Medical Humanities Blog

Call for Papers: International Conference on Pain, Suffering and Health

*Call For Papers: *

*International Conference on Pain, Suffering and Health*

*27 April 2012*

*The University of Hong Kong*

The Centre for the Humanities and Medicine at The University of Hong Kong invites the submission of abstracts from across the disciplines, in connection with the international conference

*Pain, Suffering and Health*

to be held on 27 April 2012 at The University of Hong Kong.

The conference is being organized by the Centre’s Philosophy, Therapy, Medicine research theme and seeks to develop comparative perspectives on the nature of pain and its significance in relation to suffering and health. A key focus of the meeting is on the extent to which experiences and  understanding of pain, suffering and health differ across cultural and historical settings.  A further aim of the conference is to consider the implication and applicability of theoretically-oriented approaches for health care professionals in clinical situations.

Possible topics might include, but are not limited to, the following: 

·       The nature and evolution of pain

·       Culture and pain/Cultures of pain

·       Elaborations on pain (in both Chinese and Western Medicine, History, Philosophy, Literature, Music, Visual Art)

·       Pain and  communication

·       Narratives of pain (particularly narratives of illnesses among health care professionals)

·       Pain and suffering

·       Religious perspectives on pain and suffering

Papers will be considered on any related theme.

Each presenter is limited to 20 minutes, with additional time for questions and discussion. To submit, please send via email a 300 word abstract by Friday 2nd December 2011 at the latest (response by 20th December 2011).  Abstracts, which are sent in after this deadline, cannot be considered.  Please include the following information: a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract. E-mails should be entitled: Pain Abstract Submission.

All enquiries and abstracts should be directed to Dr. Barbara Dalle Pezze, leader of the Philosophy, Therapy, Medicine research theme at the Centre for the Humanities and Medicine (HKU). Email: barbarad@hku.hk

(H/t H-SCI-MED-TECH)

On Pain as a Global Public Health Priority

Daniel S. Goldberg (East Carolina University) and Summer J. McGee (Center for Practical Bioethics & University of Kansas Medical Center) have a new article out in BMC Public Health entited Pain as a Global Health Priority.  Like all papers in BMC journals, it is available full-text open-access.  Here is the Abstract:

Background

Pain is an enormous problem globally. Estimates suggest that 20% of adults suffer from pain globally and 10% are newly diagnosed with chronic pain each year. Nevertheless, the problem of pain has primarily been regarded as a medical problem, and has been little addressed by the field of public health.

Discussion

Despite the ubiquity of pain, whether acute, chronic or intermittent, public health scholars and practitioners have not addressed this issue as a public health problem. The importance of viewing pain through a public health lens allows one to understand pain as a multifaceted, interdisciplinary problem for which many of the causes are the social determinants of health. Addressing pain as a global public health issue will also aid in priority setting and formulating public health policy to address this problem, which, like most other chronic non-communicable diseases, is growing both in absolute numbers and in its inequitable distribution across the globe.

Summary

The prevalence, incidence, and vast social and health consequences of global pain requires that the public health community give due attention to this issue. Doing so will mean that health care providers and public health professionals will have a more comprehensive understanding of pain and the appropriate public health and social policy responses to this problem.

Comments, feedback, and suggestions are always welcome.

Call for Papers: Delivering Health Care in Severely Resource-Constrained Settings (Narrative Inquiry in Bioethics)

Call for Papers

Narrative Symposium: Delivering Health Care in Severely Resource-Constrained Settings

Edited by Paul Farmer, MD, PhD and Sadath Sayeed, JD, MD 

Narrative Inquiry in Bioethics will publish an issue devoted to personal stories about the experiences of delivering health care to the poor in severely resource-constrained settings. We believe the soul of global health work can be recaptured by story-telling. Narratives remind us of the immense challenges—programmatic and moral—involved in this work, and why global health demands of its practitioners an alternate mode of audit than sterile academic methodologies.  It returns to the moral sentiments that led us to this work in the first place. 

We want your true, personal stories in a form that is interesting and easy to read.

In writing your story, you might want to think about:

1)   Why have you made it your life’s work to help poor people to receive decent and adequate health care services?

2)   Describe some of the joys, challenges, and frustrations you face as a health care practitioner for the poor?

3)   What does the popularization of “global health” amongst the wealthiest communities of health care providers mean to you and the population you serve?

4)   What should a commitment to human equality require of us?

5)   What should a commitment to human justice require of us?

6)   Is access to decent, adequate and affordable health care a local, provincial, national, and/or global moral and ethical concern? 

7)    On whose shoulders should the responsibility for its ultimate achievement rest?

You do not need to address each of these questions—write on the issues that you think are most important to share with others. If you are not a writer, just tell your story in your own words and our editorial staff will work with you. 

We plan to publish 10 to 12 brief stories (4 – 10 double-spaced pages or 800 – 2000 words) on this topic. Some additional stories may be published as online-only supplemental material. We will also publish one or two commentary articles that discuss the stories that are published in the journal.

If you are interested in submitting a story, we ask you first to submit a 300-word proposal—a short description of the story you want to tell. Inquiries or proposals should be sent to the editorial office via email: narrativebioethics@gmail.com . We will give preference to story proposals received by Oct. 30, 2011.

For more information about the journal Narrative Inquiry in Bioethics, the guidelines for authors, and privacy policies, visit our webpage with Johns Hopkins University Press at: http://www.press.jhu.edu/journals/narrative_inquiry_in_bioethics/guidelines.html

A sample of the material published by Narrative Inquiry in Bioethics is found at: http://www.press.jhu.edu/journals/narrative_inquiry_in_bioethics/sample_reader.html

(h/t ASBH Listserv)