Medical School

I now begin to pursue my interests in medicine at the Case University School of Medicine. Lets see what happens. 

Kiva.org

I thought I had come up with a completely original idea for my paper, thankfully someone thought of it before I did. Please take a look at www.kiva.org, and see how easy it is to directly help someone on the other side of the world. The more of this we can have, the faster we'll reach the goal of eradicating poverty. By this I mean using technology to facilitate positive interactions between people around the world. Hopefully our generation will see borders fall not because of guns, but because people will no longer see the need to differentiate themselves by arbitrary borders drawn hundreds sometimes thousands of years ago.
I've donated $25.00 each to fisher women in Samoa, and an man who own a ice cream cart in Mexico, imagine the possibilities.

My Portfolio

The Power of Suggestion: A paradigm shift

I wonder more than anything else regarding health: What exactly is a paradigm shift? I think I know now. Not being constrained by the way we've learned to think is a paradigm shift. Nothing we say or do can transcend a paradigm, how we think is what matters.
What will be the new paradigm. THE POWER OF SUGGESTION. MAN AS GOD. WHAT?

ARE YOU READY? Is it time for us as human being to realize that everything we see, everything we do, everything we are, we've created. All the happiness, all the sadness, all the beauty, all the disaster we create each and everyday in or mind. Too crazy or radical, don't read any further....
The CD spins and the music comes out the speakers... the music enters my ears then my brain...then what... then I create the beautiful sound that fills my soul. The CD didn't create it, the speakers don't create it, my ears don't create it, these things just work with energy, even the guitar player isn't the true creator, all he does is pluck strings and have them vibrate in different frequencies. Energy, everything is energy in transition, everything is manipulations of energy, from what we feel, to what we hear, to what we see. The only true creative force is our mind. We are the Creator...
The POWER OF OBSERVATION...
Newtonian mechanics only goes so far, quantum mechanics, previously metaphysics, shows us that just through observation we change the form of energy... through observation... through observing our minds create the reality we live in.
what does this mean.. our minds can change the reality...we can CREATE the world we want. we can create a world free from hunger and malnutrition...
How..a paradigm shift... no longer relying on medicine and money and markets and organizations and government... by knowing and showing the world that each person is a creator and that we can bring to ourselves and world whatever we want...
That's a Paradigm Shift

Med School Interview

So I was asked "What do you think the problem is with the health care system?" in my medical school interview last week. I looked across the table at the 65+ year old gentleman who had just laughed at my desire to become the surgeon general of the united states and earlier noted that "Muslims" keep to them selves here, and I replied "you are." Not quit like that, but I expressed my notion that cynical old doctors (which he was clearly one of) are what continue to maintain the status quo in this country and only when the next generation take control of important positions will things actually change. I guess I won't be going there for medical school. I wonder if I still want to become a doctor? Do I? It feels like I'm jumping into pool of acid, with the direction that things are happening in the medical world. Can I make a difference? Will I come out with the same mindset as I went in? Will $200,000+ in loans change my views regarding public health and helping the under served? Are doctors a possible source for a solution, or is modern medicine and its reliance on high cost intervention and delaying death at any cost (if you can afford it) actually a problem in itself?

I don't know the answer but a potential solution will be to force admissions committees at medical schools to find a true way to assess the the goals and desires of those potentially attending their medical schools. And if they can find good people society should ensure that once finished with medicine these people will be allowed to follow their dreams, rather than being buried under the oppression of debt.

Private Health

Would you ever think that IBM would come up with the most forward thinking and reasonable solution to the health care crisis in this country? If your interested pleas read the executive summary for their health care initiative and see what you think. What's interesting to me is the language they use, compared to what we're used to reading in Public Health. Have we ever read an article that mentions the consumer? Do we even know what the definition of a health consumer is? I really don't think we do. We've talked extensively about public-private partnerships, but our education is so tailored for a career in the public sector that it makes it difficult to bridge the gap from our end. We demonize the private sector as the root of most health problems, and expect to be able to find functional solutions to work together to solve problems.

Regarding the issue that private enterprise somehow devalues or diminishes culture I don't think KFC is the problem in China, and I definitely don't think McDonalds is the problem in America. These companies are a part of Modernity which is an inevitability throughout the world, and fast food and fast lives is a part of this modernity. To argue that this is taking away from a traditional culture is like saying the transition to not eating human flesh took away from cannibalistic cultures. In a post modern world its easy to look reverently at "traditional" culture but we need to understand that those people living in traditional societies look at our lives with even more reverence. Should we deny them what they want? Should we force them to live a "traditional" life because we think its healthier even if they don't want it?
I think there's an inherent fallacy in referring to traditional as somehow better than modern, especially from our perspective, and we need to take care in recognizing this.
With all the horrible fast foods and private companies disregarding our health to make a profit, life expectancy and quality of life indicators have grown steadily in the west, while more traditional societies have stayed stagnant in these indicators. Clearly its a complicated issue that deals with economics, politics, and other issues, but its easy to overlook these statistics when we're constantly bombarded with the negative data in Public health.

Cancer Statistics

The article regarding world wide cancer statistics I feel was a glaring endorsment for the mission of gapminder.com. The amount of data they've acquired regarding worldwide cancer incidence and prevlance is overwhelming, and I'm sure could bring profound insights into things that plainly I couldn't see in the way the data was presented. This goes to show that more links need to be made between researchers, statisticians, and field not normally collobrated with in public health like graphic artists or designers. We're all busy, and those with power are busier than us, and to expect them to look at that data, and be inspired to act seems unlikely.

Apology

I'd like to apologize to anyone that might have been offended by my comments in class the other day regarding religion. I actually felt like offering this apology in class but thought it would be akward so opted for this cowardly version instead. Those comments should not have been made in a situation where a proper discusion could not be had so that all my thoughts could be properly elaborated upon.
Just to clarify, I'm not the anti-Christ, I come from family with many devout muslims, and I myself am a semi-practicing muslim. I have the utmost respect for anyone who has devout religious beliefs, it has just been my experience that all too often those beliefs are impossed upon others. I am of Iranian nationality and if your familiar with the history of my country, you would realize the horrors that religious indoctrination can bring, least of which being children hanging keys to unlock the gates of heaven as they walk into mine fields to clear the way for tanks.
I understand all the beautiful and positive aspects of spirituality but I'm of the opinion that we no longer need to derive our morals from documents written thousands of years ago. Our society has advanced to the point that it realizes their can't be such a thing as the "choosen people of god" and if there is a god he would not punish us for being born in a certain region whose culture does not include him.
Finally, I deeply apologize for using the world irrational in refering to people with religous sentiment. I make this mistake often, I really don't mean it as an insult. I think the pursuit of science is a purely rational endeavor attempting to attain truth, while religion is an inherently irrational endeavor based on the tenets of faith. So I don't think something based on faith can be rational, not to say that one is better or more correct than the other, but simply an observation regarding the thought proccesses involved.
Regardless, there is no excuse for making devisive comments such as the one's I made and I'll take much greater care not to do so in the future.

Surviellance Systems

The idea Larry Brilliant presents in this TED talk of creating a surviellance system for pandemics so that we can have "early detection and early response" was trully inspiring. For the first time I could envision using all the skill and knowledge I've acquired in public health to create something of value.
As I watched him present his idea of a global surviellance system I couldn't help but think that the naturual partner for his venture would be Google. Imagine every health professional having access to software such as Google Earth where they could input cases of rare diseases or unusual symptoms, and these would be automatically plotted on to a map, where and organization like the one Larry envisioned could track any unusual outbreaks. It seems that Google would be the type of company open to such an idea, and because they use open source code it could be a collobrative effort with people in multiple areas of interest looking to make a meaningful change.
I feel like this idea is obvious and must have been explored by Larry or Google, but what if it hasn't. I'd love to hear ideas on how we could put together a framework for such a project and possible approach google on developing it throught their google Labs site.

Health care in Iraq

It's interesting how different the issues can be when trying to provide adequate health care to a community. In California we're currently debating how to best provide health insurance coverage to the entire population. In many of the countries in Africa they worry about how to best distribute AIDS medication to a population with a soaring HIV prevalence. And in Iraq this man wonders how best to avoid Sunni death squads as he spends the night with his wife who just gave birth to a child. How do you solve that one? Click here to listen

Contextualizing Health Interventions

I think the big question I'm left with after viewing the TED Talk by Hans Rosling is what does it actually mean to contextualize health interventions. How can we start understanding the different needs of people around the world if we're no longer going to use regional solutions? I feel like his idea of making data more accessible and more understandable by creating a more user friendly and aesthetically pleasing interface is revolutionary but without also having a similar paradigm shift in how we categorize the people of the world it will be difficult to make a real difference.


When you have these two worlds living side by side, as they do in countries like South Africa and the Sudan, how do you convince the rich of the country to worry about the poor.
Solution: ?

In my opinion I think the first world, namely Europe, the USA, and now maybe even China, need to unite and create a movement for change in the world, and begin to one by one target countries and assist them in poverty reduction and governmental corruption elimination by force if neccesary. I think the idea that the US tried to bring democracy to Iraq is bogus, but I definitely believe in the theory of democratization.
Simply:
More Responsive gov't = enhanced economic growth
Enhanced economic growth= larger purchasing power for each person
Larger Purchasing power= greater market for consumption of goods and services
Greater market= Stronger economies

I truly believe in a free market capitalist system and believe if implemented effectively it can be a real tool in fighting poverty throughout the world. We just need the powerful countries today to stop quibbling over natural resources like oil and truly dedicate themselves to improving the gov'ts of poorer countries, if not for them, then for our own economy.

The Journey

I sense that today was the beginning of a journey. Those of you graduating like I am this semester, I feel like this class is the perfect culmination of the USC Public Health program