A long, long time ago I made an old school website (don’t know how long it will be up) for HCSC, and our awesome LC alum Joey Alsberge wrote a book review for Unhealthy Health Policy. I encourage you to check the book out, and also consider writing a book review for this site if you recently read something very good.

cheers

Isaac Holeman

Unhealthy Health Policy presents a variety of studies that investigate the unintended consequences of health policies across the globe.  Using data derived from ethnographic research methods such as participant-observation and open-ended interviews, in addition to epidemiological and historical data, the contributors show how “health-related policies, which have the ostensive goal of improving and protecting the health of the general public or sectors thereof, may, in their service of other masters, harm rather than enhance public health” (xiv).  The studies address a wide range of topics and geographical regions, including: HIV treatment in Africa, Medicaid managed care in New Mexico, disaster relief in post-Soviet Tajikistan, alternative medicine in the United States, and many others.  This book is a great introduction for anyone who would like to know more about global and domestic health issues, the policies that are employed to address these issues, and how qualitative research methods can be used to evaluate and critique these policies.

- Joey Alsberge

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Hi Everyone, I know no one posted much this last semester, but I decided I wanted to try to get this HCSC site going again.

This slide show was my final project for a photo journalism study that I did while studying in Havana, Cuba last fall. My focus was on primary care doctors and how they perceive the Cuban health care system. I conducted interviews with about ten doctors, most extensively with two women who worked at a walk-in community clinic in down town Havana. This little clinic wasn’t very well equipped, but the doctors were very caring and interesting.

As an American, the macro organization of their primary health care system was fascinating. Primary care doctors are assigned a geographic area - two city blocks in this case. They had the name and address of each person in their area (from government tax info), and they were expected to care for all those people. From 8:00AM to about noon each week day they would see patients in the clinic, and after that they would go from house to house to try to find people who might need their services but that hadn’t made it to the clinic. In Cuba, it is the doctors responsibility, rather than the patient’s, to see that everyone gets cared for. Ultimately, I think this take on community medicine, where responsibility shifts towards those who are most likely to be able to cope with it, is the reason Cuba has better health indicators than the US despite drastic resource shortages.

I hope the pictures are interesting, and I’ve posted a few more to our flickr account if you’d like to look deeper. You are also welcome to read my imperfect paper or contact me at isaac.holeman [at] gmail [dot] com if you would like more of the juicy details.

cheers

Isaac

1. The MCAT. There are a lot of prep courses for the MCAT. However, neither Joey nor I decided to take one. I am unsure of his reasons, but mine was mainly the giant sum of money that it would have cost me. This approach might not work for everyone, but it was successful for both of us. Joey used the ExamKrackers books; I used his old books plus a big giant Kaplan book. Whichever study method or materials you use, make sure to take a couple of official practice exams from www.e-mcat.com. They provide material from actual MCATs and diagnostic tools to help you determine your weak areas. My final score on the MCAT was the same as the highest of the eight official practice exams I took. And in relation to timing: I took the exam on August 9^th, which was tooooooo late. I’ll cover this more in regards to the AMCAS, but seriously, don’t take it this late even though you can technically take it until September.

2. The AMCAS. This is the primary application which is sent out to all participating schools (which is most schools). The earliest date that you can submit the AMCAS is generally around the end of June. If possible, submit it on this date. If not, submit it as soon as possible without sacrificing the quality of your MCAT score and personal statement. You can technically submit it until mid-October, but, as Joey can attest, this is a bad idea. I submitted my application on August 29^th, which is still too late, in my opinion. Why all the focus on application dates? Well, two reasons: rolling schools and stress. In terms of the former, many schools admit people on a rolling basis, starting in mid-October, which is the earliest date when a medical school can issue acceptances. The later in the cycle you are, the less chance you have of getting accepted at one of these schools. Secondly, if you submit your primary by late-June, your application should be verified by late-July, at which point you will start receiving secondary applications. If all goes well, you should be complete at all schools and just waiting to hear about interviews during fall semester instead of trying to write about how you will contribute to diversity on campus as you study for a bio exam or write your thesis. This will significantly decrease your stress level during your final year of college.

3. Secondary applications. It might not seem like fun to spend your summer writing essays for medical school, but it will be worth it. Many schools have very similar essays, so you can write on the same general themes. Most of the essays I was asked to write related to: a) how I would contribute to diversity on campus; b) what motivated me to pursue a career in medicine; c) a challenge that I have faced and how I dealt with it; or d) the most significant activity in which I have participated. I hesitate to mention the following resource, but I will do so with the warning that you should ONLY consult it in regards to preparing for essays and interviews. With that said, www.studentdoctor.net is a forum where pre-medical students discuss the process of applying to medical school. There is a thread on the premedical forum where others in the application process will post the essay topics for schools once they are released. If you fall behind in the process and aren’t among the first to receive a secondary, many times the prompts will be posted so you can start working on them while you wait the extra long time for your primary application to be verified once the application season really starts going. However, you should NOT get sucked in to reading this forum regularly. The people who post on here are incredibly neurotic and often very very competitive. It can make you feel like you are inadequate if you don’t have a 4.0 from Harvard with a 44 MCAT and three summers spent saving children in Africa. It can lead to a distorted perception of the types of people who apply to medical school and who you are competing with for a spot. Stay away from here unless you need the resources or the motivation that comes from thinking you are already 100 steps behind everyone else who is applying.

Well, that is all I have for now. I have my first set of interviews right after Thanksgiving, so I will hopefully post again about my experiences once I have turned my thesis in on December 17^th! Best of luck to all of you with the remainder of the semester. If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at selena@lclark.edu

-Selena

Photo by Isaac Holeman
One of the reasons we switched the HCSC site to a blog format is so everyone could share stories while they are abroad. Right now I’m studying in Havana, Cuba. My program here revolves around learning Spanish, exploring Cuban culture academically and as a participant, and pursuing an independent photojournalism project. I’ve chosen Cuban Health Care as the subject of my journalism project. Just a few days ago, I was interviewing a prominent Cuban actress and her words struck such a chord with me that I’d like to share them with you.

“I want to tell you a personal story. I am a cancer survivor. I was diagnosed in 1992; I had an operation, they did chemotherapy and gave me a medicine called tamoxicin. 1992 was in the Special Period, during which we had nothing. I don’t know why they call it the “Special Period”. “Special” usually means wonderful. But no, it was horrible. Horrible. You guys don’t know the meaning of “nothing”. Sometimes we ate just white rice with oil. And my husband, who is North American, never called his mother to tell her “Mom, we have no money, we don’t have shoes.” Never. He said, “I chose to live here and my problems are my own.” So in ’92 the food ration was minimal.

When they operated on me, all of my coworkers gave me their rationed fish, their rationed chicken- protein so that I could get better. This is worth it. This is worth so much more than money. And I got all of my medical care for free. When I was in the US I had a friend who had terrible cancer and the chemotherapy cost her so much she couldn’t pay for it. The tamoxicin was costing her $499 a month. I took it for ten years for free. I have never had to pay a cent. And now they have me on a drug that costs $800 a month and I couldn’t live without it. So of course there are things that are worth it. There are good things that are worth fighting for.
Nobody has to say “I’m going to die because I can’t pay.” How awful for someone to say “I won’t get treatment because I can’t pay.”And that the US, such a powerful country, doesn’t have a medical system that can take care of the health of its people, well that’s terrible, no?

I know that Cuba has a lot of problems. Tons. I never, ever said that Cuba is perfect. I’m not religious. I don’t believe in perfection. I believe that all human beings have to fight to make life better. This I believe in. And I believe that people are good. And you can’t convince me of the opposite.

I believe that Cuba has achieved a crucial social interaction. We help each other out- everyone. We share, we lend each other clothes. I don’t have much. But if someone needs something I’ll give them everything I have. We have learned in the way to be more human I believe. We know that we have to help everyone and not just ourselves. I think that his has helped Cuba a lot. This is the truth. We have learned that people are different for different reasons, not for racial reasons or religious or sexual. We are more than just that. And these are values that I hope we don’t lose to materialism, this is the spiritual material that we have to fight to maintain. These are so much more important than material values. And I understand material values. I love things, I love them. And I think it’s pretty important to have something to eat, too. But you have to fight more for those spiritual things- the things you believe in.”

Health care in Cuba is far from perfect. The whole country is so poor that they don’t always have money to buy the more expensive drugs, and tourists do get preferential treatment. At the end of the day, however, the structure of their health system says that they have figured out that the people - every last one of them - are the most valuable part of their society. Life in Cuba is imperfect, like life in the US is imperfect, but there are so many things worth fighting for. For example, lets all fight to build a society where “nobody has to say ‘I’m going to die because I can’t pay.’”

Check out my blog if you would like to read more.

cheers

Isaac

Invisible Children is a Non-Profit organization started by three young men from San Diego, California who decided that they wanted to take a trip to Sudan and report what was going on in the war torn area. While traveling to Sudan they foudn an entirely different story that has opened millions of people’s eyes to a war that has been unseen and unspoken of for the past twenty years.

They created a film in order to show others what was really happening in this area. The film, titled Invisible Children, addresses a war that has been going on in Uganda for twenty years now, started by the Lord’s Resistance Army, to oust the central government and President Museveni. The Sudanese government aids the LRA and, to get back at them, Museveni aids Sudanese rebels. It’s an awful play of favorites and political favors. The LRA abducts children, between the ages of 7 and 12 mainly, and trains them to fight as soldiers by desensitizing them, often sending them out to kill family members, friends, or fellow abducted children.

In order to “protect” the Acholi people (the predominant tribe in Northern Uganda and the target of the LRA), the government has moved them into Internally Displaced Persons Camps, without adequate sanitation, food, or other basic humanitarian rights.

Because of the LRA’s abduction of children, the children have been commuting to the city centers to sleep in order to be protected by government guards. The number of commuters is down about 3,000 now, which is, I believe, more than half. However, the number of people dying in the IDP camps is now greater than the number of deaths resulting from the actions of the LRA.

Currently, peace talks are taking place in Juba, Sudan. This is the greatest chance for peace in all of the 20 years of war. The American government, on the other hand, has made no statement about the peace talks. Also, the International Criminal Court has indicated five of the LRA’s leaders, which is causing problems in the progress of peace talks. The leasers will not come into the open to discuss peace and instead send representatives that often misrepresent the opinions of the leaders. The Ugandan people want peace before justice: a sustainable peace that moves in the direction of conflict transformation.

The Invisible Children Organization has created a movement of students, parents, teachers and adults who support ending war in Northern Uganda. By showing the film and openly discussing this issue, students are becoming motivated to make change. Last year, Invisible Children was shown in over 130 cities across the US to participate in what was titled The Global Night Commute. Students, children, parents, adults, dogs and Lewis and Clark took to the streets in order to demonstrate what the children of Northern Uganda have to do every night in order to not be abducted by the LRA. We slept in parks on the ground, hoping to make the world as aware of the war as we are. The Global Night Commute was labeled one of the biggest demonstrated in the US for Africa, changing culture, policy, and lives. Over 80,000 people came to take a stand, by lying down for the people of Northern Uganda.

The film has become known in many high schools. It has caused people to be aware of the wolrd around them. Invisible Children, while on their first trip to Northern Uganda, asked the children they spoke with what they really wanted and the children responded, “to have the opportunity to go to school.” In honor of the children, Invisible Children has created a program titled ‘Schools for Schools’ in which donations and fundraising money goes towards children in Northern Uganda to put them through secondary school and college. Invisible Children has been able to pay for over one hundred children to attend school and follow their dreams of becoming doctors, lawyers, school teachers, and so forth. It all began with three college students wanting to report the truth and now it has turned into a worldwide movement.

However, the war still has not come to a close and many people are still unaware of this issue. You may ask what you can do to help. The first thing you can do is visit the Invisible Children website to read more about this issue and watch clips about the current situation. The second thingyou can do is join the African Awareness Group on the Lewis and Clark campus and learn more about events that are going on at LC. Then you can attend the Second Annual Global Night Commute next spring, on April 28th. Hope to see you there.

Please contact Nicole Greenberg at nicoleg@lclark.edu with questions or for more information.

<a href=”http://photobucket.com” target=”_blank”><img title=”Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket” src=”http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n93/drnadine/U4D_EN.jpg” border=”0″ alt=”Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket” align=”middle” /></a>

The Unite for Diabetes Group at LC works to raise world-wide awareness about a new campaign sponsored by the International Diabetes Federation called “Unite for Diabetes.” The aim of the campaign is to bring diabetes awareness and education to one billion people around the world. We are also working to make our symbol, the blue circle, representing unity, internationally known as the new symbol for diabetes.

So, what is the Unite for Diabetes campaign? Our goal is put diabetes on the *United Nations agenda*. Recently, the People’s Republic of Bangladesh has sponsored a resolution that will highlight the needs of people with diabetes around the world, and establish 14 November as a UN-recognized *World Diabetes Day*. Both kinds of diabetes, type I and type II are devastating countries around the world, especially developing countries. Amazingly enough, though, most cases of type II diabetes (which accounts for 95% of all diabetes cases) could be *prevented* and easily *treated* through education and the right infrastructure.

Right now there are more than 230 million people around the world living with diabetes, and in fact diabetes kills more people each year than HIV/AIDS. And those numbers are only set to get worse - 1 out of every 3 children born in 2000 will develop diabetes in their lifetimes, with the predictions rising to 2 out of every 3 for indigenous populations. This has a direct relevance to those of us from Alaska, where a large percentage of our population is made up of Alaska native groups, which have staggeringly high incidence rates of type II diabetes. Also, the heaviest burden of these dramatic numbers is placed on developing countries, devastating lives and economies around the world. A UN resolution will help encourage and facilitate a positive change for the future.

Thus far, over 10,000 people have signed the official Unite for Diabetes petition to put diabetes on the UN Agenda. However, we still need to make that number grow, and encourage our United States ambassador to the UN to vote for the resolution.

For more information about the resolution, and to sign the official petition, go to www.unitefordiabetes.org. Also, once you’ve signed the petition, you can electronically “pass the pin” to your family, friends and peers.

Things are beginning to move very quickly with the resolution, so the more support we can gather in the next few days the better! Please forward this information on to anyone you know that may be interested, and do not hesitate to contact me with any questions. Also, the Pamplin Society is sponsoring a letter-writing campaign to three of our nation’s top health decision makers - pre-addressed postcards can be picked up and dropped off at the drop box by the mail room. Or, let me know if you’d like and I have plenty of postcards!

All the best,

Kelly Dayne Hansen

Member, Novo Nordisk International Diabetes Youth Panel

For More information on Diabetes and the Unite for Diabetes Campaign, see:

www.unitefordiabetes.org

www.uniteforyouth.wordpress.com

www.kellydh.wordpress.com

Please direct questions to kellydh@lclark.edu

]]> http://healthcultureandsociety.nfshost.com/2007/08/unite-for-diabetes/feed/ http://healthcultureandsociety.nfshost.com/2007/08/so-long/ http://healthcultureandsociety.nfshost.com/2007/08/so-long/#comments Wed, 22 Aug 2007 20:26:03 +0000 admin http://healthcultureandsociety.nfshost.com/?p=4 The Archimedes Movement began this January 2006, intent on hearing the voices of Oregonians and helping them create a new vision for a better health care system. We know there is a smarter way to spend public health care dollars, and are not too afraid to leave our past behind and achieve our vision.