Conflicting Obligations

This article considers the problem of conflicting researcher obligations in RHM, particularly when professional medical rhetoric is analyzed with the goal of improving patient care. Taking one case as illustrative, this article argues that medical professional participants are in positions of relative power, and that their choice to participate in RHM research or not can have downstream effects on more vulnerable patients. Furthermore, this case demonstrates that the interests of medical professional participants may diverge from the interests of their patients. As a result, when RHM researchers assume traditional orientations towards medical professional research participants, they may find themselves unable to advocate for more vulnerable patient populations.

Immune Boosting in the Time of COVID: Selling Immunity on Instagram

Immune boosting is a trending topic during the COVID-19 pandemic. The concept of immune boosting is scientifically misleading and often used to market unproven products and therapies. This paper presents an analysis of popular immune-boosting posts from Instagram. Of the sampled posts, all promoted immune boosting as beneficial, nearly all involved commercial interests, and many used scientific and medical rhetoric in their messaging.

‘La Décadente a fait son temps’: Rachilde and Georges de Peyrebrune's Une décadente

In 1886, Georges de Peyrebrune (1841–1917) published the novella Une décadente, a scarcely veiled depiction – and biting critique – of Rachilde (1860–1953) and her unconventional lifestyle. In her depiction of Hélione, a fictionalized version of Rachilde, she borrows from contemporary medical discourses on hysteria and suggests that her heroine's true fulfillment can only be realized through motherhood. Peyrebrune positions these male-authored discourses alongside a concurrent ridicule of Hélione's aspirations as a writer of decadent literature. However, in an unanticipated twist in the final pages, the discursive medical framework of her narrative collapses, exposing the precariousness of the literary and scientific constructions of hysteria and thus leading readers to rethink Peyrebrune's traditionalist views. In positioning these discourses within the larger aesthetic and ideological interrogations of the text, we may uncover Peyrebrune's own revision – albeit subtle at times – of a fictional model and the medical rhetoric that shapes it.

Afterword

This afterword reminds readers of how thoroughly Victorians conflated body and text in their literary and medical rhetoric, using Robert Buchanan’s The Fleshly School of Poetry as an example. Additionally, it reiterates the mutability of the Victorians’ understanding of the human body’s centrality to identity, noting that as disability became increasingly medicalized and the soul increasingly psychologized, the mode of looking at deviant bodies shifted from gaping at spectacle to scrutinizing specimen, and the shape of narratives evolved from lengthy multiple-plot novels to slim case studies. However, Victorian fiction narratives consistently remained ambivalent when categorizing disability, aligning it with both abnormality and the commonplace.

Introductory Remarks from ISDS Annual Conference Scientific Program Chair

Colleagues,I am delighted to present to you the summary abstracts and presentations from the 2019 International Society of Disease Surveillance (ISDS) Conference which was held San Diego, CA from January 30th – February 2nd, 2019. Over the past several years, the concept of investing in data science and data scientists has been touted as a transformational endeavor for governmental organizations, non-profits, as well as private sector and commercial markets. How “true” data science is harnessed to influence and improve public health surveillance and population health remains to be seen. Data science has great potential to provide a new lens to inform and improve public health surveillance and population health. However, this lens needs to focus upon more than just “Big Data” analytics and information technology. It must also focus on fostering organizational environments and multi-agency collaborations that invigorate curiosity and experimentation and development of cross-disciplinarian partnerships to address multifactorial and multidimensional health and disparity challenges. It also must hone in on producing evidence-based analytic results to improve measurable health outcomes. Analysis and summary results are not the end products for surveillance. The concept of data science needs to be leveraged across public health to better communicate the findings of disease surveillance through the “storytelling of illness and disease” to influence public health policy, and ultimately improve population health.This year, with these ideas in mind, and with the support of a dynamic, engaged, and multi-disciplinary Scientific Planning Committee (SPC) - ISDS has expanded its conference scope beyond traditional tracks which historically focused on surveillance, informatics, and analysis, to include tracks related to:One HealthNon – Human Health SurveillanceEcologyCommunications, Medical Rhetoric, Visualization, and ReportingChronic Disease / Mental HealthSubstance AbuseData QualityInjury SurveillanceSubstance Abuse – Opioid SurveillanceRecognizing that Public Health is a collaborative and multi-disciplinary team sport, we have expanded our outreach efforts to include new partners across academia, the private sector, state, local, and tribal partners, as well as federal agencies. During the 2019 ISDS Conference, we had a significant increase in overall attendance (~375) and abstracts submissions compared to prior years; with 29 countries represented and 130 oral presentations and 95 poster presentations provided over the three-day conference. We held a number of sessions on Opioid Use and Prescribing Surveillance as well as Medical Rhetoric, Communications, and Visualization that were standing-room only and beyond.Our keynote speakers on the intersection of Data Science and Public Health included: William J. Kassler, MD, MPH, IBM Watson Health – Deputy Chief Health OfficerWilma J. Wooten, MD, MPH, Public Health Officer for the County of San DiegoMichael Hogarth, MD, FACP, FACMI, Chief Clinical Research Information Officer for University of California San Diego HealthSome of the key take-aways from the presentations at the 2019 ISDS Conference were that data science and the act of data collections and analysis are NOT the end goals of public health surveillance; they are just the beginning. Data do NOT speak for themselves; they require context, curation, interpretation, and ultimately need to effectively communicating findings through the story telling of illness and disease to officials, policy makers, and the public with the objective to inform and influence public health policy, motivate health behavior change, drive public health action, and ultimately improve population health.I encourage you to review the abstracts submitted here in the Online Journal of Public Health Informatics which were presented at the 2019 International Society for Disease Surveillance 2019 Conference and to engage multi-dimensional and multi-disciplinary conversations (reach out directly to authors and presenters) around these important topics, expand your networks and opportunities in the public health community. Regards,Peter Hicks, MA, MPHScientific Program Chair International Society for Disease Surveillance (ISDS) 2019Centers for Disease Control and Prevention**Information included in this statement are those of the author and do not represent the official position of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)