A long-time tenant of public health has been vaccination. Prior to vaccination, diseases like smallpox, measles, polio, and more ran rampant and led to very expensive and devestaing public health crises. The first attempts to protect against smallpox, a disease that has been wiped out due to a global vaccination campaign was a process known…
Retail clinics (RCs) initiated as a response of the market to unmet needs of healthcare consumers for accessible, convenient, and cost-effective basic health services. As the clinics become a popular means of treating minor medical conditions at lower costs, they have established a niche in the health care system based on their convenience and accessibility…
People with chronic diseases who are not well educated about their health status might delay health care, and they may gradually notice the bad consequences of this decision in the long term when it is usually too late and more expensive to access health services. In contrast, it is harder to delay care when people…
I spent my Christmas break in Kenya and after not being home for 13 years, it was quite the experience. I would like to share my some my impressions on being back “home” with you guys and also talk about how I see the practice of public health playing out in the developing world. First…
“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, “What are you doing for others?” –Martin Luther King, Jr. This is the spirit that suffused not only today’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Symposium, but also Dr. Phyllis Meadows’ Health Sciences Keynote lecture, “Healing the Divide: Bridges to Community Health.” After a professionally-focused introduction as a nurse and…
Jumping off from Selam’s blog about the Detroit Toxic Tour (which was more than two weeks ago—can you tell it’s midterm season?), I thought I’d post some additional pictures and commentary. First up is the Detroit Municipal Waste Incinerator, a hotly contested fixture of the city’s landscape since 1986, when it was spearheaded by then-mayor…
We talked a lot in my Community Nutrition class last semester about starting farmers’ markets in food deserts to provide fresh produce to residents. Although Ann Arbor is far from a food desert, it can be difficult for students without meal plans or cars to go to the grocery store on a regular basis to…
