Culture

The Path To Humanizing Medicine: An Essay

June 17, 2012

Culture, Live, Medicine, Public Health, Science, Technology

I recently came across one of the essays I wrote during my senior year at New York University in Spring ’11. At that time I was taking two of the most eye-opening and informative classes I have participated in to this date: Philosophy of Medicine and Visual Culture of Science and Technology.

Philosophy of Medicine explored how our society approaches medicine as a whole: What do we believe medicine should do for us? When should we access it? How? What roles do/should medical professionals play? What is their relationship and duty to their patient?

The second class, Visual Culture of Science and Technology, examined how our society reacts, shifts and changes with the introduction of new technologies and media. The majority of the class did focus on medical technology, and how advances in the field have shaped the knowledge and behavior of both medical personal and the general public.

Needless to say, both topics were absolutely fascinating, and the fact that each class was led by top-tier professors, Dr. Brad Lewis, a licensed physician and cultural theorists, and Prof. Marita Sturken, the Chair of NYU’s Department of Media, Culture, and Communication, only enhanced the experience overall.

As I was milling over the topics in these separate classes, I could not help notice a great deal overlap and some connecting themes. Ultimately, I decided to formulate an independent project in which I connected the two disperate classes via an essay piece that tried to use the tools provided by these classes in order to analyze the “dominant culture” of medicine (i.e medicine as practiced in western, industrial nations), and how our current medical practices are failing to provide optimum levels of healing for patients.

Now, after dusting it off and re-editing my work over these past couple of days, I find myself wanting to re-write the whole piece entirely to include the new knowledge and experience that I have gained over the course of this past year. But that is not the point. The piece is genuine and honest in its search for understanding. It explores over-arching themes of caring vs. curing, molecularization of the body via technology, the influence of visual mediums on medicine, and the structure of science in society.

It’s a longer read, but I do hope you enjoy it. And of course, feedback and idea contributions are always welcome. Click the link below for the PDF.

The Path to Humanizing Medicine

Final Days in Bangladesh Pt. I: Chakaria

February 3, 2012

Culture, Global Health, Human Development, Live, Photos, Writings

Leave a comment

It certainly has been some time since the last post on Bangladesh. However, after leaving Southeast Asia and returning to United States at the beginning of November, it has taken a couple of months to re-adjust to the modern chaos of New York City. Although I am typing piece in retrospect to my research trip, I believe it to be necessary contribution in order to wrap up and explain the closing of this past trip to Bangladesh—hopefully to be the first of many in the future.

During my time at ICDDR, B, I had been working on a solo project to develop community health modules and a workshop, which would be used to inform rural areas of chronic diseases and how social behavioral modifications could be used in order to prevent the onset of illness.

Within the last 60 days of being in the country it was decided that I was going to be temporarily transferred to one of these rural regions. Once there, I would have the opportunity to meet with local villagers and fieldworkers in order make some ground-level assessments and gain feedback on the project, so that adjustments could be made to help it run more efficiently. Of course, I was more than thrilled at the prospect of meeting with those residing with in the rural outskirts. After all, it was for their sake that the project had even commenced in the first place, and it was important to receive their input and observe the situation locally.

Leaving Dhaka City circa 8:00 in the morning, I boarded a train that would take me on a 7-hour journey southward to the second largest city of Bangladesh, Chittagong. From there, I would immediately continue towards the neighboring district, traveling by car for an additional 4 hours on treacherous unpaved roads, until finally reaching my destination: ICDDR,B’s Chakaria Field Site. By this time, the town was well cloaked by the darkness of night, and my exhaustion from the voyage left me with little interest in anything besides my bed.