WRIT 150 (Change Name)

 https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMms2203232  An article I found is a New England Journal of Medicine article that talks about a study that Paul Farmer MD did in Haiti. Every patient in the study received free medications, but those in the study group also got other resources like money, transportation, and check-ups by community health workers. In the end, the cure rates were only 57% in the control trial while it was 100% in the treatment group. I found this article by searching the NEJM, which had quite a lot of articles about TB. I think that this source is quite limited in what it could give me, which is really just the information that is said above. Otherwise, the other information is rather convoluted and not really related to my topic. However, all I needed to get from this was his investigation into the topic. Ok, it's an overstatement to say that the other information is convoluted. It gives very good background into what Farmer was like, and his ideals and ...

 I think that I'm going to look at poverty as a social determinant of health, and more specifically, look at how it exacerbates the spread of tuberculosis, a respiratory infection caused by particulates from infected people. I know a little about the topic, and the reason why I wanted to study TB specifically is that it is such an old disease that affects people of different socioeconomic statuses in vastly different ways. It is practically eradicated in wealthy and developed societies, but is so endemic in impoverished areas. The story of tuberculosis and those that are poor is a recurring one that public health systems have failed to address. They think about medicine as something that is very science-based, rather than something that encompasses pretty much everything about a person's life. I'm going to get statistics and first hand accounts of this issue to use in my paper.  https://www.cdc.gov/tb/topic/basics/howtbspreads.htm  https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Ad...

 I think I'm going to change my topic. I was initially looking at the cost of medical care and what doctors should do if patients are unable to pay for treatment. I'm changing to how healthcare handles situations with advanced directives and end-of-life wishes and requests. With these, how should doctors and those in the medical field address these things: should they interpret them liberally or should they interpret it strictly? Should the requests of their relatives be relied on if they don't have the directives with them? I learned just how traumatizing it can be for people who know the patient knowing that the medics and doctors aren't abiding by the patient's request. However, the doctors and medics have their responsibilities lined very clearly. I think I'm going to argue that the autonomy and rights of the patient take precedence over the doctor's opinion and choices in these end-of-life scenarios. This conflicts with the doctor and the pillar of bene...

 I think my topic this time will be about the cost of healthcare: should doctors be treat patients who cannot pay for treatment?  This topic is one that I've looked into before after reading Mountains Beyond Mountains  by Tracy Kidder. This guy named Paul Farmer set up medical clinics in Haiti, and Russia and spends all his time treating patients who cannot afford medical treatment. He does work in public health too, establishing things like safe-water wells to make major impacts on those disadvantaged communities. He pretty much doesn't take a wage, and instead spends it all on helping buy more things to help the people he treats Book Cover for Mountains Beyond Mountains While this is an extreme example (maybe?), realistically people have their own interests to look after. Most doctors do not work for hospitals that are capable/willing to spend all their available resources on patients who could not pay for it, nor are there many (if any) insurance companies that will pa...

 What side do I take on the topic of paternalism and exercise as a means to slow the rapidly growing rate of obesity? Paternalism should definitely be utilized in this scenario. Yes, there are some other factors that are driving the obesity rates, but this is one way that we can slow its growth. Additionally, it's something that we all hear when we're younger, but simply fail to do: exercise. The fact that not enough people seem to be exercising is an issue in itself. We are social creatures, and we love trends and fads. If there can be a continuing trend of exercising, how much healthier could the U.S. actually become? It's cool to see communities that come together to be healthy: my neighborhood has a large group of people who go on walks and runs in the morning. This is a great thing, but it is a fairly isolated incident of exercise that continues to adulthood. People on my street go out simply to do errands and spend the rest of their time on couches eating junk food. W...

 Hi all!      We all know about the 30-minute to an hour-long period that we spent in elementary, and maybe middle school where we were required to exercise as part of our curriculum. However, as we transitioned into high school, started to lose that period during the day. As a result, some of us started to lose that critical exercise that can be so beneficial to our health. Even the younger kids, nowadays, are starting to lose out on some of that time due to requirements about other subjects like mathematics or English and reading.       As a result of the pandemic and life going online, or distance from one another, many kids did not have any time during the day when they were doing physical activity.      " The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommends that children between ages 6 and 17 engage in one hour of moderate to vigorous physical activity per day" ( link )     " Physical education is chronically u...