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Medical Anthropology The Future is Now

Medical Anthropology The Future is Now . Mark Nichter SFAA/SMA 2006. Charge. Careers for the future : 8 examples of employment opportunities we need to pursue –vigorously Building MASA : becoming a proactive community of practice. Careers.

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Medical Anthropology The Future is Now

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  1. Medical AnthropologyThe Future is Now Mark Nichter SFAA/SMA 2006

  2. Charge • Careers for the future : 8 examples of employment opportunities we need to pursue –vigorously • Building MASA : becoming a proactive community of practice

  3. Careers Eight opportunities medical anthropologists need to pursue

  4. Teaching: Beyond the academy • Medical anthropology needs to become a core subject :not just in medical and nursing schools, and schools of public health • Schools of Complementary and Alternative Medicine • Schools training health techs, attendants, and auxiliary care providers • Down to junior college level etc.

  5. Translational Research • Anthropologists need to be involved in translating scientific information to the public and evaluating how the public understands vital information they are exposed to (example: risk) • Public sector • Private sector • News / media

  6. Tracking information flow • Anthropologists need to invent jobs in the information dissemination and tracking field • We need to engage “distributed networks” • What sources of information are people accessing and how are they using it • What information is deemed credible and to whom

  7. Monitoring and evaluation • Anthropologists should know how to conduct outcome and process evaluations for employment and to be better critics Example of growth area • Planned behavior change: All behavior change interventions should have anthropologists monitoring why programs work and do not work in real time

  8. Consumer behavior • Anthropologists need to forge new careers in the interface between consumer behavior, marketing practices, and health outcomes • GIS methods will be crucial for community level assessment • Monitoring of some behaviors may require hybrid training: • example: over the counter self medication –anthropologists with some knowledge of pharmacy

  9. Clinical Trials • Anthropologists need to create jobs for themselves monitoring how clinical trials are actually being implemented • Ethics need to be engaged proactively from informed consent procedures to participant expectations and behavior change during trials • Informed consent needs to be seen as a process, not a one point in time “signing” of a legal document protecting those that conduct trials more than subjects • This is in the best interests of those committing serious funds to high cost trials

  10. Occupational health • Anthropologists need to create an niche for themselves in occupational health investigating such things as • Working conditions : physical and the psychosocial • Work cultures: behavioral patterns associated with work sites • Effect of shift work, • Food /drug consumption • Sleep patterns

  11. Health and health care transition • Anthropologists need to become more involved in the design and ongoing evaluation of health care programs for the aged • This population is growing in size and political importance • Different segments of this population will have different social as well as medical needs, and these needs are changing

  12. Can MASA Become a community of practice

  13. Reflection points • Why should graduate students bother to interact: why is this form of social capital important • What tangible incentives are there for interacting • Comrade and support are important, but not sufficient • How about trading resources :what resources

  14. MASA needs to reflect on past experience • SMA web site and Hnet was set up to facilitate exchange – asses what exchange occurred • Experience: • many people are eating available resources on the website • few people are contributing resources or cooking = why • what is it that could be shared that is non threatening and could get you symbolic capital • MASA figure this out

  15. Big idea • Create practice based networks • Similar grad student research projects conducted in different places with a common method base • Create big N study with lots of small N grad student projects (thesis and dissertations) • Compare different populations across space and time • Sell idea to funders like NSF

  16. Networks and rapid response • Create network of students working in a common subject area • Events occur and AAA/SMA needs rapid response to gain visibility • Experts are asked –student networks could provide spokespeople in SMA with their observations from around the country and the world

  17. You want in the game: get in the game

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