Archive for the 'For Students' Category
Add a comment December 15th, 2009 by bronxdoc
January 6th, 2010 will mark the beginning of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine student-run Social Medicine Course. This course is a unique opportunity for the Einstein students to cover “essentials of medical practice not taught in medical school.” This year’s list of speakers amply illustrates the connections between clinical practice and social activism.
The opening speaker will be Dr. Joia Mukerjee of Partners in Health who will discuss “Social Forces in Medicine.” This event will take place at 5:30 PM at the Riklis Auditorium and will be followed by a reception. Subsequent sessions will take place each Wednesday (with one exception) at the 5th floor Forchheimer Auditorium at 5;30PM. Dinner is provided. All events in this series will be listed at the top of our blog roll.
At last year’s course several local readers of the Social Medicine Portal dropped by. Please feel free to come, but write to Ms. Karp (see below) so that we can inform security.
The list of speakers and topics is as follows:
Jan 13 ∙ History of Social Medicine ∙ Matt Anderson, MD, MS.
Jan 20 ∙ LGBT Health and Community Organizing ∙ John-Paul Sanchez, MD, MPH
Jan 27 ∙ Race and Health in the Bronx ∙ Robert Fullilove, EdD
Feb 3 ∙ Harm Reduction in the Bronx: Dealing with the Hepatitis Epidemic among IV Drug Users ∙ Donald Davis
Feb 10 ∙ Motivational Interviewing and Nutrition in the Bronx ∙Yasmin Mossavar-Rahmani, PhD, RD, CDN
Feb 17 ∙ The Impact of Hep B on Pregnancy in the Asian American Community∙Tomoaki Kato, MD; Maya Gambarin-Gelwin, MD
Feb 24 ∙ Abortion Care in NYC∙Marji Gold, MD
Mar 3 ∙ Native American Health ∙ Donna Perry, MD *Price Center Auditorium
Mar 10 ∙ Separate and Unequal: Medical Apartheid ∙ Neil Calman, MD and Nisha Agarwal, JD
Mar 16* ∙ Liberation Medicine ∙Lanny Smith, MD, MPH, DTM&H *Tuesday at 7:15pm*
Mar 17 ∙ Reentry: Old Fears, New Hopes ∙Meekaelle Joseph
Mar 24 ∙ Street Medicine ∙ Jim Withers, MD
Apr 7 ∙ The History and Practice of Community Psychiatry ∙Thomas Betzler, MD
Apr 14 ∙ Nyaya Health: A Case Study in Developing a Healthcare NGO∙ Ryan Schwarz and Bijay Acharya, MD
Apr 21 ∙ Refugee and Asylee care: Human Rights for Torture Survivors ∙ Nicole Sirotin, MD
Apr 28 ∙ Ayurvedic Medicine ∙Bhaswati Bhattacharya, MD, PhD
May 5 ∙ The War on Women: Criminalization of Reproduction in the United States ∙Robert Roose, MD
For any questions or kosher meal requests, please contact Jessica Karp at jkarp@einstein.yu.edu.
Posted by Matt Anderson, MD
Add a comment May 20th, 2009 by Aaron
Research-based health activism describes a growing sector of the medical and public health worlds where the classic skills of clinical research and epidemiology are combined with grass-roots advocacy to influence federal and state health policy, counteracting the influence of private industry and market forces on public and community health. The Residency Program in Social Medicine at Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine has a rich tradition of innovations in community oriented primary care and a history of progressive research and practice. Our faculty, together with experts from throughout the New York Metropolitan area, will provide training in this growing field of research-based health activism.
In October 2009, we will offer a one month elective for 4th year medical students interested in research based health activism. The course, now in its 8th year, combines both didactic and project based approaches, culminating with a research proposal that students can complete at their home institutions.
The didactic lectures will introduce three major topic areas: research methods, health policy, and advocacy skills. Individual and small group mentorship will be provided to help students utilize these skills by developing their own independent research proposal. Other sessions will include physician-activist guest lecturers and visits to state or private health organizations that both create and influence health policy.
Finally, students will develop a research proposal for a project reflecting their interests and an advocacy plan to gain the maximum health policy impact with the results. This proposal will be presented on the final day of the course at a luncheon including all students, the course directors, returning session leaders, and Peter Lurie, MD, MPH, from the Public Citizen’s Health Research Group.
FACULTY AND RESIDENTS:
*Aaron Fox, MD, Clinical Instructor of Medicine, Montefiore Medical Center/Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Course Director, Research-Based Health Activism Course;
*Viraj Patel, MD, Primary Care Resident, Montefiore Medical Center
FOR MORE INFORMATION: Please contact Aaron Fox, MD at this link: Aaron Fox
Past Programming Tracks:
Health Policy and Activism—The history and the present: Bertrand Bell, MD: Making Real World Change As A Physician—Jo Ivey Boufford, MD: Public Policy—Joseph Ross, MD: Health Care Organization—Ernest Drucker, PhD: A Plague of Prisons: The Epidemiology of Mass Incarceration—Oliver Fein, MD: National Health Insurance for the US: Has Its Time Come?—Paul Lipson, Chief of Staff and Siddharta Sanchez, Community Liaison for Immigration & Environmental Affairs for Bronx Congressman José Serrano: Health Topics as they relate to the policies in the Bronx, NY—Ruth Macklin, PhD: Research Ethics: Protecting Human Subjects of International Research—Eva Metalios, MD: Human Rights Clinic—Barbara Seaman: Women’s Health Activism—Peter Selwyn, MD, MPH: Research and Advocacy at the Dawn of AIDS—Peter Sherman, MD: The Affects of Domestic Violence on Children—Victor Sidel, MD: Social Injustice and Public Health, and War, Terrorism, and Public Health—Hal Strelnick, MD: Health Policy at Local, State, and National Levels—Bruce Vladeck, PhD: Medicare and the Role of Physicians in the Future—Sidney Wolfe, MD: Research Topics/Questions
Research Methods—how to produce activist research:
Matthew Anderson, MD, MSc: Planning the write-up process of your project—Chinazo Cunningham, MD: Grant Writing—Robin Flam, MD, DrPH: Uses of Epidemiology—Aaron Fox, MD: Social Epidemiology—Nerina Garcia, PhD and Lucia Ferra: Qualitative data use and analysis—Alison Karasz, PhD and Galit Sacajiu, MD, MPH: The Underline Construct—Paul Meissner, MSPH: Using Secondary Demographic and Clinical Databases—Robert Roose, MD: Quantitative data use and analysis—Galit Sacajiu, MD, MPH: Research Questions—Nancy Sohler, PhD, MPH and Galit Sacajiu, MD, MPH: Study Designs
Advocacy—how to create change:
David Appel, MD: Lobbying—Ramin Asgary, MD, MPH, MSc:Humanitarian Assistance: The Principles—Oni Blackstock, MD: HIV/AIDS in Ghana: Adherence and Stigma—Bob Goodman, MD—Pharmaceutical Industry and Physicians—Kirsten Goodwin of GMHC: Coalition Building—Hillary Kunins, MD, MPH, MS and Carolyn Chu, MD: Case Workshop: Advocating for Choice—Janice Lieberman, NBC Studio: Media Relations in Health Research and Advocacy—David Matthews: Harm Reduction and HIV: a grass root organization—Steve Max of Midwest Academy: Intro to Organizing and Strategy Building—Mini Murthy, MD, MPH, MS: Women’s Health and Human Rights—Zena Nelson: The South Bronx Food Cooperative—Adam Richards, MD, MPH: Public Health and Human Rights Praxis in Burma—Minesh Shah, MD: Public Speaking—Lanny Smith, MD, MPH, DTM&H: Liberation Medicine, Health and Human Rights—Leonora Tiefer, PhD: FSD-A Case of Disease Mongering and Activist Resistance
Click on the links below for:
Course Brochure 2009
An application for the course: 2009 application
Articles about the course from the journal of general internal medicine, Academic Physician and Scientist and the New York Times
Aaron Fox, MD
1 Comment April 23rd, 2009 by bronxdoc
We recently received the following letter from Joanna Mae Souers, one of the US students studying medicine at the Latin American Medical School (ELAM) in Havana:
It is my pleasure to introduce to you a project we have been working on since December.
Inspired by the MEDICC Conference, we put our minds together to manifest the ¡Salud! Southwest Tour:
July 28th, 2009, 12 American students from the Escuela Latinoamericana de Medicina (ELAM – Latin American School of Medicine) in Havana, Cuba will board a Recreational Vehicle (RV) for two weeks to travel across the Southwest region of the United States visiting a number of tribal settlements of American Indian Nations, community colleges and universities.
While at the various sites the students will share their personal experiences of what it’s like to study at ELAM while promoting the availability of full scholarships for students, volunteer their services while learning about some of the more significant health concerns affecting American Indian populations and to build personal and professional relationships with health care practitioners and members of Native American communities.
These 12 students are among the 104 Americans on full scholarships currently studying medicine in Cuba alongside their peers from 27 different countries across the world. They represent not only some of the brightest and most courageous medical school students this country has to offer, but also originate from some of the toughest and poorest communities in the U.S. The settlements they plan to visit represent one example of the type of historically underserved communities where all the U.S. ELAM students have pledged to work upon graduation.
We are seeking funding support and medical donations that will provide the substance with which lifelong alliances will be built between future American physicians dedicated to underserved communities and our national predecessors.
For those interested in making a donation please visit the MEDICC Website (http://www.medicc.org/ns/index.php?s=30&p=4), or under ¨programs¨you´ll find ¨ELAM Students Southwest Tour¨ or email our communications director, Tasha Rassuli, at saludswtour@gmail.com or directly at tjrassuli@gmail.com
posted by: Matt Anderson, MD
3 Comments February 1st, 2009 by bronxdoc
Catlin Polley in Estancia
…Take a year out of med school between my third and fourth years?
…Delay residency for a year after graduation?
…Leave my practice as a physician or my retirement for a time?
In Estancia, El Salvador, a clinic in a remote, rural community needs you. To trek up mudslicked hillsides in the dusk to find a pregnant women who can´t move her limbs or a man in a hammock with a toothache run out-of-control. To think about and act upon the lack of latrines and the rampant childhood malnutrition. To face the health effects of rising food prices and strip mining projects, and to be called to speak out…
Come, work with Doctors for Global Health www.dghonline.org, a volunteer-run organization of health providers, teachers, psychologists, artists, and anyone with a mind for health, that seeks to foster a vision of Liberation Medicine through accompanying grass roots projects in Latin America and Uganda.
It is an amazing education in being a community physician, in public health, and the need for activism on the policy level. You will be challenged in your medical knowledge, but mostly in your personal sources of energy, motivation, courage, and strength. You will changed by people living in poverty who work for liberation.
For more info on this amazing international health opportunity, please visit the website for Doctors for Global Health, www.dghonline.org. If you want to talk about volunteering in Estancia or about what it’s like to break from the traditional course of medical education, feel free to contact us.
Current 4th year medical students from Baylor and Penn volunteering in Estancia, Morazan, El Salvador
Note: This posting was corrected on 2/14/2009. The original posting had a photo that was not from Estancia.
Add a comment January 11th, 2009 by bronxdoc
The schedule for the 11th year of the Social Medicine Course organized by students at Albert Einstein College of Medicine has just been announced. The course, supported by the AECOM Division of Education, is designed to teach “Essentials of medical practice not taught in medical school.”
January 14: Integrating Prenatal Care with the Diagnosis and Clinical Management of HIV and Syphilis: A Latin American and Caribbean Initiative, Dr. Arachu Castro, PhD, MPH. (Presented as part of the student-organized “Sex Week”)
Arachu Castro, PhD, MPH is a medical anthropologist trained in public health, working primarily in Latin America and the Caribbean on infectious disease (HIV/AIDS, TB, dengue) and sexual and reproductive health. She is Assistant Professor in the Dept. of Global Health & Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Project Manager for Mexico and Guatemala at the well-renowned NGO, Partners In Health, and Medical Anthropologist at the Division of Social Medicine and Health Inequalities at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, MA.
Her talk will present an update on the Latin America and Caribbean Prenatal Testing Initiative for HIV and Syphilis, which she directs in collaboration with UNICEF, UNAIDS, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) ? an Initiative currently including Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay, to identify barriers to testing for HIV and syphilis and scale up screening of HIV, syphilis, and other STDs during pregnancy in Latin America and the Caribbean.
January 21: Liberation Medicine, Lanny Smith, MPH, DTM&H, FACP (will start at 7PM) This talk has been rescheduled to May 12.
January 28: Social Medicine 101, Matt Anderson, MD, MSc
Dr. Anderson is a family physician working in the Department of Family & Social Medicine at Montefiore Hospital/AECOM. He runs the Social Medicine Portal (www.socialmedicine.org) and co-edits an bilingual, online academic journal Social Medicine (www.socialmedicine.info). In this talk he will discuss the core concepts of social medicine and how they have been developed and put into practice over the past 300 years.
February 4: Health Literacy, Jennifer Adams, MD & Fatima Ashraf, Mayor’s Office
February 11. Harm Reduction in the Bronx: Hepatitis & IV Drug Users, Donald Davis, VHIP
VHIP is the Viral Hepatitis Intervention Program, a government-funded harm reduction program geared towards education and prevention of viral hepatitis in the Bronx community. It is primarily run by NYHRE (New York Harm Reduction and Education) and AECOM faculty (Dr. Alain Littwin and Dr. Melissa Stein of the Department of Medicine.) Students are closely supervised by AECOM faculty, Irene Soloway and NYHRE supervisor Donald Davis, as they assist in giving vaccinations and phlebotomy, as well as providing health education and counseling to program clients. http://www.aecommunity.com/vhip/Welcome.html
Donald Davis is the VHIP Coordinator at New York Harm Reduction Educators. He has been in the field of HIV and Harm Reduction for over ten years, having presented at numerous Hepatitis C conferences at the local, state and national level. He works with Irene Soloway, a Physician Assistant at Albert Einstein College of Medicine’s Division of Substance Abuse, in overseeing and supervising students in provide testing, vaccination and referral services to active drug users and supervise AECOM medical students at one of the NYRE syringe exchange outreach sites in Hunts Point.
The talk will introduce the concept of harms reduction with a focus on hepatitis C and how community-based screenings have affected the current situation. New York City has a higher prevalence of hepatitis C than the entire United States overall. Hepatitis C is also the most commonly reported type of viral hepatitis in NYC. Donald will address some of the issues that might be related to such a high prevalence, including incarceration, socioeconomic factors, HIV/AIDS, immigration and migration, drug and alcohol use, and hepatitis B. This talk will also cover how interventions, such as testing, vaccinations, referral services, and needle exchange programs have made an impact on hepatitis C rates as well as future interventions that can be implemented at the local community level.
February 18: Gun Violence, Jackie Hilly, NYAGV
What should the medical community know about gun violence prevention? This presentation will explore the legislative initiatives on gun violence, the public health approach to gun violence, and youth development models.
February 25: Physicians and the Pharmaceutical Industry, Joseph Ross, MD, MSH
Dr Ross will discuss the many ways physicians and the pharmaceutical industry interact and work together. He will describe how common these interactions are, and what their implications.
March 4: National Health Insurance for the US: Has Its Time Come? Oliver Fein, MD
This presentation includes a history of health insurance in the United States; a review of health care macroeconomics – where we spend our health care dollars and how we raise the revenue to pay for those expenses; an outline of the five fundamental problems facing the U.S. health care system; and, a description of single payer national health insurance and how it addresses those fundamental problems.
March 11: Environmental Justice and Climate Change Health Effects, Perry Sheffield, MD
March 17 (Tuesday): Women’s Health is a Family Value: A History of Reproductive Health Policies in the US, Carol Roye, EdD, RN, CPNP
Carol Roye is a Professor of Nursing at Hunter College in New York City and a practicing pediatric nurse practitioner in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York. Dr. Roye’s research focuses on reproductive health issues pertinent to adolescents, including teen pregnancy prevention and working with mothers of pregnant and parenting teens to improve outcomes for their daughters. She is currently at work on a book which examines the genesis of current, unfavorable reproductive health policies and the adverse impact they have on child health in the U.S. and overseas.
March 18: Interactive Session: Novel Health Care & Sustainable Living, Frank and Bonnie Gifford, MD [This session has been postponed]
Bonnie and Frank Gifford run EntropyPawsed, a nature linked low energy living demonstration site located in the mountains of West Virginia. Their vision is to endeavor to develop a strong positive vision of the future and the personal qualities of strength, courage, wisdom, and perseverance necessary to make a positive vision reality. The Entropy Pawsed mission is to offer educational opportunities demonstrating simplicity in living with a deep ecology perspective so that we may leave a reasonable world for all children of future generations. An Einstein student, Michelle, who has studied with them, has organized a unique experience for students of the Social Medicine Course: and interactive distance-learning session, where we will practice the low-energy ideals and communicate “live via satellite” style and discuss how to incorporate sustainable practices into our future careers. http://entropypawsed.org/default.aspx
March 25: The Asian American Diabetes Epidemic, Perry Pong, MD
Despite having a lower body weight, Asian Americans are more likely than Caucasians to have diabetes. Diabetes is a rapidly growing health challenge among Asians and Pacific Islanders who have immigrated to the United States, affecting about 10 percent of Asian Americans; about 90 to 95 percent of Asians with diabetes have type 2 diabetes. Come learn about how this devastating disease has hit a seldom-discussed ethnic group – Asian Americans – and the active research that is underway to stop this epidemic.
April 1: Separate and Unequal: Medical Apartheid in NYC, Neil Calman MD & Nisha Agarwal, JD
Bronx Health REACH, established in 1999, includes 40 community and faith-based organizations dedicated to eliminating racial and ethnic health disparities in health outcomes. In addition to its advocacy efforts, the group sponsors community health promotion and disease prevention programs, with support from the Centers for Disease Control and the NYS Department of Health. REACH is a project of the Institute for Family Health, a nonprofit organization that operates health centers and trains health professionals to work in urban, medically underserved communities in New York State. New York Lawyers for the Public Interest (NYLPI) is a nonprofit civil rights law firm that strives for social justice. NYLPI has worked with the Coalition on this issue for several years.
April 22: Health Consequences of Immigration Detention, Homer Venters, MD
Over 300,000 people are detained each year in the United States by Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE). These detainees are held in a wide variety of public and private jails, prisons and contract facilities but face the common problem of inadequate medical care. ICE is under no legal mandate to provide an acceptable standard of medical care, or to track and report adverse medical events for detainees. In addition, the health plan that governs much of the medical care received by detainees is inadequate and unethical. Analysis of this health plan, as well as the circumstances around a number of detainee deaths, reveals a system lacking medical sufficiency
April 29: War and Public Health, Victor Sidel, MD
May 6: Integrative and Botanical Medicine, Roberta Lee, MD
TUESDAY, May 12th: “Liberation Medicine,” Lanny Smith, MD, MPH, DTM&H, FACP
Talks (unless noted otherwise above) will take place on Wednesday evenings from 5:30 to 6:30 PM in the Forchheimer 5th floor lecture room. Dinner is provided.
Commentary:
The social medicine course, now in its 11th year, is one of the highlights of the activism by the students at AECOM. There are over a dozen student groups at Einstein involved in questions of social justice. They work together as part of the Einstein Umbrella. One of the members of the umbrella is the ECHO clinic, a free clinic established by AECOM students in 1999. This model has been followed at a number of other NYC medical schools (see our posting on Free and Low Cost Health Care in NYC).
This posting will be periodically updated as we get information from the course organizers about the details of each of the talks.
For information on similar courses in US medical schools, consult Public Citizen’s listing of health activism courses.
This posting was updated on 2/5/2009 to incorporate information about the talks.
Posted by Matt Anderson, MD
Add a comment September 15th, 2008 by bronxdoc
Dr. Jean Silver-Isenstadt
On Tuesday, September 11, Dr. Jean-Silver Isenstadt, the founding Executive Director of the National Physicians Alliance spoke at Social Medicine Rounds about the work of the NPA since its formation in 2005.
She began her presentation with Broken Covenant, a short film which captures the issues and events surrounding the birth of the NPA; it is available on the NPA website. The Alliance developed from a core group of AMSA (American Medical Student Association) ex-presidents who wanted to create an “AMSA beyond AMSA,” i.e. a physician’s organization that could better express the values animating AMSA. These core values, as identified by NPA’s founders, were: service, integrity and advocacy.
Core Issues
The core issues identified by the new organization were:
Integrity & Trust in Medicine
Equitable, Affordable Health Care for All, Without Health Disparities
Prevention and Wellness
NPA Campaigns
These core issues have translated into three major NPA campaigns:
1. The Unbranded Doctor (which will be the subject of our next posting).
2. Rx: Vote, a voter registration campaign (see our posting of June 20, 2008)
3. Secure Health Care for All
The Secure Health Care for All campaign has chosen not to endorse a specific plan, but rather endorses the Institute of Medicine’s general principles for health care reform:
1. Health care coverage should be universal.
2. Health care coverage should be continuous.
3. Health care coverage should be affordable to individuals and families.
4. The health insurance strategy should be affordable and sustainable for society.
5. Health insurance should enhance health and well-being by promoting access to high-quality care that is effective, efficient, safe, timely, patient-centered, and equitable.
This campaign has been undertaken in alliance with a number of groups including HCAN, Health Care for America Now. HCAN calls for a plan which guarantees affordable coverage and allows people to: “keep your current private insurance plan, pick a new private insurance plan, or join a public health insurance plan.” It appears this plan has been controversial within the NPA, some seeing it as too left, others as not left enough. (For a recent critique of HCAN from Physicians for a Naitonal Health Plan, see the PNHP blog). The campaign also offers NPA’s report card on the health plans of the current presidential candidates.
In addition to these three large campaigns, the NPA website has information on campaigns to address malpractice, safety, and the global health worker shortage.
The NPA lays great importance on the role of physicians as advocates. Dr. Silver-Isenstadt stated: “Patient advocacy is a responsibility of the profession.” And their website offers many opportunities for physicians to work as advocates. In addition, NPA has a blog and a facebook page.
From the NPA website: “Jean Silver-Isenstadt holds a doctorate in the history and sociology of medicine from the University of Pennsylvania, a medical degree from the University of Maryland, and a master’s degree in nonfiction and science writing from the Johns Hopkins University. Her doctoral work focused on 19th-century American health reform. She is the author of Shameless: The Visionary Life of Mary Gove Nichols (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002), a biography of the infamous and influential health advocate and social reformer best known for her leadership of the water-cure movement and for her scandalous public lectures to women on anatomy and physiology.”
After her talk, Dr. Silver-Isenstadt reminded me that the Social Medicine Portal was one of the first sites to give publicity to the NPA in 2005.
Posted by Matt Anderson
Add a comment July 21st, 2008 by bronxdoc
In a posting dated March 23, 2008, we wrote about the Cuban government’s offer of medical scholarships to US students: How US students can get a free medical education in Cuba. We have just published an article by two American students studying in Cuba: Razel Remen and Lillian Holloway. They discuss their experiences at the Latin American Medical School (known as ELAM for its Spanish initials). The article is found in the July, 2008 edition of Social Medicine. It begins:
“Introduction
The health of the world’s population is divided into two groups, those who have access to health care services and those who do not. The effects of this divide can be seen on the international level where life expectancy in Switzerland averages 80 years as opposed to 38 years in Zambia. Infant mortality rates are often used as a general indicator of health and socioeconomic conditions since rates are affected by factors such as access to perinatal health care. A direct relationship has been shown between higher income and education level and lower rates of infant mortality. This may explain in part an infant mortality rate of 4.5 per 1,000 live births in Connecticut in comparison with 12.2 in the Washington, DC area.
A major influence in access to services is the availability of trained health care workers. The World Health Organization estimates that the world will need at least 4,250,000 additional health workers to address these health disparities. In the face of this work force crisis we are left wondering how to fill in the gaps left by the mass exodus of health workers from developing nations to industrialized ones.
Cuba has tried to address these problems by sending thousands of healthcare professionals to work in some of the most impoverished and medically underserved regions in the world. Over the years, their attempts have evolved to include training professionals from underserved areas to provide enduring sources of health care for their populations. Perhaps the most valiant of efforts was the creation of the Latin American School of Medicine in Cuba (called ELAM, Escuela Latinoamericana de Medicina), which currently is training over 10,000 students from at least 27 countries, including the United States. Despite ELAM’s impressive numbers, its founders recognized that solutions to what has become a global health care crisis depend not only on the number of physicians produced but also on how they are trained as providers of care. To that end training is oriented toward primary care, public health and hands-on clinical experience. Perhaps no one can speak better about the training at ELAM than the actual students sitting in its classrooms. The following is a student perspective on ELAM and its educational program highlights, as viewed by two of its North American students.”
To read the rest of the article, please click here.
-posted by Matt Anderson
Add a comment July 17th, 2008 by bronxdoc
We have just published Volume 3, Number 2 of Social Medicine. The full table of contents in available on line. Here is some information about the articles:
Earlier this year we invited Asa Cristina Laurell, a prominent Mexican public health activist to prepare a special issue on progressive health reforms in Latin America. Dr. Laurell was the head of the Mexico City Health Department from 2000-2006 and – had the Mexican elections not been stolen by the right – she would currently be Mexico’s Minister of Health. She contributed a paper describing the Health Department’s experience with providing free medicines and medical care to people who did not qualify for coverage under Mexico’s employment-based Social Security System. Other papers examine Brazil’s Unified Health System, the SUS, which is one of the world’s largest public health systems; the Venezuelan attempts to provide free health to the all citizens with assistance from the Cubans; Uruguay’s moves to a public-private system that will guarantee the right to health; and finally Bogota’s experience with providing poor communities with access to health care through the Health at Home program.
American readers may be particularly interested in the article by Razel Remen and Lillian Holloway, two US students studying medicine at the ELAM school in Havana Cuba.
We publish two articles of original research. A Hong Kong team reports on public attitudes during the SARS epidemic in 2003, while Dr. Paula Acevedo presents data on reproductive patterns among Latin American immigrants in Spain.
Sadly, we publish the last article written by Edmundo Granda, one of the founders of ALAMES, the Latin American Social Medicine Association. He passed away in April of this year. He approved the final galleys of the Spanish version of his paper via blackberry from the hospital on the week he died. His paper considers the historical trajectory of ALAMES and where Latin American Social Medicine may be heading.
Finally, Dr. Lanny Smith interviews Chilean activist Victor Toro, a political refugee from Pinochet’s Chile, who is now facing deportation from the US, his home of nearly 2 decades. Ironically, he has been a immigrant rights activist (and patient of Dr. Smith) in the Bronx, New York, for most of these years. His account of becoming ill in an ICE detention facility mirrors the concerns discussed in our July 10th posting about Dr. Homer Venters.
Posted by Matt Anderson
Add a comment July 14th, 2008 by bronxdoc
Last Tuesday (7/8/2008) brought Dr. Jonathan Tobin from Yeshiva University’s Institute for Public Health Sciences to Social Medicine Rounds. He came to lead a showing and discussion of the PBS documentary Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick? Dr. Tobin is well-known in the public health community for his work as head of the Clinical Directors Network, Inc (CDN). CDN is a “not-for-profit network that supports community-based health centers, including their patients, practitioners and organizations.” The CDN website is full of clinical resources relevant to the work of Community Health Centers in the US.
Dr. Tobin’s visit was an opportunity for us to learn something about Yeshiva’s Institute for Public Health Sciences. The Institute is currently awaiting certification from New York State to offer a Master’s level degree in Public Health as well as a Certification of Public Health training. At the present time they are sponsoring educational activities, which have included a public health grand rounds series and a 14-session course on public health approaches to obesity. In September of 2007, they hosted a two day conference on Diversity & Disparity in Health and they are interested in forming academic think-tanks to look at particular health problems in a multi-disciplinary way. These activities are all posted on their website.
Add a comment April 27th, 2008 by bronxdoc
The Social Medicine Course at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine is celebrating its 10th birthday in 2008. It was founded by a group of 8 students in 1998 and remains entirely student-run.
Why a course in social medicine?
Traditionally, the preclinical science curriculum of medical school has left huge gaps in medically relevant, but “unscientific,” topics. Specifically, social factors such as economics, politics, race, and other issues related to healthcare disparities are often minimally addressed. The Social Medicine course aims to inform students about current issues in medical ethics, health economics, health policy and various other topics dealing with health and disease from a socio-economic perspective. The course is offered annually and has been very well attended in recent years. It runs in the spring semester for 12-14 weeks. Students design the curriculum each year, and the lectures are given by faculty and invited speakers. Topics covered in the course have included: the practice of social medicine, correctional health, community-based clinics, the ethics of stem cell research, medical waste, drug policy in the US, no free lunch, healthcare for people with disabilities, the politics of abortion, gun violence, elder abuse, race/ethnicity and unequal treatment, refugee health, liberation medicine, war as a public health problem, and more.
For more information on the 2008 course, please contact the organizers: Laureen Ojalvo and Carolyn Saylor. What follows is the 2008 schedule (which can also be downloaded here).
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Matthew R. Anderson, MD, MSc, Irwin Redlener, MD,
Carol Harris, MD and Victor Sidel, MD:
“OPENING SESSION: Social Medicine Practice on the Community, National and Global Levels”
The kick-off session for the 2008 course is an introduction to and celebration of the practice of Social Medicine. This event will be chaired by Dr. Victor Sidel who has been the faculty mentor for the course since its inception. The night begins with Matt Anderson, MD from the Department of Social Medicine at Montefiore Medical Center. His title is ‘Introduction to Social Medicine.’ The evening continues with a presentation by the President of the Children’s Health Fund, and Associate Dean for Public Health Advocacy and Preparedness at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, Irwin Redlener, MD titled, ‘A Failed Recovery: Stranding Children and Families in the Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.’ The last speaker for the evening is Carol Harris, MD who directs the Global HIV Medicine Institute at AECOM and will discuss ‘Through the Wardrobe Door from Bronx to Africa.’
We welcome all to join us at the conclusion of this session for a reception outside Robbins Auditorium.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Robert Fullilove, EdD:
“Race and Health”
Associate Dean for Community and Minority Affairs, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University
Dr. Robert Fullilove teaches courses including Race and Health in the Department of Sociomedical Sciences. Dr. Fullilove is a civil rights advocate, a community organizer of over 40+ years, and a researcher who has been involved with IOM studies on minority health, substance abuse and addiction, HIV/AIDS, TB. Dr. Fullilove brings his work to AECOM in this talk discussing the public health impact as it involves race and racism.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Gal Mayer, MD:
“The Medical Care of Transgender Patients”
Medical Director, Callen-Lorde Clinic
Gal Mayer, MD, is Medical Director of the Callen-Lorde clinic (www.callen-lorde.org) in Manhattan, serving New York’s LGBT community. He is an AECOM graduate. This session will focus on the concepts of what is transgender? what is gender? what do all the words mean? what pronoun do I use? How do I stay respectful?
W ednesday, January 30, 2008
Len Rodberg, PhD:
“Presidential Candidates’ Proposals for Universal Health Care”
Chair, Professor, Urban Studies Department, Queens College
Leonard Rodberg teaches the Department’s undergraduate and graduate courses on using the computer in urban analysis, as well as courses on the urban economy and health care policy. Rodberg is also Research Director for the NY Metro Chapter of PNHP. Rodberg, a theoretical physicist by training, is the Chair of the Department. He has a background in public policy and the social impact of technology. Rodberg has worked with the Office of Community Studies in developing Infoshare Community Information System, a computerized data base system that allows community groups, non-profit organizations, and others to access demographic, health, and economic information about New York City. The Infoshare system and databases are now on the web, at www.infoshare.org,and are in use by organizations and individuals throughout the City and State.
Talk: The Presidential candidates have each put forward their proposals for “affordable quality health coverage for all.” Many of these proposals share a common set of elements. What are those elements? What is missing from these plans? Are they politically “realistic?” Will they work?
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Irene Soloway, RPA and Donald Davis, VHIP:
“Harm Reduction in the Bronx: Dealing with the Hepatitis Epidemic among IV Drug Users”
Viral Hepatitis Intervention Program, AECOM
VHIP is a government-funded harm reduction program geared towards education and prevention of viral hepatitis in the Bronx community. It is primarily run by NYHRE (New York Harm Reduction and Education) and AECOM faculty (Dr. Alain Littwin and Dr. Melissa Stein of the Department of Medicine.) Students are closely supervised by AECOM faculty, Irene Soloway and NYHRE supervisor Donald Davis, as they assist in giving vaccinations and phlebotomy, as well as providing health education and counseling to program clients.
Many of these clients participate in the syringe exchange program located next to the VHIP tent. New services are always being introduced, including rapid HIV testing and student-run group counseling sessions.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008 – ***7:30pm – 8:30pm***
Lanny Smith, MD, MPH, TM:
“Liberation Medicine”
Clinical Faculty Residency Program in Social Internal Medicine and Primary Care at Montefiore
“In September of 2000 I joined the Residency Program in Social Medicine, clear that here is an environment within which it is possible to promote social justice through teaching and example. I continue in my volunteer position as Liberation Medicine Council and Member of the President’s Council of the International Humanitarian and Solidarity Volunteer Association Doctors for Global Health, DGH (www.dghonline.org), an organization I helped to found in 1995 which does concrete, positive work in social justice in El Salvador, Chiapas, Uganda and many other countries, including the USA. Among my responsibilities in the Residency Program in Social Medicine is teaching the core seminar in Liberation Medicine, “the conscious, conscientious use of health to promote social justice and human dignity,” a course which draws significantly on the Health and Human Rights Movement as well as the legacy of Community Oriented Primary Care, (COPC). I am also part of the group teaching Health Educators at Highbridge Community Life Center in the South Bronx. I serve as faculty mentor in International Health Electives for AECOM students and am on the Governing Council of the International Health Medical Education Consortium, IHMEC.” – quoted from faculty webpage at the Department of Family and Social Medicine.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
David Bell, MD, MPH:
“Young Men’s Sexual Health and Reproductive Rights”
Assistant Clinical Professor of Pediatrics and Assistant Clinical Professor of Population and Family Health, Columbia University
“Dr. David Bell is an adolescent medicine physician and works primarily with ages 12-24. Dr. Bell is the medical director of the Young Men’s Clinic and the School-Based Clinic Program. The Young Men’s Clinic is a unique adjunct to the Center’s Family Planning Clinic. The school-based clinic program consists of 3 middle schools, and 2 high schools in upper Manhattan. Both are direct service components of the Center for Community Health and Education within the Mailman School of Public Health. He provides direct patient care for adolescent and young adult males and females within the Young Men’s Clinic and the Family Planning Clinic. He supervises mid-level practitioners at the school sites, as well as residents and students in the Young Men’s Clinic. Dr. Bell is currently on the board of directors for the Guttmacher Institute. He has consulted for the federal Office of Family Planning, and assisted with trainings on male health with Federal OFP Regions I, II, IV and VI, as well as with Engender Health (formerly AVSC). He has appeared on MTV, BET, and CBS, promoting male health issues. Dr. Bell completed a three-year adolescent medicine specialty fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine.”
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Neil Aggarwal, MD, MA:
“Abusing Psychiatry: The Role of Psychiatrists in the War on Terror”
Yale Department of Psychiatry
After graduating from Case Western Reserve University with degrees in business and medicine, Neil enrolled at Harvard where he studied religion and anthropology of South Asia and the Middle East. He is interested in cross-cultural and international psychiatry of these regions, psychiatric anthropology, and the role of religion in healing.
About the Talk: I titled the talk “Abusing Psychiatry” for two reasons. The first is an attempt to be clever. The second is because it’s a play on words which actually reflects a professional tension that I’d like to explore regarding the role of psychiatrists in the War on Terror. I’d like to briefly review the literature within bioethics, medicine, and psychiatry to see how people have conceptualized the participation of psychiatrists in the War. Then I’d like to counter this literature with several key authors from anthropology and philosophy in order to help expose many of the assumptions medical professionals take for granted. I seek not to offer any final answers or to adjudicate between these divergent schools of thought, but rather to stimulate critical discussion on how we perceive our professional responsibilities. These questions require us to probe ourselves and for this reason, I don’t want to offer any solutions.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Allan Ross, MD:
“Public Health and Pediatrics in Kosovo”
Assistant Professor of Clinical Pediatrics, Columbia University
Dr. Alan Ross completed medical school in San Antonio when he was fifty. He had studied and taught Slavic studies for twenty years before that and, as part of his training, had spent a year in Tito’s Yugoslavia . He learned Serbo-Croat in Belgrade and made lasting friendships there. He and his wife met their first Albanians-not in the Balkans but at Albert Einstein and its affiliated hospitals. In order to learn some Albanian (she did, he didn’t!), they spent their honeymoon in Kosova in 1986. After the abrogation of the province’s autonomy by Milosevich, five years later, Dr. Ross began to devise public health programs for the area: these included a vaccination program in 1991, a TB campaign in 1994, the despatch of neonatal assistance teams to vulnerable children born in hospital, at home, and in an illegal private birthing center in 1996 and, when the rebellion began, the reorganization of a clinic for children driven out of their villages by the police. He gained -and lost- many friends during that time, most,but not all, Albanians, and it is in their honor that he reads these stories tonight.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Sheldon Tepperman, MD:
“Gun Violence”
Chief of Trauma and Critical Care Surgery at Jacobi Medical Center
Dr. Tepperman has firsthand experience with the devastation that gun violence can have in the Bronx. He is not only involved in the medical care of gun violence victims and their families, but he is a dedicated activist for legislative change and sits on the board of New Yorkers Against Gun Violence. He gives a riveting talk describing not only the impact that gun violence can have on our community, but several measures that can be taken to curb the illegal sale and use of guns.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Gary Kalkut, MD:
“Correctional Health at Rikers Island Health Services”
Vice President and Senior Medical Director, Montefiore Medical Center
Correctional healthcare is a challenging but rewarding area of medicine to which physicians receive little exposure. Dr. Kalkut, an attending physician from the Department of Medicine at Montefiore, will share his experiences and anecdotes as a physician at the maximum security Rikers Island Correctional Facility in NYC, which was a Montefiore facility until 1998. He will also talk about correctional healthcare as primary care for a needy population, with strong public health, social, and political implications.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Karen Hein, MD:
“Impact of Conflict, Tsunamis and HIV on Children”
Clinical Professor, Department of Pediatrics and Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, AECOM
“Karen Hein, M.D., became President of the William T. Grant Foundation on September 8, 1998. Dr. Hein was the Executive Officer of the Institute of Medicine (National Academy of Sciences) from December 30, 1994 to June 30, 1998. Dr. Hein is Clinical Professor of Pediatrics, Epidemiology and Social Medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. From l993-l994 she worked on health care reform as a member of the Senate Finance Committee staff in Washington, D.C., drafting legislation related to health benefits, workforce, and financing medical education and academic health centers.
Dr. Hein graduated from the University of Wisconsin (l966), attended Dartmouth Medical School (l966-l968) and received her medical degree from Columbia University, College of Physicians and Surgeons in l970. She was one of the founding members of the Dartmouth Medical School Board of Overseers (1973-1978).
During the past 25 years, Dr. Hein has assumed a variety of roles related to health policy through her activities in program development, teaching and clinical research. She directed a model program for health care of juvenile detainees. In l987, she founded the nation’s first adolescent HIV/AIDS program. She worked closely with the Board of Education to expand AIDS education to the million students in the New York City public school system. She has written over l50 articles, chapters and abstracts related to adolescent health, particularly focusing on high risk youth. Her book entitled, AIDS: Trading Fears for Facts, has sold over 100,000 volumes.
Dr. Hein has served as a consultant or advisor to many city, state and federal health organizations. She was President of the Society for Adolescent Medicine in l992. She has been a recipient of several awards including an Assistant Secretary for Health Award (DHHS) in l989, Health Care Financing Administrator’s Award (HCFA) in l993 and Stewart B. McKinney Foundation in l994 for leadership in the HIV epidemic. She is currently on the editorial advisory boards of 3 journals, a member of the Board of Directors of 7 national organizations (and Chair of the Center for Health Care Strategies).” – From David A. Winston Health Policy Fellowship
Wednesday, April 2, 2008 Sarah Woodward:
“Health Care in Nueva Vida, a Nicaraguan Hurricane Mitch Resettlement Community”
Center for Development in Central America, Ciudad Sandino, Nicaragua
Sarah Junkin Woodard comes to us from the Center for Development in Central America (CDCA), the Nicaraguan project of the non-profit, faith-based organization, the Jubilee House Community (JHC). Before moving to Nicaragua in 1994, the JHC operated shelters for the homeless and battered women in Statesville, NC, including facing issues of limited health care for the poor. Working in Nicaragua since then, the CDCA seeks to respond to human needs created by poverty in a nation where 45% of the population lives on less than $1.00/day, one of the poorest peoples in the western hemisphere, and where simply the lack of clean water impacts health on a daily basis. The CDCA is working to help communities become self-sufficient, sustainable, democratic entities, focusing its work in the areas of sustainable economic development, organic agriculture, appropriate technology, education, and health care. Donations of medicines and medical expertise help to defray the expense of running a full-time clinic. Sarah says, “The CDCA has been called to work with, and speak on behalf of, the poor in our area of Nicaragua, and to share their lives and stories with folks in the U.S., to bridge the gap between us and our neighbors.” Proceeds from craft sales go to the operating expenses of the project.
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Julio Rivera:
“HIV Treatment Adherence at Lincoln Hospital”
Senior Associate Director, HIV Services Department, Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center, Bronx, NY
Dr. Rivera currently leads the Treatment Adherence Pilot Program at Lincoln Hospital. The Treatment Adherence Pilot Program will enroll 40 HIV-infected individuals already enrolled in the Immunotherapy Clinic who are on or are in the process of being placed on single-dose, daily anti-retroviral (ARV) medication. The 40 patients who be those who have shown themselves to be non-adherent or poorly adherent to their ARV medication regimen. They initially will be assigned to one track, which requires them to receive a weekly visit from a member of the Treatment Adherence Pilot Program health education staff and to present themselves to their medical provider once a month for a medical evaluation.
The patients will be tracked throughout the duration of the Program; it is expected that 10 of the 40 patients will become seriously non-adherent enough to their medication regimen to justify they being transferred to a second track, the Directly Observed Therapy track. Patients in that track will receive daily visits from a member of the Treatment Adherence Pilot Program health education staff, who will observe the patients take their medication and provide them the education and encouragement needed to have them return to becoming adherence to their medication regimen. The patients will also present themselves to their medical provider one a month for a clinical evaluation.
The primary goal of the program is to reduce HIV-related morbidity and mortality, the secondary goals being to identify barriers to patients becoming and remaining adherence to their medication regimen; to reduce hospitalization rates of those patients participating in the Program; to reduce their number of opportunistic infections; to reduce their emergency room visits; to increase their ARV adherence rates; to improve HIV viral load suppression rates and CD4 counts; to educate patients about medication side effects; to build patient trust in the Treatment Adherence health educators and medical providers; to empower patients to become better informed about and involved in their medical treatment plans; and to increase weight gains among those with previous weight loss associated with their treatment regimen.
Please Note: Image from the article “Lincoln Hospital: The Decline of Health Care” published in the Social Medicine Journal (http://www.socialmedicine.info) Volume 2; Number 2; 2007.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Oliver Fein, MD:
“Time for National Health Insurance for the US?”
Associate Dean and Professor of Clinical Medicine and Clinical Public Health, Weill-Cornell Medical College
Oliver Fein, MD Dr. Fein is a practicing general internist with experience in health policy and an interest in access to care, health system reform and global health education. He is currently Professor of Clinical Medicine and Clinical Public Health and Associate Dean for Affiliations at the Weill Cornell Medical College of Cornell University. As Associate Dean for Affiliations, he is responsible for Weill Cornell’s domestic affiliations and the Office of Global Health Education. He also coordinates the David Rogers Health Policy Colloquium, a weekly interdisciplinary health policy forum at Weill Cornell.
In 2004, Dr. Fein was elected to the Executive Board of the American Public Health Association (APHA). He is Chair of the New York Metro Chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP) and was elected President-elect for 2008. He is also on the national board of the Global Health Education Consortium. He is a fellow of the American College of Physicians and serves as Chair of the Health System Reform Committee of the Society of General Internal Medicine (SGIM). He is on the Editorial Board of the journal Medical Care. In 1993-94, he was a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow in the office of U.S. Senate Majority Leader, George Mitchell.
Talk: The US spends more on healthcare than any other country, yet there are now over 47 million Americans without health insurance. Furthermore, the US has the shortest life expectancy and highest infant mortality rate among developed countries, and over 18,000 people die each year due to lack of insurance. Countries with single-payer systems have longer life spans, less infant deaths, and spend far less on healthcare that covers all of their citizens. Is single-payer National Health Insurance the solution for this country? What are we waiting for?
Wednesday, April 30, 2008 [POSTPONED UNTIL WEDNESDAY, MAY 14]
Victor Sidel, MD:
“War and Public Health”
Distinguished University Professor of Social Medicine at Montefiore
“Dr. Sidel was one of the founders of Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) in 1961 and was its president in 1987-88. In 1980 he was one of the founders of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), the recipient of the 1985 Nobel Prize for Peace, and was its co-president from 1993 to 1998. He has spoken and published widely on the economic, social, environmental and health consequences of the arms race, on the risks posed by the proliferation of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and on the diversion of resources and the curtailment of human rights entailed in responses to the threat of bioterrorism. Dr. Sidel is co-editor with Dr. Barry Levy of War and Public Health (Oxford University Press, 1997; updated paperbound edition, American Public Health Association, 2000) and of Terrorism and Public Health (Oxford University Press, 2003).”
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Dahlia Wasfi, MD:
“The Human Toll of the Iraq War”
Global Exchange Activist
Please join us May 7th for the closing lecture for this year’s Social Medicine Course! This year 2008 is significant in many ways. Not only does it mark the 10th anniversary of Einstein’s Social Medicine Course, but it also marks the 5th anniversary of the Iraq War. Our closing speaker, Dr. Dahlia Wasfi, will discuss the health consequences and the human toll of the Iraq War, speaking from personal experience during her extended stay in the country.
As future health professionals who may encounter war veterans and their families, as well as immigrants and refugees fleeing from war-torn countries, how can we provide optimal care to our patients? As public citizens making informed decisions this election year, what critical issues should we be aware of as we choose government officials who will guide the future policies of this country? What is our role as physicians and citizens in addressing both health and social issues? Join us May 7th to discuss these and many other issues, and have the rare opportunity to hear from Dr. Wasfi as she provides first-hand accounts and attempts to put a human face to the atrocities of war.
About the speaker: Dr. Dahlia Wasfi was born in 1971 to a Jewish mother and Iraqi father. She spent her early childhood in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq until she returned with her family to the United States in 1977. Dr. Wasfi graduated from Swarthmore College in 1993 with a B.A. in Biology, and from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 1997. Her latest trip to Iraq was a 3-month stay during the spring of 2006, when she traveled to see her family in Basrah. Based on her experiences, she is speaking out against the negative impact of the U.S. invasion on the Iraqi people and the need to end the occupation.
There is also more information on the following websites:
http://liberatethis.com
http://www.globalexchange.org/getInvolved/speakers/124.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=colcD8UVr90&feature=PlayList&p=F2CE027D408BB226&index=0
