Category: Medical Anthropology
The intersection of health and medicine with culture and society
On Physician Identity and Advocacy
Our Department of Professionalism, Medical Ethics and Humanities at the St. Luke’s Medical Center College of Medicine – William H. Quasha Memorial had a double-header of a day today for the Introduction to the Medical Profession (IMP) subjects for first and second year medical students. IMP 1 (for first year students) focuses on identity formation […]
World Health Organization and Self-Care
From the World Health Organization (https://who.int/health-topics/self-care) Self-care is the ability of individuals, families and communities to promote health, prevent disease, maintain health, and cope with illness and disability with or without the support of a health worker. WHO recommends self-care interventions for every country and economic setting, as a critical path to reach universal health […]
On Wearing a White Coat
The interns nowadays at the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) wear short white coats with short sleeves. When we were interns, the only thing distinguishing us from the rest of the medical students was a red nameplate; the other students had white nameplates pinned to the all-white uniform that was common to first- to fifth-year medical […]
Performing Arts Medicine Association 41st International Symposium
July 6-9, 2023. It was great to be back among “my people” in New York City after missing the first post-pandemic in-person conference (Chicago, 2022) due to illness. Bonus: we [Dave the Travel Pig and I] “met” the inventor of the Pap smear. Special thanks to the organizers, and also to my presentation co-author John […]
58. Making meaning out of illness through multiple lenses
Hooray, presentation done! Doreen the breast cancer mascot has made her debut on the international academic conference circuit. Grateful for the opportunity to talk about my breast cancer learnings and experiences (aka the craziness of 2022) at the Asia Pacific Bioethics Education Network Congress 2023, held at St. Luke’s Medical Center at Bonifacio Global City, […]
16. Pegfilgrastim, and Doreen too
June 3, 2022 Update. Day 5 post-chemotherapy, and day 4 post-pegfilgrastim injection (recall: for increasing the infection-fighting white blood cells which can be depleted during chemotherapy). So far I have not seen crazy side effects of chemotherapy yet, except maybe the need to eat small frequent meals to prevent nausea. Hair is still intact, it’s […]
Of X-rays and Female Orthopods
Nerdy medical anthropology commentary alert: gender, politics, economics, culture and health. I think this would be a good instructional article for an introductory course. Bookmarking here. Orthopedic surgeons use lead aprons during surgery, when X-rays (radiation from fluoroscopy machines) are needed. The lead aprons are “one size fits all”, which really means “large” and “one […]
Mexican Staples with Filipino Heritage
Today I read an article by medical anthropologist Dr. Gideon Lasco, writing for Sapiens, an online magazine of sorts for all things anthropology. He explains how tequila and mezcal, long associated with Mexico, owe their existence to Filipino distilling techniques. In the same vein, the Filipino fermented coconut drink tubá also made its way to […]
I’ve graduated… now what? Reflections on the two-year (expensive) sabbatical from clinical medicine.
I have been meaning to write this piece for a while but life got in the way. We’ll start with the celebration from December 20, 2021: Somehow the story of my life centers around studying things that are not easily explained, like physiatry and performing arts medicine (in contrast, everyone pretty much knows what a […]
Awkwardly yours: MD, MCHealth&M
Yeah, I’d prefer “MD, MCHM”. It’s much shorter and easier to write. Perhaps this is one reason why people proceed to a PhD… because that supersedes the weird “MCHealth&M” after their names and they don’t have to write that anymore. [half-joking here] For reference, here is the university policy that governs those post-nominals: https://policies.anu.edu.au/ppl/document/ANUP_006804
