PCOM Library / Archive for "Hot Topics in Research"

Category: Hot Topics in Research

State of Women in Medicine: History, Challenges, and the Benefits of a Diverse Workforce

katheride Hot Topics in Research

Women in medicine have made progress since Elizabeth Blackwell: the first women to receive her medical degree in the United States in 1849. Yet although women currently represent just over one-half of medical school applicants and matriculates, they continue to face many challenges that hinder them from entering residency, achieving leadership positions that exhibit final decision-making and budgetary power, and, in academic medicine, being promoted. Challenges include gender bias in promotion, salary inequity, professional isolation, bullying, sexual harassment, and lack of recognition, all of which lead to higher rates of attrition and burnout in women physicians. These challenges are even greater for women from groups that have historically been marginalized and excluded, in all aspects of their career and especially in achieving leadership positions. It is important to note that, in several studies, it was indicated that women physicians are more likely to adhere to clinical guidelines, provide preventive care and psychosocial counseling, and spend more time with their patients than their male peers. Additionally, some studies reveal improved clinical outcomes with women physicians. Therefore, it is critical for health care systems to promote workforce diversity in medicine and support women physicians in their career development and success and their wellness from early to late career.

Citation: Madeline M. Joseph, Amy M. Ahasic, Jesse Clark, Kim Templeton; State of Women in Medicine: History, Challenges, and the Benefits of a Diverse Workforce. Pediatrics September 2021; 148 (Supplement 2): e2021051440C. 10.1542/peds.2021-051440C

Women in medicine: It is not only necessary but also essential for the next generation

katheride Hot Topics in Research

Globally, women account for almost 50% of the population []. Therefore, it is not surprising that just over 57% of all women participated in the labor force in 2019, and it should not be surprising that many seek higher education, including careers in medicine []. Women now comprise 50% of matriculants to medical school and now account for close to 30% of the physician workforce in the US []. This brings the necessity of the changing landscape to support the needs of this student body and workforce.

Citation: Campbell Oparaji D, Hutchinson-Colas J. Women in medicine: It is not only necessary but also essential for the next generation. Case Rep Womens Health. 2022 Jul 5;35:e00427. doi: 10.1016/j.crwh.2022.e00427. PMID: 35942073; PMCID: PMC9356347.

Celebrating Women in Medicine.

katheride Hot Topics in Research

In collaboration with the American Medical Women’s Association, The Permanente Journal is pleased to present this special issue in celebration of Women in Medicine Month in September 2020. This designation was created by the American Medical Association to recognize the growing number of women in the profession. We aim to introduce the history, education, leadership, society beliefs and inequities faced, reflections on bias, and perspectives on work-life-balance. We hope you will allow the personal stories, commentaries, and research reports to inspire you to create workplaces and life moments with a view toward equity and inclusion.

Citation: Tran HN, Chin EL.Perm J. 2020 Sep;24:1-2. doi: 10.7812/TPP/20.069.PMID: 33482942. https://www.thepermanentejournal.org/doi/10.7812/TPP/20.069

Biases and Artificial Intelligence

katheride Ethics, Hot Topics in Research

Artificial Intelligence (AI) derives its insights from the data is trained. That data often reflects biases in society, including racism, misogyny, and other forms of bigotry. When AI is used to aid medical practice and research, we need to be cognizant of the influences of said biases.

  • BMJ 2020; Can we trust AI not to further embed racial bias and prejudice? doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m363 (Published 12 February 2020).
  • J AmMed Inform Assoc 2020; Latent bias and the implementation of artificial intelligence in medicine doi: 10.1093/jamia/ocaa094 (Published 27 December 2020).
  • Lancet 2021; Artificial intelligence, bias, and patients’ perspectives. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(21)01152-1 (Published 2021).

Graphic Medicine and the Critique of Contemporary U.S. Healthcare

barbarawo Graphic Medicine, Hot Topics in Research

Comics has always had a critical engagement with socio-political and cultural issues and hence evolved into a medium with a subversive power to challenge the status quo. Staying true to the criticality of the medium, graphic medicine (where comics intersects with the discourse of healthcare) critiques the exploitative and unethical practices in the field of healthcare, thereby creating a critical consciousness in the reader. In close reading select graphic pathographies such as Gabby Schulz’s Sick (2016), Emily Steinberg’s Broken Eggs (2014), Ellen Forney’s Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo & Me (2012) and Marisa Marchetto’s Cancer Vixen (2009), the present article delineates how graphic medicine interrogates the larger than life forces in the field of healthcare. Drawing specific instances from the aforementioned graphic texts, the essay demonstrates that graphic medicine scrutinizes the political economy of health under capitalism. In so doing, the article illustrates how the pharmaceutical corporations, insurance companies, medical technology, and healthcare corporations marketize and commoditize health in the neoliberal era. Finally, the article attempts to theorize how graphic pathographies, mediating subjective experiences, generate a new critical literacy through the conflation of the personal and the political in the verbovisual medium of comics.

Citation:
Venkatesan, S., Murali, C. Graphic Medicine and the Critique of Contemporary U.S. Healthcare. J Med Humanit 43, 27–42 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10912-019-09571-z

Hot Topic in Research: Feminine famishment: Graphic medicine and anorexia nervosa

barbarawo Graphic Medicine, Hot Topics in Research

Socio-cultural rigidities regarding the shape and size of a woman’s body have not only created an urgency to refashion themselves according to a range of set standards but also generated an infiltrating sense of body dissatisfaction and poor self-esteem leading to eating disorders. Interestingly, through an adept utilisation of the formal strengths of the medium of comics, many graphic medical anorexia narratives offer insightful elucidations on the question of how the female body is not merely a biological construction, but a biocultural construction too. In this context, by drawing theoretical postulates from Susan Bordo, David Morris and other theoreticians of varying importance, and by close reading Lesley Fairfield’s Tyranny and Katie Green’s Lighter than My Shadow, this article considers anorexia as the bodily manifestation of a cultural malady by analysing how cultural attitudes regarding body can be potential triggers of eating disorders in girls. Furthermore, this article also investigates why comics is the appropriate medium to provide a nuanced representation of the corporeal complications and socio-cultural intricacies of anorexia.

Citation:
Venkatesan S, Peter AM. Feminine famishment: Graphic medicine and anorexia nervosa. Health. 2020;24(5):518-534. doi:10.1177/1363459318817915

Hot Topics in Research: An interview project with native American people: a community-based study to identify actionable steps to reduce health disparities

barbarawo Hot Topics in Research

An interview project with native American people: a community-based study to identify actionable steps to reduce health disparities.
Leston J, Crisp C, Lee C, Rink E.
Public Health. 2019 Nov;176:82-91. doi: 10.1016/j.puhe.2018.12.002. Epub 2019 Feb 12.
PMID: 30765139 Free article.

Click the following link to access the full article: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30765139/

Hot Topics in Research: Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors and Health Outcomes Among American Indians in Oklahoma: the THRIVE Study

barbarawo Hot Topics in Research

Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors and Health Outcomes Among American Indians in Oklahoma: the THRIVE Study.
Jernigan VBB, Wetherill M, Hearod J, Jacob T, Salvatore AL, Cannady T, Grammar M, Standridge J, Fox J, Spiegel J, Wiley A, Noonan C, Buchwald D.
J Racial Ethn Health Disparities. 2017 Dec;4(6):1061-1068. doi: 10.1007/s40615-016-0310-4. Epub 2016 Dec 6.
PMID: 27924618 Free PMC article. Clinical Trial.

Click the following link to access the full article: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27924618/