Medical Humanities Blog

Against the Very Idea of the Politicization of Public Health Policy

Daniel S. Goldberg (East Carolina University) has a new article out in the American Journal of Public Health (First Look) entitled Against the Very Idea of the Politicization of Public Health Policy.  Here is the Abstract:

I criticize the concern over the politicization of public health policy as a justification for preferring a narrow to a broad model of public health.

My critique proceeds along 2 lines. First, the fact that administrative structures and actors are primary sources of public health policy demonstrates its inescapably political and politicized nature. Second, historical evidence shows that public health in Great Britain and the United States has from its very inception been political and politicized.

I conclude by noting legitimate ethical concerns regarding the political nature of public health policy and argue that open deliberation in a democratic social order is best served by acknowledging the constraints of the inescapably politicized process of public health policymaking.

As ever, comments and feedback are most welcome.

On 'The Humanising Power of Medical History'

John Harley Warner (Yale, History of Medicine) has a fascinating paper out in Medical Humanities 37, no. 2 entitled The humanising power of medical history: responses to biomedicine in the 20th century United States.

Here is the Abstract:

Most American historians of medicine today would be very hesitant about any claim that medical history humanises doctors, medical students or the larger health care enterprise. Yet, the idea that history can and ought to serve modern medicine as a humanising force has been a persistent refrain in American medicine. This essay explores the emergence of this idea from the end of the 19th century, precisely the moment when modern biomedicine became ascendant. At the same institutions where the new version of scientific medicine was most energetically embraced, some professional leaders warned that the allegiance to science driving the profession's technical and cultural success was endangering humanistic values fundamental to professionalism and the art of medicine. They saw in history a means for rehumanising modern medicine and countering the risk of cultural crisis. While some iteration of this vision of history was remarkably durable, the meanings attached to ‘humanism’ were both multiple and changing, and the role envisioned for history in a humanistic intervention was transformed. Starting in the 1960s as part of a larger cultural critique of the putative ‘dehumanisation’ of the medical establishment, some advocates promoted medical history as a tool to help fashion a new kind of humanist physician and to confront social inequities in the health care system. What has persisted across time is the way that the idea of history as a humanising force has almost always functioned as a discourse of deficiency—a response to perceived shortcomings of biomedicine, medical institutions and medical professionalism.

Especially inasmuch as it seeks to contextualize and explore the relationship between the history of medicine and the medical and health humanities, the article is highly recommended. 

Call for Papers: Learning from Lister: Antisepsis, Safer Surgery, and Global Health

Taken from the Conference website:

Joseph Lister, 1st Baron Lister of Lyme Regis, was Professor of Clinical Surgery at King’s College London from 1877 – 1893. Having developed his methods of antiseptic surgery at the Universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh, Lister brought ideas and techniques to King’s College Hospital which would prove foundational to subsequent conceptions and practice of surgery and medicine. Lister’s methods of promoting sterility of the surgical field before, during and after operation – his ‘system’ – evolved throughout his career and were grounded in antisepsis. They were paralleled and contested by practices which approached the problem by aiming for asepsis and cleanliness of surgical technique and environment.

In March 2012, King’s College London will be hosting a major conference on Lister’s life, methods and ideas, and will be examining both the significance of his techniques in their historical context, and the enduring impact that Lister has had on twentieth- and twenty-first-century medical and surgical practice. Marking the hundredth anniversary of Lister’s death, the conference will be of interest to academic historians, clinical and healthcare scientists and practitioners , bioscience, health policy and management professionals, and those with an interest in Lister, Listerism and the development of antiseptic surgery.

The conference will be run in association with the Royal Society and the Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons, and events will take place at both of these institutions and at the King’s College London Strand Campus.

Here is a link to the Call for Papers, and to the Guidance for Abstract Submissions.

(h/t Lit&Med listserv) 

Call for Applications: TT Assistant Professor, "Health and Humanities," Emory University

EMORY UNIVERSITY,  ATLANTA, GA.  Health and Humanities.  Assistant Professor (tenure-track), beginning Fall 2012.  Four courses per year, beginning undergraduate to graduate level.  Usual advising, committee, and other non-teaching duties.  PhD required.  This position is one of several new faculty appointments in the humanities made possible by support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.  These interdisciplinary appointments seek to bridge humanistic inquiry with other disciplines by applying its traditional principles to new fields of study; by examining traditional areas of research and teaching by means of new approaches; and by exporting principles of humanistic inquiry across not only the humanities but the academy much more broadly.

Through this tenure-track position in Health and Humanities, Emory University wishes to add to its strengths in interdisciplinary scholarship and is looking for an innovative scholar and teacher who will be based in the humanities but can speak beyond their discipline.  Preference will be given to those candidates who have training in both the humanities and a health-related field and/or who can provide evidence of collaboration with a health-related field.  The successful candidate will be expected to collaborate with and benefit from associations with the many health-related schools outside of Emory College.  Broadly defined fields of interest appropriate for this position include but are not limited to: biopolitics and medical technologies; history of medicine and public health; philosophies of life and well-being; race, social justice, and health disparities; literature and illness/health; and health and healing.

The successful applicant will have a tenure home in a particular humanities department, but it is expected that their research and teaching interests will bridge different schools within the University.  This position is open to scholars across the humanities and arts, including African American Studies, anthropology, area studies, arts and art history, communications, film and media studies, history, all literature and language departments, psychoanalytic studies, religion, philosophy, science and technology studies, and women’s, gender and sexuality studies.  Review of applications begins December 1, 2011; finalists will be invited for campus visits beginning in February 2012.  Applications received by December 15, 2011 will be given full consideration. Applications should include a cover letter that addresses the position description,current c.v.,writing sample,teaching portfolio,and three confidential letters of reference.  Email applications to Jamie Weems at mellon1@emory.edu.  Nominations are invited.  Emory University is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer, and actively seeks applications from women and minorities.

(h/t H-NET) 

Call for Applications: TT Assistant Professor in Medical Humanities and Health Studies

The Program in Medical Humanities and Health Studies at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) seeks a tenure-track assistant professor in Medical Humanities and Health Studies to begin August 2012. Teaching responsibilities include a survey course in medical humanities, and upper-level interdisciplinary courses for a new undergraduate major offered by the program. Some teaching and grant work is expected with Medical School and hospitals on campus. Doctorate in Medical Humanities or related discipline, plus interdisciplinary teaching experience is strongly preferred. Grant writing experience is desirable. Please send personal statement, curriculum vitae, three current letters of recommendation, and one brief writing sample (chapter or article) by December 7, 2011 to:  Medical Humanities Search, Medical Humanities program, Cavanaugh Hall 406, IUPUI, 425 University Blvd., Indianapolis, IN  46202-5140. Candidate interviews to begin after deadline.  Nationally renowned for its health and other professional schools as well as community engagement, IUPUI is one of the Midwest’s premier urban universities, with more than 30,000 students enrolled on the campus adjacent to downtown Indianapolis. IUPUI is an AA/EOE employer, M/F/D, and encourages applications from women and minority candidates.

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This looks like a great opportunity, but I find it particularly interesting that the Call expressly indicates that a "Doctorate in Medical Humanities" is desired.  There is, to the best of my knowledge, only one institution in the world that grants a Ph.D in the medical humanities itself (although one other university grants a D.M.H., a Doctor of Medical Humanities).  So this is a small pool, although the Call certainly indicates that holders of doctorates in related disciplines are also eligible for the position.

Kudos to IUPUI for expressly opening a TT line for junior interdisciplinary scholars in the health humanities; those kinds of positions are few and far between.  (There is one more such position that is open; I will post that Call soon).

(h/t Lit&Med listserv) 

"On the Futility of Screening for Genes that Make You Fat"

J. Lennert Veerman (Univ. Queensland) has a nice commentary out in the latest PLoS Medicine entitled On the Futility of Screening for Genes that Make You Fat.  Like all papers in this journal, it is available full-text and open-access.  There is no Abstract, but here is an excerpt that sets up the commentary:

There are at least four reasons why screening individuals for genes that predispose to obesity makes little clinical sense and may even do harm. Genetic screening for obesity has limited predictive power, is unlikely to inform therapeutic decisions, does not add to body mass index (BMI) as predictor of disease, and may distract from the societal changes that most experts think are needed to reduce the prevalence of obesity.

The commentary is highly recommended.