Blog by Rachelle Ann Gonzales, BS*, Alex Im, BS* and Cynthia Romero, MD *Corresponding first-authors During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, I vividly remember watching a viral video of a young man attacking a masked, middle-aged Asian woman at the Grand Street subway station in New York City. […]
Category: Blog
Endemic Fatalism and Why It Won’t Resolve COVID-19
Blog by Jacob Steere-Williams Pandemic fatigue has been pushed aside by a new phenomenon in many places around the world; endemic fatalism. The raging Omicron variant of COVID-19 has ushered in the highest case positivity rates since the beginning of the pandemic, flooding hospitals and attacking even those vaccinated and boosted against the disease. “We’re […]
Pandemic-divoc-91-suriv-disconnect
Blog by Lauraine M.H. Vivian The VIH-suriv Her whole body encrusted in sarcoptes scabiei, a 50-year-old woman lay in foetal position on a hospital bed in Cape Town (Richards 2021). It was 2012 and I, a medical anthropologist, was accompanying a consultant on a clinical teaching ward round. She diagnosed her condition as Norwegian Scabies […]
Indian Folk Art and COVID-19
Blog by Sathyaraj Venkatesan The present piece offers a brief graphic analysis of two COVID-19 related folk painting representing two major artistic traditions in India—patachitra and mithila—in order to demonstrate how these paintings, through using Hindu religious codes and stories, imagine the current pandemics. Before I do so, it would be instructive to offer a […]
Rolodex of Poems
Blog by Austin Lam, 4th Year Medical Student at the University of Toronto “Poetry is the language of intensity. Because we are going to die, an expression of intensity is justified.” – Carolyne Wright During my Internal Medicine rotation in third year, I found great joy in being able to connect with patients as I […]
Nursing Through the Lens of Storytelling
Blog by Catherine Best Nursing through the gaze of a storytelling lens shines a light on the importance of nurses making the most of patient narratives to gain valuable insight into lives lived. This insight enables the delivery of person-centred, evidence-based nursing care, within frequently highly charged and emotional situations. Storytelling forges connections among and between people and ideas. Telling […]
Making Space for Students from Widening Access Backgrounds: Socioeconomic Diversity, Historical Contexts, and the Need for Reimagining of Criteria and Culture within Medical Education
Blog by Kasey Johnson Students from widening access (WA) backgrounds, contribute unique strengths to medicine and are an investment in the most vulnerable communities, yet recruiting and retaining WA students continue to be a challenge for most medical schools. Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) data shows that only 5% of medical school matriculants are […]
To Better Understand Vaccine Hesitancy, Take the Long View
Blog by Allison Coffelt I’m sitting by my aunt, who drove two hours after work to see me while I’m in town. She comes straight from the office, and Saturday she’ll get up early to bale hay. At family dinner I ask, assuming yes: she’s vaccinated? Her laugh drops. “I decided not to.” The table […]
A Call to End Violence Against Healthcare Professionals in Myanmar
Blog by Kaung Suu Lwin, Khin Thet Swe, Phyu Phyu Thin Zaw, Stuart Gilmour and Shuhei Nomura Escalating catastrophic human rights violations by Myanmar military is threatening health and human security of Myanmar people. Myanmar’s healthcare system is overwhelmed due to violence against healthcare professionals following the military coup. We are issuing a call to […]
Storytelling Ethics
Blog by Lillian Wieland Medical school interviews loom ahead, making applicants scramble to prepare. We’ll go to our advisors, asking “What will give me an edge?” In return, we might hear the common advice to write down all of our patient interaction stories and craft a narrative on how those experiences impacted us as future […]