Public Health; Inspiring, Practical.
Saturday, June 19, 2010
For the first two years of Medicine, I slept in lectures. I refused to wag lectures entirely, as that would be denying myself should all things align, the chance to learn. But usually, I slept.
This week, I attended, unexpectedly, one of the best lectures I've ever been to. About 93 seconds before I was heading to lunch, my senior research registrar sticks his head in the door and says;
"So, um, Capt.Atopic, we have a lecture from an international professor. In one minute."
Um, okay. I sat down with six others from the department, and the Prof, a senior WHO Director up from Geneva for the day, gave us the goods on Public Health and Prevention of Mental Illness.
An intersting topic, delivered openly, interestingly, honestly and inspiringly. There was not a snowball's chance in hell that I was going to sleep through this one.
The Prof interacted. He talked about the flaws of Public Health; that often funds were wasted on inefficient, meaningless fluff and nonsense. His vision was to move past the smoky ideas and into action.
The main point of the presentation was emphasising primary prevention; that is, preemptive behavior that seeks to avert disease before it develops. Applied to the entire population.
Things like folate in bread and ameliorating iron deficiency, to reduce neural tube defects and congenital pathlogically-low IQ, respectively.
Public Health, like Evidence Based Medicine, is one portion of medical school that is introduced didactically, fuelled by misguided passion. Both are taught from a theoretical perspective, without solid, coal-face examples.
The Professor spoke from the heart. He sought to inspire, with knowledge, with practicality; one of those Doctors who genuinely and realistically wants to make the whole world a better place.
This week, I attended, unexpectedly, one of the best lectures I've ever been to. About 93 seconds before I was heading to lunch, my senior research registrar sticks his head in the door and says;
"So, um, Capt.Atopic, we have a lecture from an international professor. In one minute."
Um, okay. I sat down with six others from the department, and the Prof, a senior WHO Director up from Geneva for the day, gave us the goods on Public Health and Prevention of Mental Illness.
An intersting topic, delivered openly, interestingly, honestly and inspiringly. There was not a snowball's chance in hell that I was going to sleep through this one.
The Prof interacted. He talked about the flaws of Public Health; that often funds were wasted on inefficient, meaningless fluff and nonsense. His vision was to move past the smoky ideas and into action.
The main point of the presentation was emphasising primary prevention; that is, preemptive behavior that seeks to avert disease before it develops. Applied to the entire population.
Things like folate in bread and ameliorating iron deficiency, to reduce neural tube defects and congenital pathlogically-low IQ, respectively.
Public Health, like Evidence Based Medicine, is one portion of medical school that is introduced didactically, fuelled by misguided passion. Both are taught from a theoretical perspective, without solid, coal-face examples.
The Professor spoke from the heart. He sought to inspire, with knowledge, with practicality; one of those Doctors who genuinely and realistically wants to make the whole world a better place.
thought provoking post.
it seems like it would take a forward thinking person (someone thinking out of the box) to help generate these "preemptive" solutions, and high kudos to those who have had the foresight and tenacity to do so.
i have a friend who's studying public health right now and he told me how the class was put in the middle of a busy urban area in the US (non-ghetto) and told to buy a fresh fruit or vegetable. and surprisingly, it was incredibly difficult to do so. and even if the food product was found, it was quite expensive. in a ghetto area, it seems it would be even more difficult. more and more, it seems like a multi-disciplinary approach (extending across all industries, e.g. business, agricultural, medical, etc) may be an emerging paradigm that is needed to help provide solutions for this and other problems.
not sure what your thoughts are on this as you are in the land down under?