In this paper, we examine the range of skin tones represented in publicly available online image search results through which non-medical audiences might seek information about skin cancer signs, symptoms, and risks. We use the Fitzpatrick scale, a numerical classification system grouping six human skin tones (or "phototypes") in dermatology, as a guide for analyzing the skin tones appearing in (n = 1600) Google image search results for search terms related to skin cancer. We find that light skin tones (1,2, and 3 on the Fitzpatrick scale) comprise the significant majority (roughly 96%) of those depicted in Google image searches of information about skin cancer signs and prevention; dark skin tones (4, 5, and 6 on the Fitzpatrick scale) appear with significantly less frequency (roughly 4%) in the same search results.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe medical affidavit is critically significant for asylum seekers. Studies have shown that asylum seekers applying with a medical affidavit (versus without a medical affidavit) have double the success rate. There are many training resources for clinician-evaluators on the interviewing process, but little instruction exists on the affidavit writing process.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the problem of secondary trauma and moral injury for health care workers. This reality, together with the epidemic of social isolation and loneliness, has brought the mental health of health care practitioners and patients to the forefront of the national conversation. Narrative medicine is an accessible, diversity-honoring, low-cost, underutilized pedagogical framework with potentially revolutionary benefits for enhancing patient care, supporting the underserved, mitigating clinician burnout, and improving team dynamics.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAtopic dermatitis (AD) and food allergies are more prevalent and more severe in people with skin of color than White individuals. The American College of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology (ACAAI) sought to understand the effects of racial disparities among patients with skin of color with AD and food allergies. The ACAAI surveyed its members (N = 200 completed), conducted interviews with health care providers and advocacy leaders, and hosted a roundtable to explore the challenges of diagnosis and management of AD and food allergies in people with skin of color and to discuss potential solutions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: The World Health Organization aims to reduce worldwide under-five mortality rates (U5MR), with a focus on resource-limited settings (RLS). Tanzania reports a mean U5MR of 54 per 1000 live births, largely due to treatable infectious diseases that may lead to sepsis, accounting for 40% of the under-five deaths. Bugando Medical Centre in Mwanza, Tanzania represents a resource-limited setting in Sub-Saharan Africa and estimates a 14% pediatric mortality rate.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis paper presents a critique of clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) that standardize the use of race as a proxy for biological difference in medical settings. Drawing on the illustrative example of a pediatric UTI testing guideline, we contend that when CPGs necessitate that Black patients meet a higher threshold of illness severity or duration than their non-Black counterparts to receive comparable medical testing or other medical care, they function as mesolevel sites of race-racism reification processes (see Sewell, 2016) that contribute to the reproduction of racial health disparities. We describe broader implications and make recommendations for the conceptualization and implementation of future research in the sociological study of race, health, and medicine.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDisaster Med Public Health Prep
October 2022
Objectives: Summer camp can positively affect self-esteem and social skills. Most United States summer camps did not open during 2020 because of concerns about severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-COV-2). Our objective is to describe exclusion strategies successfully used by 2 summer camps in Maine.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe epidemiology of bacterial meningitis in the United States has changed tremendously in the past 20 years. Since the introduction of the Haemophilus influenzae type b vaccine in 1988, the incidence of H. influenzae type b meningitis has declined by at least 97%, and Streptococcus pneumoniae has emerged as the most common etiologic agent.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose Of Review: To review recent changes in the diagnostic and therapeutic approach to pediatric urinary tract infection in the emergency department.
Recent Findings: Updated guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics have significantly changed the approach to UTI, risk-stratifying patients according to their likelihood of UTI, and re-defining criteria for diagnosis of UTI. New studies have delineated important risk factors for concomitant bacteremia and adverse events.
Background: Surgical intervention for children with congenital cardiac disease in the developing world often occurs late. Our objective was to identify factors that placed Guatemalan children at risk for delayed care.
Methods: We investigated the medical and socioeconomic background of 178 children under the age of 18 years who received their first corrective surgery for congenital cardiac disease at the Unidad de Cirugía Cardiovascular de Guatemala in 2002.