scholarly journals Tweets and Quacks: Network and Content Analyses of Providers of Non-Science-Based Anticancer Treatments and Their Supporters on Twitter

SAGE Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 215824402110030
Author(s):  
Anita Lavorgna ◽  
Leslie Carr
Keyword(s):  
Online Community ◽  
Health Care Systems ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Medical Treatments ◽  
Structural Relationships ◽  
Vulnerable Patients ◽  
The Social ◽  
Medical Discipline ◽  
Care Systems ◽  
English Speaking

Despite the consensus in the medical discipline that certain treatments lack scientific evidence and are worthless if not potentially dangerous, the promotion and selling of fake cures advertised as safe and effective has long plagued health care systems, praying on vulnerable patients and their loved ones. The web and social media are now playing a fundamental role in the propagation of non-science-based treatments and fraudulent medical claims, and in the rise of false health and lifestyle experts. This study combines criminological and computer science expertise to explore and critically analyze the Twitter presence of providers of non-science-based anticancer treatments and their active supporters in the English-speaking online community to investigate their structural relationships and to analyze the characteristics of the most popular actors. The features of the social network observed indicate that there is not a stable community of promoters and supporters of non-science-based medical treatments in the Twittersphere, suggesting the lack of a defined subculture and the presence of transient collectives rather than identifiable groups. Nonetheless, it is possible to observe dynamic conversational networks clustering around popular actors, tweets, and themes, prompting avenues for further research.

scholarly journals Journey of the Patient With Melanoma: Understanding Resource Use and Bridging the Gap Between Dermatologist, Surgeon, and Oncologist in Different Health Care Systems

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Cássia Rita Pereira da Veiga ◽  
Claudimar Pereira da Veiga ◽  
Ana Paula Drummond-Lage ◽  
Alberto Julius Alves Wainstein ◽  
Andreia Cristina de Melo
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Health Care Systems ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Health Resources ◽  
Medical Professionals ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Patients With Cancer ◽  
Clinical Procedures ◽  
Care Systems

PURPOSE New scientific evidence has led to modifications in the clinical practice of handling melanoma. In health care systems, there is currently a wide variety of clinical procedures to treat cancer, and the various routes have different effects on the survival of patients with cancer. Thus, this article aimed to evaluate the journey of patients with melanoma in the public and private health care systems in Brazil from the viewpoint of different medical professionals involved in the diagnosis and treatment of the disease. The study also considers the resources used for the complete delivery cycle of health care at different stages of the evolution of melanoma. METHODS We conducted a behavioral study by applying a questionnaire to a group of medical professionals. A nonprobabilistic sampling method for convenience was used, justified by the heterogeneous national incidence and the limited availability of medical professionals who diagnose and treat melanoma. RESULTS The questionnaire was answered by 138 doctors, including doctors from the Brazilian states with the highest concentration of medical specialists and regions with a higher melanoma incidence. The results of this study have the potential to enrich our understanding of the reality of Brazilian health care systems and, at the same time, allow us to discuss the multiple ways in which professionals from diverse specialist fields understand and explain decision making in health care. CONCLUSION Health care decision making is complex and, among other factors, depends on the diversity of available health resources and the knowledge of which treatments provide the greatest benefit to patients and greatest value to the system as a whole. This work can inform debates and reflection that are applicable not only in Brazil, but also in various other countries with similar realities.

Alternative Healing as Magical Self-Care in Alternative Modernity

Numen ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 62 (4) ◽  
pp. 431-459
Author(s):  
Anne Koch
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Care Systems ◽  
Self Care ◽  
Spiritual Healing ◽  
Medical Pluralism ◽  
Medical Treatments ◽  
Alternative Healing ◽  
Alternative Modernities ◽  
Care Systems ◽  
Rational Knowledge

Alternative healing, including spiritual healing, unconventional, traditional/folk, and complementary medical treatments, is an increasingly relevant health-care resource in contemporary health-care systems, and a broad, constantly changing, and heterogeneous field of medical pluralism. Some suggestions for classifying spiritual healing as presented in the academic and gray literature are summarized and discussed. The findings are interpreted in terms of the paradigm of alternative modernities. In the direction of, but also in addition to, this paradigm, magic is introduced as a concept to denote certain highly ambiguous occurrences in the alternative modern. Magic is still very much alive and not easy to identify merely as a counterpart of rational, knowledge-generating, disembodying modernity. In this setting, spiritual healing might be seen as a form of magical self-care. Magic is neither modern nor traditional nor irrational per se, but has to be contextualized and described in terms of characteristics like holistic diagnosis, interpersonal congruence, the imaginations of agency, and efficacy.

scholarly journals Early evidence that social distancing and public health interventions flatten the COVID-19 curve in Italy

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valentina Rotondi ◽  
Liliana Andriano ◽  
Jennifer Beam Dowd ◽  
Melinda C. Mills
Keyword(s):  
Health Care Systems ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Health Interventions ◽  
Infection Rates ◽  
Public Health Interventions ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
Early Evidence ◽  
The World ◽  
Care Systems ◽  
Policy Measures

With the world experiencing one of the largest pandemics in one-hundred years, governments and policymakers are looking for scientific evidence to introduce rapid and effective policies. Here we provide evidence from two provinces in Italy with comparable early infection rates but different timing of mitigating policy measures. Lodi prohibited movement on February 23, 2020 and Bergamo 2 weeks later on March 8, before the entire lockdown of Italy on March 11. This comparison provides early evidence that rapid restriction of movement and social distancing measures may slow the transmission of the virus and “flatten the curve”, ultimately reducing pressure on health care systems

scholarly journals The Significance of the Social State Model in Development of an Inclusive Society

Al-Farabi ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 75 (3) ◽  
pp. 86-98
Author(s):  
G. Zhussipbek ◽  
◽  
Zh. Nagayeva ◽  
A. Baktybek ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Care Systems ◽  
Social Model ◽  
Social Programs ◽  
Social State ◽  
Education And Health ◽  
Neoliberal Capitalism ◽  
The Social ◽  
Care Systems ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Inclusive Society

This article provides a critical analysis of the features of neoliberal capitalism that hinder the development of social justice and the creation of an inclusive society. Some of them, such as the commercialization and commodification of education and health care systems and the curtailment and cancelation of social programs and social policies, have been adopted in many countries with transitional economy. As a viable example of the social state, this paper briefly analyzes the Scandinavian model of the welfare state, in which the concept of "care" became the central idea. Also, this article discusses the features of the Scandinavian model of education, which is student-centric and based on an egalitarian philosophy. This model of education can be qualified as "empowering the students and pupils." The Scandinavian model of social state can serve as a viable alternative to the economic and social model, created according to the principles of neoliberal capitalism, which does not lead to the creation of an inclusive society.

Il "quadrilatero" di Ardigň: genealogia e sviluppo di un paradigma emergente

2009 ◽  
pp. 217-237
Author(s):  
Guido Giarelli
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Care Services ◽  
Medical Sociology ◽  
Health Care Systems ◽  
New Paradigm ◽  
Scientific Debate ◽  
The Social ◽  
Care Systems ◽  
Sociology Of Health ◽  
Cultural Origins

- After describing the context in which the ‘quadrilateral'of Ardigň was conceived as an innovative gnoseological tool aimed to characterize the rising Italian Health Sociology in comparison with the much more well established tradition of the Northern American and British Medical Sociology, the essay tries to trace its cultural origins: which are found, at the level of scientific debate, in the ‘great coupure' or epistemological turning point of the Thirties, which Ardigň considers the framework from which to move; and, on the other side, in the micro-macro debate which characterized the sociological discipline during the Seventies and the Eighties with the opposition between the Sociologies of the subjective action versus the Sociologies of the social system, and the attempt to get over it by making a ‘paradigm of exit from the postmodern' which could deal in depth with the intrinsic double face and the ambivalence of the social stuff. In the last part, the developments of the ‘quadrilateral'are traced in the attempts of further elaboration by its critical application to different fields of the Sociology of Health (health care systems, health reforms, quality of health care services, health inequalities) which shape an emerging new paradigm of connectionist type.Keywords: "quadrilateral", Sociology of Health, Medical Sociology, ambivalence, connectionist paradigm, postmodern.Parole chiave: "quadrilatero", sociologia della salute, medical sociology, ambivalenza, paradigma connessionista, postmoderno.

Children: paying the price of Bolsonaro’s social policy reform in Brazil

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafael da Silva Barbosa ◽  
Gary Spolander ◽  
Maria Lúcia Teixeira Garcia
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Health Care Systems ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Life Chances ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Policy Reform ◽  
Care Systems ◽  
Life Journey ◽  
The Impact

The impact of social inequality on children has enormous implications for young people throughout their life journey by negatively impacting their health, well-being and life chances. Following the democratisation of Brazil, significant change resulted in improvements to the social welfare and health care systems, which had begun to address long-standing social and health problems. This article critically explores the implications of current retrograde right-wing populist political government policies for Brazilian children within the context of efforts to reduce income inequality and improve the life chances of children. While recognising the enormous challenges of poverty, racial discrimination, precarity and socio-economic conditions, social work has recognised that the enactment of the profession requires political engagement and action against all inequality in professional practice. The implications of retrogressive policy are explored, and the authors call upon the profession globally to recognise these structural socio-economic challenges and question whether social work can afford not to be engaged in seeking change.

scholarly journals Need, competence and compliance: Selective empowering in the distribution of medical technologies in the Norwegian health care system

2020 ◽  
pp. 000169932097674
Author(s):  
Emil Øversveen
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Care Systems ◽  
Medical Decision ◽  
Social Production ◽  
Medical Technologies ◽  
The Social ◽  
Care Systems ◽  
Sociological Studies ◽  
Care Costs

The development of medical technologies is often assumed to improve medical treatment, but may also reproduce health inequalities if their benefits are unequally distributed. Sociological studies have shown that social and moral evaluations matter for medical decision making, and that inequalities in access and outcome exist even in universal health care systems. This article uses the distribution of medical technologies in the treatment of type 1 diabetes as a case for examining the social production of health care inequalities. Drawing on observational data and in-depth interviews with physicians and nurses working in a Norwegian hospital, I demonstrate that medical staff evaluate patients based on a combination of medical, social and moral criteria. The concept of selective empowering is then elaborated and refined as a term for the practice in which medical professionals steer resources towards patients based on evaluations of need, competence and compliance. While previous studies of inequalities in medical care have often focused on medical staff’s cognitive dispositions, I argue that selective empowering may be interpreted as a reflexive response to increasing health care costs and a structural dependency on expensive and commercially produced medical technologies.

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