scholarly journals Shifting Positionalities in a Time of COVID-19: The Transnational Public Health Doctor and Ethnographer

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sepeedeh Saleh

Ethnographic research is characterised by in-person engagement with individuals and groups within a social setting, usually over an extended timeframe. These elements provide valuable insights which cannot be gained through other forms of research. In addition, such levels of involvement in “the field” create complex, shifting researcher-participant relationships which themselves shape the course of the project and its findings. The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted many research projects, but impacts on ethnographic research, with its emphasis on physical presence in the field and interpersonal relationships, reveals much about these key elements of our praxis.I discuss how the pandemic influenced the progress of an ethnographic research project, based in Malawi, including consideration of how, as lead for the project, my clinical/“public health” positionalities interacted with relationships in the village and the arrival of COVID-19 in Malawi. This account reveals shifting intersubjectivities of researchers and participants as the pandemic brought changes in the nature of the engagement, from ethnographic explorations into the roles of smoke in everyday life, through fieldwork suspension, and contextualised COVID-19 response. These experiences demonstrate how a basis of reflexive ethnographic engagement with communities can underpin thoughtful responses to upcoming challenges, with implications for future “global health” work, both within and beyond the pandemic context.

Bionatura ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 1023-1024 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diana Burnett ◽  
Megan A. Carney ◽  
Lauren Carruth ◽  
Sarah Chard ◽  
Maggie xxxx Dickinson ◽  
...  

The Lancet Commissions are widely known as aspirational pieces, providing the mechanisms for consortia and networks of researchers to organize, collate, interrogate and publish around a range of subjects. Although the Commissions are predominantly led by biomedical scientists and cognate public health professionals, many address social science questions and involve social science expertise. Medical anthropologist David Napier was lead author of the Lancet Commission on Culture and Health (2014), for example, and all commissions on global health (https://www.thelancet.com/global-health/commissions) address questions of social structure, everyday life, the social determinants of health, and global inequalities.


2003 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-59
Author(s):  
Mark Tomita

The Global Health Disparities CD-ROM Project reaffirmed the value of professional associations partnering with academic institutions to build capacity of the USA public health education workforce to meet the challenges of primary prevention services. The Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE) partnered with the California State University, Chico to produce a CD-ROM that would advocate for global populations that are affected by health disparities while providing primary resources for public health educators to use in programming and professional development. The CD-ROM development process is discussed.


Author(s):  
Lawrence O. Gostin ◽  
Benjamin Mason Meier

This chapter introduces the foundational importance of human rights for global health, providing a theoretical basis for the edited volume by laying out the role of human rights under international law as a normative basis for public health. By addressing public health harms as human rights violations, international law has offered global standards by which to frame government responsibilities and evaluate health practices, providing legal accountability in global health policy. The authors trace the historical foundations for understanding the development of human rights and the role of human rights in protecting and promoting health since the end of World War II and the birth of the United Nations. Examining the development of human rights under international law, the authors introduce the right to health as an encompassing right to health care and underlying determinants of health, exploring this right alongside other “health-related human rights.”


Author(s):  
Mary Robinson

Institutions matter for the advancement of human rights in global health. Given the dramatic development of human rights under international law and the parallel proliferation of global institutions for public health, there arises an imperative to understand the implementation of human rights through global health governance. This volume examines the evolving relationship between human rights, global governance, and public health, studying an expansive set of health challenges through a multi-sectoral array of global organizations. To analyze the structural determinants of rights-based governance, the organizations in this volume include those international bureaucracies that implement human rights in ways that influence public health in a globalizing world. Bringing together leading health and human rights scholars and practitioners from academia, non-governmental organizations, and the United Nations system, this volume explores: (1) the foundations of human rights as a normative framework for global health governance, (2) the mandate of the World Health Organization to pursue a human rights-based approach to health, (3) the role of inter-governmental organizations across a range of health-related human rights, (4) the influence of rights-based economic governance on public health, and (5) the focus on global health among institutions of human rights governance. Contributing chapters map the distinct human rights activities within a specific institution of global governance for health. Through the comparative institutional analysis in this volume, the contributing authors examine institutional efforts to operationalize human rights in organizational policies, programs, and practices and assess institutional factors that facilitate or inhibit human rights mainstreaming for global health advancement.


2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
C Nordström ◽  
B Kumar

Abstract Issue Sporadic accounts of initiatives, interventions and good practices in Migrant Health at the Municipality level account for Norways' lower score on “Measures to achieve change” in the Migrant Integration Policy Index (MIPEX). While the structure and organization at the municipality level should enable intersectoral action (as all under one umbrella), the municipal counties say lack of intersectoral collaboration is one of the main barriers for long-term public health work. Description of the Problem 51 municipalities have an immigrant population larger than the national average 17,8% (2019). In a recent Country Assessment (part of Joint Action on Health Equity Europe), limited inter-sectoral action on the social determinants of health including migration was observed. Although multiple agencies are engaged in attempts to address these issues. While there is a drive to promote public health and primary health care in municipalities, these initiatives do not pay special attention to migrants. In the first stage of this project, we have reviewed municipal policy documents to map policy and measures on public health, migrant health and intersectoral collaboration. In the second stage, municipalities will be contacted to engage them in the implementation of intersectoral actions. Results The desk review and mapping show that only 8 of the “top” 32 municipalities mention “intersectoral” in the municipal master plan (5 were not available online), its mentioned in 9 action program/budgets, but not necessarily by the same municipalities. 15 of the municipalities mention migrants, but rarely in relation to health. We observe that, the size of the municipality, financial resources and support from the County are factors that may play a significant role in prioritising migrant health and intersectoral collaboration. Lessons Advocating for and supporting the local/municipal level for intersectoral action is highly relevant, timely and essential. Key messages Intersectoral action on the social determinants of migrants’ health needs to be implemented through municipal policies to reduce inequities in migrants’ health. Implementation on the local level is the main arena for good public health work and is crucial to ensure good health for migrants.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathleen Murphy ◽  
Erica Di Ruggiero ◽  
Ross Upshur ◽  
Donald J. Willison ◽  
Neha Malhotra ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Artificial intelligence (AI) has been described as the “fourth industrial revolution” with transformative and global implications, including in healthcare, public health, and global health. AI approaches hold promise for improving health systems worldwide, as well as individual and population health outcomes. While AI may have potential for advancing health equity within and between countries, we must consider the ethical implications of its deployment in order to mitigate its potential harms, particularly for the most vulnerable. This scoping review addresses the following question: What ethical issues have been identified in relation to AI in the field of health, including from a global health perspective? Methods Eight electronic databases were searched for peer reviewed and grey literature published before April 2018 using the concepts of health, ethics, and AI, and their related terms. Records were independently screened by two reviewers and were included if they reported on AI in relation to health and ethics and were written in the English language. Data was charted on a piloted data charting form, and a descriptive and thematic analysis was performed. Results Upon reviewing 12,722 articles, 103 met the predetermined inclusion criteria. The literature was primarily focused on the ethics of AI in health care, particularly on carer robots, diagnostics, and precision medicine, but was largely silent on ethics of AI in public and population health. The literature highlighted a number of common ethical concerns related to privacy, trust, accountability and responsibility, and bias. Largely missing from the literature was the ethics of AI in global health, particularly in the context of low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Conclusions The ethical issues surrounding AI in the field of health are both vast and complex. While AI holds the potential to improve health and health systems, our analysis suggests that its introduction should be approached with cautious optimism. The dearth of literature on the ethics of AI within LMICs, as well as in public health, also points to a critical need for further research into the ethical implications of AI within both global and public health, to ensure that its development and implementation is ethical for everyone, everywhere.


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