GEOGRAPHY 280
The Geography of
Health and Health Care
Winter, 2012
Tuesdays and
Thursdays, 11:30-12:45, Bagley 131
Note: The time schedule says
11:30-1:20 erroneously, only because of room scheduling. The class is approved
for only 150 minutes/week of lecture. Thus, we will not go that late.
Quiz Sections: Mondays and
Wednesdays at varying times
Dr.
Jonathan D. Mayer, Professor, Departments of Epidemiology, Geography, Global
Health, Internal Medicine (Infectious Diseases), Family Medicine, and Health
Services
Email:
jmayer@uw.edu
Tel:
(206) 543-7110
Offices:
412-C Smith Hall (Department of Geography) and Health Sciences Building,
F-259
(Department of Epidemiology)
Office
Hours: By appointment. For an appointment, please submit an email to:
Mayer.appts@yahoo.com. Please do not
send these requests to my personal email since I receive up to 150 emails per
day, and your request might Òget lostÓ in all of those messages.
Note:
This is a ÒWÓ course (writing credit). Everybody who completes the requirements
for the course will receive a W.
TAs:
Katherine
Cofell (kcofell@uw.edu)
Smith
430
Office hours by appointment. Regular office hours to be
announced during week 2 of the quarter.
Jason
Young youngjc2@u.washington.edu
Natalie
White natalie.jayne.w@gmail.com
Dena Aufseeser denaa@uw.edu
Schedule:
As noted in the on-line schedule, we will meet for lectures, films, guest
lectures, and presentations on Tuesdays and Thursdays. You will meet in quiz
sections on Mondays or Wednesdays. Attendance at quiz section is both important
for your learning, and mandatory.
Quiz
sections are more Òdiscussion sections.Ó
They will consist of some review and discussion of topics introduced in
the lecture sessions, but will also introduce some new material, and will cover
the readings more specifically. This is also the venue for introducing and
grading the assignments, discussed on the last page of this document.
There
will be a take-home, open book final examination.
THE
COURSE:
In this
course, we will examine, learn, and debate the concepts of health, global
health care, disease, and illness from the perspective of how environment,
biology, and society—include politics and power-- interact to produce
states of health and disease. The focus of this course will be on geographical
patterns of health and disease, from the viewpoint of populations rather than
individuals. The focus of medicine is on the treatment of individuals. The
focus of the course, like that of public health generally, is on populations.
By the
end of the course, you should be able to:
1)
Understand how health, disease, illness, environment, biology, and society
contribute to disease. You should be able to understand in-depth articles on
this topic in publications such as The Economist, Wall Street Journal,
Guardian, and The
New York Times. you
should be able to write an editorial in any newspaper; and you should be able
to describe these relationships to one of your friends in other classes, or to
somebody like a lawyer, physician, or other professional who is sitting next to
you on an airplane;
2) Understand, describe, and critique some of the major
contemporary issues in global health;
3) Understand how geography as a discipline contributes
to understanding health and health care;
4) Understand the role of health and disease as
fundamental issues in society
5) Understand global change in relation to health; and
6)
Within the context of the course content, improve your writing, communication, open minded thinking, and analytical skills.
THE
REQUIREMENTS:
A word
on academic
honesty and integrity is in order. This is extremely important, so
please read this carefully. If you continue past the first day in class, this
means that you agree to abide by the rules spelled out in URL below. We will
adhere strictly to the rules of the University of Washington and the academic
community in prohibiting plagiarism, cheating, and academic honesty. These
provisions are spelled out in detail at the following website, with which all
students are expected to be familiar. Each year in this class, several cases of
cheating and plagiarism, unfortunately, are discovered. To prevent this, you
must read the contents of the following website:
http://depts.washington.edu/grading/pdf/AcademicResponsibility.pdf
We assume that each and every student is familiar with the contents of this web page. No excuses will be accepted for academic dishonesty. Whenever any written work is submitted, it will be graded with the assumption that the student has read and understood this website, and has agreed to abide by the standards dictated by UWÕs standards for academic honesty. There will be no acceptable exceptions or excuses for violation of these policies.
THE READING:
The
following books are required for the course. These may be acquired from the
University Bookstore, other local bookstores, or a web-based book company.
Abraham
Verghese, My Own Country. New York: Vintage Books,
1995. E-book available for purchase at:
as
well as other vendors (Note: you will need to download the free Kindle
application available at that URL. Also:
Tracy
Kidder, Mountains Beyond Mountains: Healing the World: The Quest of Paul
Farmer. New York: Random House, 2003. E-book available for $11.99 at:
http://books.google.com/ebooks?id=nEjXAmEBAi8C&dq=mountains%20beyond%20mountains&as_brr=5&source=webstore_bookcard, as well as other online vendors.
Also: http://tinyurl.com/7vvylp4
Jonathan
Cohn, Sick: The Untold Story of AmericaÕs Health Care Crisis—and the
People Who Pay the Price. New York: HarperCollins, 2007. E-book available for
$10.99 at http://books.google.com/ebooks?id=z4wlKEZ3TssC&dq=Jonathan%20Cohn&as_brr=5&source=webstore_bookcard,
as well as other online vendors.
Also: http://tinyurl.com/85m6m9g
Anne
Fadiman, The Sprit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors,
and the Collision of Two Cultures. Electronic version available for $9.99 at: http://books.google.com/ebooks?as_brr=5&q=anne+fadiman&as_sub=&oq=Fadiman
Electronic reserve: Occasional readings, particularly of the most current research, much of which will be published during the quarter.
Finally,
subscribe to the online service ProMED, which is the
ÒProgram for Monitoring Emerging Diseases.Ó Go to www.promedmail.org. You will be
redirected, and in the upper left, there will be a link to
Òsubscribe/unsubscribe.Ó
Grades
will be based on the following:
1)
Participation
in quiz section (based upon short thought pieces on the reading)—10%
2)
60%
for 3 short papers of equal weight in quiz section (20% each). Each paper
should be about 3 pp. This will be explained further in quiz section next week.
3)
30%
for a take-home final exam to be emailed to you on Tuesday, March 6. This will
be due on Tuesday of final exam week (Tuesday, March 13). Your TA will give you
further instructions for exam submission.
Class
papers will be due on Mondays or Wednesdays, depending on when your section
meets. You will learn more about due dates and assignments later in the week.
COURSE OUTLINE:
Note: Dates are only approximate
and will vary depending upon Òbreaking newsÓ
and course progress. Events such as
the evolving epidemic cholera in Haiti, the rapid spread of the emerging virus
NDM-1 that is resistant to virtually all antimicrobials, and what I predict to
be a significant influenza season will be integrated into the course.
Week of
Tuesday, January 3: INTRODUCTION TO COURSE AND TO GEOGRAPHY OF HEALTH AND
DISEASE
Disease
ecology
Definitions
Measures
of disease frequency and severity
Reading: Begin reading Kidder
Week of
Tuesday, January 10; January 12th
THE
CHALLENGES OF GLOBAL HEALTH: examples
Urban Slum Health
Global Environmental Change and Health
Global
Burden of Disease; Measurement and Geographical Differences
Reading:
Continue reading Kidder
January
17th, 19th, 24th, 26th
THE
GEOGRAPHY OF HIV/AIDs, MALARIA, INFLUENZA, AND TUBERCULOSIS: THE GEOGRAPHIC IMPORTANCE
OF MODES OF TRANSMISSION
Assignment
1: Due in section during the week of Monday, Jan. 23.
Overview of Disease Ecology and the Political Ecology of
Disease
Emerging Infectious Diseases;
Geographic Epidemiology of Influenza
Global
Patterns of HIV/AIDS;
Where did HIV/AIDS begin? Molecular Epidemiology and
Social Patterns
HIV/AIDS in the United States;;
HIV and Tuberculosis
Global Environment and Malaria;
Reading:
Finish Kidder for quiz section on either Jan. 23 (Mon)
or Jan 25 (Wed); Note: No quiz sections on Monday January 16th—MLK
Day (University holiday) or Wed. January 18th. TAs will be available
during the week.
Finish Verghese by Jan. 30 or
Feb. 1.
January
31st, February 2, 7: GEOGRAPHY OF ÒAPPARENTLYÓ NON-INFECTIOUS
DISEASES; ENVIRONMENTAL SOURCES OF DISEASE
Assignment
2: Due in section during the week of Monday, Feb. 6.
Cancers
and Cancer Clusters
Cardiovascular Disease
Neurological Diseases
Reading: Begin reading Fadiman
February
9, 14, 16:
BRINGING
CULTURE INTO HEALTH CARE
Interpretation
of Signs and Symptoms
Multiple
Understandings of Health and Disease
Hmong
Culture and Encounters with US Health Care
Reading: Finish Fadiman by Feb. 13th (for
quiz section) or Feb. 15th
February
21, 23, 28
GEOGRAPHY
AND HEALTH SERVICES; GENERAL POLICY ISSUES IN HEALTH CARE
Assignment
3: Due in section during the week of Monday, Feb. 27. The
Importance of Health Service Location; Accessibility
Regionalization and Health Care; Small Area Analysis and
Evidence Based Medicine;
Urban-Rural Differences in Health Care;
Reading:
Begin reading Cohn
March
1, 6, 8
COMPARATIVE
HEALTH SYSTEMS AND HEALTH CARE REFORM IN THE USA.
Why Do Different Systems Arise in Different Countries?
The US Health Care ÒSystemÓ
The British National Health System;
The Canadian Health Care System
US Health Care Policy
Reading: Complete Cohn for section on either Feb. 27 or
March 1
e-reserve
Some
useful links for this course:
Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR). An essential short digest of vital
health information and outbreak investigations in the US.
Emerging Infectious Diseases. A top-notch publication by CDC. You may subscribe to either
the online or hard copy editions for free.
Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change
*IPCC 4th
Assessment--Impacts Chapter 8 is the health section
National
Institutes of Health (NIH)
National Center for Health Statistics
Global Fund to Stop AIDS, Tuberculosis,
and Malaria
UW electronic journal
collection
PubMED. (Interface with National Library of
Medicine—all major public health, medical, and relevant geography
articles are included here) Make sure that you sign in on the top right if you
will need links to the actual articles in e-journals.
Health
and Medical Geography Specialty Group
Toxic Release Inventory Program—geographically
referenced dataset of toxic releases in the US
National
Cancer Institute cancer clusters homepage
CDC National Environmental Health
Tracking Program
National Cancer Institute Maps and
Graphs
Environmental Health Perspectives—foremost
journal in environmental health