial to recognize the characteristics of the individuals with CLD and adults without CLD who are susceptible to using e-cigarettes because this may pave the way for the prevention and reduction of tobacco use by identifying the different factors and eventually targeting the related risk factors. In …

Oxygen Cost Of Walking And Its Correlates In Multiple Sclerosis, Brenda Jeng

All ETDs from UAB

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic, neurological disease characterized by demyelination and transection of axons as well as loss of neurons in the central nervous system that may result in poor walking efficiency, indicated by an increase in the oxygen cost of walking (Cw). The Cw is defined as the amount of oxygen consumed per kilogram of body weight per unit distance walked and reflects disability-related gait abnormalities and manifestations and its interaction with the environment. This dissertation involved four research projects. The first project provided an overview of existing research on the Cw in MS and established a research …

Nutrition Practices And Body Composition In Infants Born Preterm, Maggie Jerome

All ETDs from UAB

Adequate nutrition and optimal growth are critical goals of clinical care for premature infants in the NICU due to rapid brain growth and development that occur during this time. Emerging evidence suggests that body composition in preterm infants is predictive of neurodevelopmental and metabolic outcomes later in childhood. The objective of this dissertation is to investigate factors affecting premature infant growth and body composition, including high enteral protein supplementation, nutrition during the first two weeks of life, and race of infants born at 22-32 weeks gestational age admitted to the UAB NICU. In a pilot study, 56 preterm infants were …

Exploring The Influence Of Psychosocial Stress And Inflammatory Properties Of The Diet On Cardiometabolic Risk And Gut Microbiome Health Among Young Adult Women Of Birmingham, Alabama, Rachel Olivia Knight

All ETDs from UAB

Concerning trends for obesity, diabetes, heart attacks, and obesity-related cancers, or cardiometabolic disease (CMD), are developing within the emerging and young adult/adulthood (EYA) population. Evidence supports the concept that chronic stress leads to physiologic dysregulation, reduced mental health, chronic diseases, and reduced longevity; however, these are not inevitable outcomes, and resilience or vulnerability is determined by interacting environmental and biobehavioral factors. Although CMD manifests clinically in older adulthood, disease pathophysiology begins earlier, and thus, EYA is a critical time for observation and intervention. Growing evidence indicates inflammation is a major risk factor in CMD development and may be exacerbated by …

Improving Empathy Of Occupational Therapy Students Through Reading Literary Narratives, Cavenaugh Kelly

Journal of Occupational Therapy Education

This study explored the impact of teaching empathy to occupational therapy students through the close reading of literary narratives. The study defined empathy as a dynamic process involving Theory of Mind (ToM), emotional resonance, and empathy as a willful act. Empathy is an espoused value of occupational therapy challenged by the modern demands of the market-driven health care system, and research suggests reading literary narratives, or stories with qualities of literature, facilitates greater empathy. Prior studies have also indicated that practicing with greater empathy improves health outcomes and makes occupational therapy sessions more client centered. In this study, a quasi-experimental …

Understanding The Role Of Race In American Medicine, Fariel C. A. Lamountain

Honors Theses

Long running inequity in health care and outcomes in the United States stem from failure to acknowledge the underlying role of the Transatlantic slave trade as it manifests in all facets of American society and commerce. This paper focuses specifically on the American medical system and its foundations to understand the precursors to generational trends in lack of access to healthcare and poor health for Black communities. This paper uses a three-pronged approach to understand the racist cycle of inequity, highlighting the history and origins of racism in American medicine, personal accounts and statistical evidence of inequity, and community and …

Science And Sadness: Critiques On How We Handle Alzheimer’S Disease And Dementia, Katherine Martinez

Honors Theses

In our society, an individual’s worth is tied to the state of their cognitive function which affects the discourse about neurodegenerative illnesses, causing it to mostly fall under two branches: “The Dread” and “Science as the Holy Grail”. “The Dread” addresses how Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and other dementias are typically perceived as devastating illnesses to be feared. “Science as the Holy Grail” represents the hope and faith that is invested into potential technoscientific developments without the guarantee of any consequential results. Limiting the narrative to these two categories negatively impacts the quality of life (QOL) of AD patients, caregivers, and …

The Multifront Battle Waged Against Female Autonomy: A Comparative Study Of Ancient Medical And Literary Texts, Leah K. Montello

Honors Theses

Male authors have long waged a multifront campaign against female independence. In this thesis, I focus on two specific fronts: literary and medical texts of the Classical Greek period. This thesis intends to explore the varying strategies in a selection of works, employed to reinforce prescribed gender norms. I approach this with a feminist lens to critique attempts made by elite educated Greek men to define what a woman ought to be like. I do not, however, explore every single tactic a medical and literary writer has applied to uphold patriarchal norms. My two body chapters revolve respectively around two …

Queer Survival Amidst Hiv/Aids, Covid-19 And Homelessness, Julia Young

Pitzer Senior Theses

The treatment and survival of a society's marginalized peoples reveal the true impacts of a pandemic. An analysis of homeless queer youth during the HIV/AIDS and SARS-CoV-2 crises lays bare the systemic failure of the United States government to provide equitable healthcare.

I compare the HIV/AIDS and COVID-19 pandemics in queer homeless youth to demonstrate the dangers of disease moralization via a sociocultural analyses of disease stigma and responsibility politics. Utilizing syndemic theory I draw on the synergistic relationship between disease and illness to describe the unique challenges queer homeless youth face. A syndemic framework is applied to address common …