Social Medicine In The 21st Century

PLoS Medicine's October 2006 issue contained a special collection of eleven magazine articles and five research papers devoted entirely too social medicine. The collection featured many of the leaders in the field, including Paul Farmer, Arthur Kleinman, David Satcher, Nancy Scheper-Hughes, Dorothy Porter, and Leon Eisenberg. The Kaiser Family Foundation has conducted interviews with two of the authors of papers in this collection, David Satcher and Paul Farmer. In its launch issue in October 2004, PLoS Medicine signaled a strong interest in creating a journal that went beyond a biological view of health to incorporate socioeconomic, ethical, and cultural dimensions. For example, that first issue contained a policy paper on how the health community should respond to violent political conflict a debate on whether health workers should screen all women for domestic violence, and a study on the global distribution of risk factors for disease. Two years on, our October 2006 issue takes our interest even further. It contains a special collection of ten magazine articles and fi ve research papers devoted entirely to social medicine. We are delighted that the collection features many of the leaders in the fi eld, including the renowned medical anthropologists Paul Farmer and Arthur Kleinman, the former United States Surgeon General David Satcher, and the Harvard professor of social medicine and psychiatry Leon Eisenberg. Most of our readers have welcomed our inclusive view of what a medical journal should highlight. Some, however, have been critical, suggesting that we should publish "less soft stuff" and more "hard science." These critics might argue that in this era of stem cell research and the human genome project, of molecular medicine and DNA microarray technology, the notion of social medicine seems irrelevant and outmoded. But the ultimate role of a medical journal is surely to contribute to health improvement, and that means looking not just at molecules but at the social structures that contribute to illness. The stark fact is that most disease on the planet is attributable to the social conditions in which people live and work. The socially disadvantaged have less access to health services, and get sicker and die earlier than the privileged. Despite impressive technological advances in medicine, global health inequalities are worsening.

The anthrax incidents following the 9/11 terrorist attacks put the spotlight on the nation's public health agencies, placing it under an unprecedented scrutiny that added new dimensions to the complex issues considered in this report. The Future of the Public's Health in the 21st Century reaffirms the vision of Healthy People 2010, and outlines a systems approach to assuring the nation's health in practice, research, and policy. This approach focuses on joining the unique resources and perspectives of diverse sectors and entities and challenges these groups to work in a concerted, strategic way to promote and protect the public's health. Focusing on diverse partnerships as the framework for public health, the book discusses: The need for a shift from an individual to a population-based approach in practice, research, policy, and community engagement. The status of the governmental public health infrastructure and what needs to be improved, including its interface with the health care delivery system. The roles nongovernment actors, such as academia, business, local communities and the media can play in creating a healthy nation. Providing an accessible analysis, this book will be important to public health policy-makers and practitioners, business and community leaders, health advocates, educators and journalists.

Second in a series of publications from the Institute of Medicine's Quality of Health Care in America project Today's health care providers have more research findings and more technology available to them than ever before. Yet recent reports have raised serious doubts about the quality of health care in America. Crossing the Quality Chasm makes an urgent call for fundamental change to close the quality gap. This book recommends a sweeping redesign of the American health care system and provides overarching principles for specific direction for policymakers, health care leaders, clinicians, regulators, purchasers, and others. In this comprehensive volume the committee offers: A set of performance expectations for the 21st century health care system. A set of 10 new rules to guide patient-clinician relationships. A suggested organizing framework to better align the incentives inherent in payment and accountability with improvements in quality. Key steps to promote evidence-based practice and strengthen clinical information systems. Analyzing health care organizations as complex systems, Crossing the Quality Chasm also documents the causes of the quality gap, identifies current practices that impede quality care, and explores how systems approaches can be used to implement change.

Inside today's data-driven personalized medicine, and the time, effort, and information required from patients to make it a reality Medicine has been personal long before the concept of “personalized medicine” became popular. Health professionals have always taken into consideration the individual characteristics of their patients when diagnosing, and treating them. Patients have cared for themselves and for each other, contributed to medical research, and advocated for new treatments. Given this history, why has the notion of personalized medicine gained so much traction at the beginning of the new millennium? Personalized Medicine investigates the recent movement for patients’ involvement in how they are treated, diagnosed, and medicated; a movement that accompanies the increasingly popular idea that people should be proactive, well-informed participants in their own healthcare. While it is often the case that participatory practices in medicine are celebrated as instances of patient empowerment or, alternatively, are dismissed as cases of patient exploitation, Barbara Prainsack challenges these views to illustrate how personalized medicine can give rise to a technology-focused individualism, yet also present new opportunities to strengthen solidarity. Facing the future, this book reveals how medicine informed by digital, quantified, and computable information is already changing the personalization movement, providing a contemporary twist on how medical symptoms or ailments are shared and discussed in society. Bringing together empirical work and critical scholarship from medicine, public health, data governance, bioethics, and digital sociology, Personalized Medicine analyzes the challenges of personalization driven by patient work and data. This compelling volume proposes an understanding that uses novel technological practices to foreground the needs and interests of patients, instead of being ruled by them.

There is widespread recognition that the most powerful determinants of health today are to be found in social, economic and cultural circumstances. These include: ecnomic growth, income distribution, consumption, work oganisation, unemployment and job insecurity, social and family structure, education and deprivation, and they are all aspects of 'social organisation'. In ^Health and Social Organisation leading British and North American researchers who bring together an invaluable collection of data on these issues, draw from the social sciences, epidemiology and biology.

“This is a remarkable, much-needed book that fills a significant gap in the health and social care literature in the early decades of the 21st century—public, global, clinical, ecological. It is powerful, ambitious, comprehensive, and sweeping at the same time that it is visionary, focused, and deep. Its power and passion are about the potential of population health and well-being optimally applied around the globe to help in creating a world that is healthier, safer, more just, and more sustainable.” —Barbara K. Rimer, DrPH, Alumni Distinguished Professor and Dean UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (From the Foreword) Drawing on current research and the expertise of world-recognized leaders in public, global, clinical, and social health in both developed and developing nations, this book delivers an evidence-based examination of 21st-century challenges in global population health and well-being. With special attention given to major initiatives of the United Nations, especially its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2016–2030, and the priorities of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Bank, Dr. Lueddeke articulates an imperative to adopt a “One World, One Health” view that recognizes the interdependence of humans, animals, plants, and the environment. The book/text promotes innovative and transformative paradigms for global public health practice, curricula, workforce training, and leadership. Intended for undergraduate and postgraduate courses in global public health, it will also be a welcome addition to the libraries of practitioners and policy-makers at all levels in the public/population/global health continuum. KEY CONTENT AREAS INCLUDE: The historical context of public health from early medicine to present day Exemplary educational initiatives: WHO education guidelines; curriculum commentaries from China, South Africa, and Cuba; a proposed Global Framework for Public Health Services and Functions; and case studies from South America (PAHO/ WHO), India (IPHF), and South Africa (PHASA) The changing roles and educational expectations of public and global health professionals in the early decades of the 21st century The complex interdependence of natural, socioeconomic, and political systems at local, national, regional, and global levels The causes of interstate conflicts and longer-term challenges Leading change in a new era, transforming mind-sets, and improving and sustaining the health and well-being of the planet and its people An epilogue on global health, governance, and education with contributions from a think tank of 35 practitioners from 27 nations Supplemental materials, including text aims and objectives and a guide to research and learning resources developed by experts in the United States, Brazil, and the Netherlands, are available as digital downloads ALSO HIGHLIGHTED: 65 profiles of leading global health (and health-related) organizations 15 profiles of highly recognized schools and institutes of public health

The scope of medicine has expanded during the last few decades to include not only health problems of individuals, but those of communities as well. Health development is essential to socio-economic development as a whole. Social Medicine is mainly concerned with the health situation, with the measurement of population health, and with genetic, social, and environmental factors influencing human health, disease, and disability, health needs and demands, health care system and its components (structure and function), health policy (health programmes), evaluation of health systems and services, health legislation, health economy, health insurance, the relation between health and social care, informatics, and health management. The goal of Social Medicine is to contribute to the population health, to define the health problems and needs, to identify means by which these needs can be met, and to evaluate the extent to which the health services and other activities do meet these needs.

"The Nation has lost sight of its public health goals and has allowed the system of public health to fall into 'disarray'," from The Future of Public Health. This startling book contains proposals for ensuring that public health service programs are efficient and effective enough to deal not only with the topics of today, but also with those of tomorrow. In addition, the authors make recommendations for core functions in public health assessment, policy development, and service assurances, and identify the level of government--federal, state, and local--at which these functions would best be handled.