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...