Medical Humanities最新文献

{"title":"Case conference and para case conference: asking different questions about disability and structural ableism.","authors":"Michele Friedner","doi":"10.1136/medhum-2024-013108","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1136/medhum-2024-013108","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>What might it mean to change the questions we ask during clinical case conferences and to ask different kinds of questions, both in case conferences and more broadly in our clinics, care conferences and research? How might conducting 'para case conferences' with diverse stakeholders, community members and scholars invigorate conversation and surface different kinds of concerns? By 'para,' I draw from all of the meanings of the prefix, including alongside of, beside, near, resembling, beyond, apart from and abnormal. In this essay, I discuss a 'traditional' hospital-based case conference about a young deaf woman who would like to undergo cochlear implant surgery and I compare it to two 'para case conferences' that I organised with disability studies scholars in the humanities, social sciences and public health, in which we analyzed the same case and had a very different discussion. I argue, drawing on disability studies, medical anthropology and disability ethics scholarship, that we must actively consider and confront the role of structural ableism and the ways that it constrains the kinds of questions and horizons of possibility we imagine for patients and for disabled flourishing more broadly.</p>","PeriodicalId":46435,"journal":{"name":"Medical Humanities","volume":"51 2","pages":"193-196"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2025-05-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144162756","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"'DEFEND, DEFEND, DEFEND': women's HIV health activism, embodied feminist performance-making and radical kindness.","authors":"Katharine E Low, Silvia Petretti, Chuck Blue Lowry, Maryam Shaharuddin","doi":"10.1136/medhum-2024-013110","DOIUrl":"10.1136/medhum-2024-013110","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This article shares the learning from our project, <i>Positively Past, Positively Present</i> (PPPP), which started in 2022 in partnership with Positively UK, formerly known as Positively Women, a UK HIV support and advocacy organisation. The PPPP project is an archival, oral herstory project which focuses on capturing the herstories and experiences of women and others who were part of Positively Women. Our aim was to consolidate these women's herstories and by sharing this knowledge prevent these extraordinary narratives from being invisibilised again. In this article we articulate how our use of embodied feminist performance-making in health activism can help to nurture the roots and interconnections of these knowledges, and in doing so, 'DEFEND' the loss of these stories.</p>","PeriodicalId":46435,"journal":{"name":"Medical Humanities","volume":" ","pages":"276-285"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2025-05-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143434271","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Cultural assumptions and the good death: rethinking global frameworks.","authors":"Shahaduz Zaman","doi":"10.1136/medhum-2024-013062","DOIUrl":"10.1136/medhum-2024-013062","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The concept of a 'good death' remains debated, with research largely focused on the Global North, leaving gaps in understanding its relevance to the Global South. While the concept of a good death is not a strict binary, notable differences exist. In the Global North, emphasis often lies on individual autonomy and preferences, whereas in the Global South, the focus tends to include the perspectives and needs of family and social networks.Despite differing notions of a good death between the Global North and South, Global North frameworks often set the benchmark. For example, '<i>The Economist</i>'s Quality of Death Index' ranks countries by their provision of a 'good death', with Western nations, particularly the UK, leading. While not explicitly endorsing a Global North model, the index promotes a narrative that implicitly positions institutionalised and professionalised palliative care as the ideal, urging lower-ranked Global South countries to adopt these standards.Using a postcolonial perspective, this paper critiques the universalisation of such models, which position Global North approaches as the gold standard. Drawing on literature and personal observations, I explore the cultural assumptions surrounding a good death and advocate for recognising diverse ways of dying. I propose that a good death consists of two components: 'value', or the judgement of what constitutes a good death, and 'logistics', or the arrangements made to achieve it. This framework underscores the importance of tailoring end-of-life care to the negotiation of value and logistics within different cultural contexts.</p>","PeriodicalId":46435,"journal":{"name":"Medical Humanities","volume":" ","pages":"296-300"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2025-05-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12171467/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143013887","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"'Future Docs for Abortion Access': lessons learnt from 1 year of medical student advocacy in the USA.","authors":"Catherine R Stratis, Sarah M McNeilly, Carly C Tymm, Alexis L Zachem, Daniel D Baboolal, Adam R Jacobs","doi":"10.1136/medhum-2024-013041","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1136/medhum-2024-013041","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Abortion's place in US medical education has long been tenuous. Most medical students have historically lacked adequate abortion instruction, which stands to worsen following the <i>Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health</i> decision. Trainee-led advocacy through organisations like Medical Students for Choice (MSFC) has enhanced this instruction nationally and globally. While MSFC offers robust resources to supplement institutional curricula, ample opportunities for student advocates to design interventions meeting the unique needs of their local communities exist. Immediately post-Dobbs, all New York City (NYC)-area MSFC chapters formed a novel advocacy coalition, MSFC NYC, to address the evolving reproductive health education and access needs within NYC and across the USA. Our coalition established three key priorities: (1) Enhance and standardise abortion education for all NYC medical students, (2) Strengthen abortion's legal protections in New York (NY) State and (3) Support patients in abortion-restricted states. In turn, our first year prioritised three key initiatives: (1) Authoring and distributing the <i>'Accessing Abortion in NYC'</i> peer educational resource guide, (2) Supporting a grass-roots political campaign to expand abortion training and access in NY and (3) Launching the now-annual <i>'Future Docs for Abortion Access'</i> fundraiser. Our multi-institutional coalition united medical students and physician mentors with community-based reproductive health organisations, aligning our advocacy work with our local communities' needs while creating an enduring advocacy presence within our city and state. By replicating this coalition-building model, fellow trainees can not only expand abortion access and education in different geographies, but further student-led efforts to promote various social justice causes.</p>","PeriodicalId":46435,"journal":{"name":"Medical Humanities","volume":"51 2","pages":"187-192"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2025-05-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144162771","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The quality of qualitative research.","authors":"Marinus H van IJzendoorn, Siebren Miedema","doi":"10.1136/medhum-2024-012990","DOIUrl":"10.1136/medhum-2024-012990","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In this contribution, we discuss criteria for the quality of qualitative research. We consider reliability and validity as specifications of the comprehensive requirement for 'intersubjective replicability', with which qualitative research should comply. In the data collection phase, 'argumentative' reliability generally must suffice; in the data analysis phase, attention must also be given to 'technical' reliability. Validation of qualitative research has to take place via three approaches: 'communicative', 'critical' or 'empirical' validation. This clarifies the relative validity or 'authenticity' of qualitative research.</p>","PeriodicalId":46435,"journal":{"name":"Medical Humanities","volume":" ","pages":"202-206"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2025-05-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141421380","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"'God knows why these Sanghaalis are so rabidly against C-section!': spectre of medical coloniality haunts doctor-patient relationship in Guruprasad Kaginele's <i>Hijab</i> (2020).","authors":"Manali Karmakar","doi":"10.1136/medhum-2024-012938","DOIUrl":"10.1136/medhum-2024-012938","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Through the lens of Guruprasad Kaginele's novel <i>Hijab</i>, the issues of intolerance and distrust that exist in American rural hospitals-where the Indian immigrant doctors fail to understand the inhibitions and apprehensions of the African immigrant birthing mothers, turning them into objects of mockery and disgust, despite sharing colonial histories of racialised discrimination, biases and prejudices-are examined. The ruptured relationship between Indian immigrant doctors and Sanghaali Muslim immigrant birthing mothers dramatised in the novel provides an insight into how Indian immigrant doctors' psyche is unconsciously imbued with medical coloniality, which has not received much scholarly attention. Drawing on critical approaches such as various orders of gaze-male, medical, colonial and imperial-and the concept of intersectionality, the hybrid subjectivities of the Indian immigrant doctors, ruptured doctor-patient relationship, and non-agentic status of the immigrant birthing mothers as represented in the novel are analysed. In light of the issues highlighted in this study, it is recommended that the novel <i>Hijab</i> could be a potential addition to the critical medical humanities curriculum to help medical students understand the cultural roots of racialised prejudices and discriminations, the spectre of which has continued to haunt caregiving in rural American healthcare settings.</p>","PeriodicalId":46435,"journal":{"name":"Medical Humanities","volume":" ","pages":"237-245"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2025-05-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143013894","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Impossible motherhood: a health humanities reading of two monologues for women.","authors":"Leah Sidi","doi":"10.1136/medhum-2024-013094","DOIUrl":"10.1136/medhum-2024-013094","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Separated by a gap of 27 years, Anna Reynold's <i>Jordan</i> (1992) and Gary Owen's <i>Iphigenia in Splott</i> (2015) offer, on the surface, dramaturgically similar critiques of the impact of poverty on motherhood. Both plays are critically acclaimed monologues for women, which describe the death of a baby following inadequate interventions from health and/or social care services. This article examines the different theatrical contexts for these plays and offers a situated reading of the representation of maternal crisis in circumstances of social deprivation. When considered in parallel, <i>Jordan</i> and <i>Iphigenia in Splott</i> reveal the persistent vulnerability faced by low-income mothers and would-be mothers under conditions of Thatcherite and austerity governing. In the context of the health humanities, they reveal how austerity government shapes the lives of women through the scarcity of adequate maternal health and social care services. By placing Owen's play in dialogue with the 1990s feminist monologue, I suggest that Owen posits a dramaturgical through-line between post-2008 austerity policies and the socio-political conditions that concerned second wave feminists. <i>Iphigenia in Splott</i> highlights the post-2008 crisis of care and demonstrates its continuity with forms of social marginalisation, housing precarity and 'hollowing out' introduced under Thatcher and thematised two decades earlier in <i>Jordan</i>.</p>","PeriodicalId":46435,"journal":{"name":"Medical Humanities","volume":" ","pages":"268-275"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2025-05-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143013896","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Sex and psychedelics: a wide-lens look at a burgeoning field.","authors":"Alex Dymock, Zoe Dubus","doi":"10.1136/medhum-2024-013068","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1136/medhum-2024-013068","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In this article we initiate a conversation between scientific and humanities-oriented studies of sexuality and psychedelics. Drawing on three recent studies which indicate a positive connection between the use of psychedelics and sexual well-being, the article argues that taking account of sexuality as culturally produced, historically contingent and geographically specific would improve the reliability and efficacy of future studies. The need for socially and culturally attuned research grounded in contemporary sexual politics in this area is urgent, as in recent years-despite little reporting of sexuality in clinical research-the psychedelics field has had to grapple with the ethics of the relationship between psychedelic states and sexual interactions in therapeutic spaces and the 'underground'. There is also scant attention to date paid to the gendered dynamics of sex and sexuality, and how this may impact perceptions of the relationship between psychedelic therapeutic repair versus enhancement. We unpack some of these dilemmas and outline some key concerns and potential priorities for future research into sexuality and psychedelics in a post-#MeToo era.</p>","PeriodicalId":46435,"journal":{"name":"Medical Humanities","volume":"51 2","pages":"197-201"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2025-05-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144162735","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Exploration of parental perspectives and involvement in therapeutic communication approaches for deaf and/or hard-of-hearing children at special schools in South Africa.","authors":"Aisha Casoojee, Katijah Khoza-Shangase, Amisha Kanji","doi":"10.1136/medhum-2024-012900","DOIUrl":"10.1136/medhum-2024-012900","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Family-centred intervention optimises the development of communication abilities and academic outcomes in children with hearing loss. Cognisance of family values, respect for family differences and adaptations to cultural and linguistic diversity ensure the collaboration of parent-professional relationships. This study investigated the parental involvement and parental perceptions regarding the communication intervention approaches implemented (i.e., traditional speech-language therapy and listening and spoken language-South Africa-adapted Auditory Verbal Therapy) for children with profound hearing loss. The study was conducted at special schools for children with hearing loss across four provinces in South Africa, where grade-level core skills are taught using a mainstream curriculum complemented by specialised instruction. Data were collected through a parental self-administered survey and a retrospective record review. An inductive analysis of transcripts was conducted, and the Fisher's exact test assessed associations between data sets. Findings demonstrated limited informational counselling provided to parents regarding communication intervention options. Following the initiation of the communication intervention process, findings indicate parental buy-in, fuelled by their aspirations for their child with a hearing loss. Although results suggest that parents prefer a listening and spoken language therapeutic communication modality, this approach is hindered by the lack of culturally sensitive and linguistically appropriate care. This is an important finding, particularly in multilingual and multicultural contexts like South Africa. These context-specific outcomes emphasise that communication interventionists must be cognizant of parental-informed decision-making, cultural contexts and linguistic sensitivity for effective parent-professional collaborations.</p>","PeriodicalId":46435,"journal":{"name":"Medical Humanities","volume":" ","pages":"246-259"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2025-05-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12171430/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143013891","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Cost of Dying Exhibition: public, professional and political reactions to a visual exhibition depicting experiences of poverty at the end of life.","authors":"Sam Quinn, Naomi Richards","doi":"10.1136/medhum-2024-012950","DOIUrl":"10.1136/medhum-2024-012950","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Public health approaches to palliative care are internationally endorsed for their potential to improve the social determinants of dying such as energy costs, transport and housing. Enhancing public understanding of inequities in end of life experiences, which exist even in economically advanced countries, is vital if the value of public health approaches are to be endorsed and invested in. Visual exhibitions have a strong tradition of raising awareness and influencing public health discourse. The UK-based Cost of Dying exhibition (April-August 2023) presented real examples of how financial hardship and deprivation intersect with end of life experience through professional portraits, photovoice imagery taken by individuals at the end of their lives, and digital stories co-produced with bereaved relatives. Three iterations of the exhibition were displayed at public venues and a health conference. Evaluation methods comprised anonymous feedback cards (n=208), panel discussions and social media reactions. Thematic analysis was used to identify themes within the feedback. The emotional resonance of the exhibition was a key theme, with attendees expressing sadness, anger, empathy and hope. Visitors found the exhibition thought-provoking and expressed that it countered existing stereotypes about what it means to experience financial hardship at the end of life. The exhibition spurred calls for change, with some attendees questioning in what capacity they could help. Individuals with expertise in end of life care reported that the imagery validated their professional experiences. In conclusion, the Cost of Dying exhibition made visible the struggles endured by individuals confronting financial hardship and material deprivation at the end of life. Such exhibitions can challenge the traditional view of dying as a swift process taking place sequestered in institutions, revealing that it often unfolds over time and individuals may continue to live at home in the community, struggling with unmet needs and unresponsive state services.</p>","PeriodicalId":46435,"journal":{"name":"Medical Humanities","volume":" ","pages":"207-217"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2025-05-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12171512/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141447302","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}