In Focus

WINTER 2022 ISSUE

In Focus

‘In Focus’ aims to explore how health and healthcare are experienced at the local, individual, and micro levels. While these aspects of health and healthcare invariably tie into wider dynamics, we want to zoom in and analyse the small, the acute, and the mundane. This issue features pieces that have strong central threads and encourage readers to become immersed in a specific setting or scenario. Topics range from looking at local communities or individual life narratives to a single journey, an object, or an app.

Image Credit: Sophie Buckely

Featured Contributions

Featured
By the border
Danielle Duran
By the border
Danielle Duran

Danielle highlights the struggles faced by Rio Grande Valley natives who come from a low-income background when seeking healthcare services.

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Danielle Duran
Struggling at the intersection
AJ Sunglao
Struggling at the intersection
AJ Sunglao

In this article, AJ explores how one person’s lived experiences of mental health clashes with their social identities during the global pandemic.

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AJ Sunglao
Could yaws be the second disease to be eradicated?
Elena Pérez Fernández
Could yaws be the second disease to be eradicated?
Elena Pérez Fernández

To this date, only one disease has ever been eradicated: smallpox. Elena argues that yaws could be the second if a global and interdisciplinary approach is taken to tackling the widely neglected tropical disease.

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Elena Pérez Fernández

Wellness

Featured
Music: a window to the soul and an invitation into wellness
Oluwaseun Candy Oluwajana
Music: a window to the soul and an invitation into wellness
Oluwaseun Candy Oluwajana

Candy reminds us that the magic of music runs deep and true across continents, time, and traditions. This article is a call to action to let the music in and continue to inspire or heal or just do whatever it needs to.

Oluwaseun Candy Oluwajana
Filling in the gaps
Padmavathy Krishna Kumar
Filling in the gaps
Padmavathy Krishna Kumar

Padmavathy discusses the need to prioritise credible research in Ayurveda, arguing that indigenous medicine can help address the gaps in allopathic medical systems in India and across the world.

Padmavathy Krishna Kumar
Struggling at the intersection
AJ Sunglao
Struggling at the intersection
AJ Sunglao

In this article, AJ explores how one person’s lived experiences of mental health clashes with their social identities during the global pandemic.

AJ Sunglao
Pill fatigue
Emma Roy
Pill fatigue
Emma Roy

Emma Roy argues that the prevalence of ‘pill fatigue’ reflects wider issues within healthcare systems. She offers tips for both doctors and patients to help combat lulls in medical adherence.

Emma Roy

Essay & Opinion

Winter 2022 Issue
The silent side of the pandemic
Tessa de Mooij
The silent side of the pandemic
Tessa de Mooij

Tessa discusses the increased levels of child grooming during lockdowns, and the efforts in place to try and protect vulnerable young people.

Tessa de Mooij
Riding a green horse to Beijing
Elyse Ribbons
Riding a green horse to Beijing
Elyse Ribbons

Elyse brings us along on her trip to Beijing, describing the online measurements that have been taken to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in China along the way.

Elyse Ribbons
By the border
Danielle Duran
By the border
Danielle Duran

Danielle highlights the struggles faced by Rio Grande Valley natives who come from a low-income background when seeking healthcare services.

Danielle Duran
Band-aids over landfill-sized holes
Brianna Marschke
Band-aids over landfill-sized holes
Brianna Marschke

Brianna introduces us to her friend Juan, who lives next to a landfill in Tipitapa, and urges clinicians to engage in climate activism as a form of preventative medicine.

Brianna Marschke
Could green spaces be the answer to the pandemic?
Kristian Clausell-Mobley
Could green spaces be the answer to the pandemic?
Kristian Clausell-Mobley

Kristian explores the positive influence of outdoor public spaces on our physical and mental health.

Kristian Clausell-Mobley
What is it really like to be an Antarctic researcher?
Olivia Maskill
What is it really like to be an Antarctic researcher?
Olivia Maskill

Olivia reflects on her interview with Nadia Frontier about her unusual life as an Antarctic researcher.

Olivia Maskill
Fractured nursing care
Cidália Eusébio
Fractured nursing care
Cidália Eusébio

Cidália writes about her experience as an intensive care nurse during the COVID-19 pandemic and what her hopes are for the future.

Cidália Eusébio
Could yaws be the second disease to be eradicated?
Elena Pérez Fernández
Could yaws be the second disease to be eradicated?
Elena Pérez Fernández

To this date, only one disease has ever been eradicated: smallpox. Elena argues that yaws could be the second if a global and interdisciplinary approach is taken to tackling the widely neglected tropical disease.

Elena Pérez Fernández

Culture

Featured
Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty
Joanna Hindley
Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty
Joanna Hindley

Pain is inevitable, but is suffering optional? Joanna reviews Keefe’s chilling account of the lives lost and profits gained from America’s opioid epidemic.

Joanna Hindley
Recovery: The Lost Art of Convalescence
Olivia Maskill
Recovery: The Lost Art of Convalescence
Olivia Maskill

Olivia reviews Dr Gavin Francis’s book on how medicine can better integrate a holistic and compassionate approach to recovery and chronic illness, and shares her thoughts on his recent seminar at the Wellcome Trust.

Olivia Maskill
The drawbacks of applying a Western lens to the trauma of South Asian immigrants
Pallavi Ganapathi
The drawbacks of applying a Western lens to the trauma of South Asian immigrants
Pallavi Ganapathi

Pallavi inaugurates our magazine’s Agora section by reflecting on Kate and Mohammad’s cultural psychology essays from our Gradients issue.

Pallavi Ganapathi
Know My Name
Grace Cooney
Know My Name
Grace Cooney

With empathy and compassion, Grace discusses Chanel Miller’s reclamation of her own narrative while confronting the harsh realities of the American justice system.

Grace Cooney
The Story of Your Life
Alexis Schneider
The Story of Your Life
Alexis Schneider

How our reviewer’s olfactory explorations led her to a perspective-shifting book. Alexis reviews The Story of Your Life, a work by perfumer and former psychotherapist Mandy Aftel.

Alexis Schneider
Soundtrack To The Struggle
Sarah Zaidi
Soundtrack To The Struggle
Sarah Zaidi

What’s old is new again. Sarah shares her perspective on Lowkey’s sophomore album and the thematic prescience of its decade-old messages in more recent events.

Sarah Zaidi
Food Rules: An Eater's Manual
Alexis Schneider
Food Rules: An Eater's Manual
Alexis Schneider

I got (food) rules, I count ‘em: Alexis reviews Michael Pollan’s digest on digestion and the 64 principles guiding his approach to nutrition and health.

Alexis Schneider

Long Reads

The other pandemic: the silent rise of child grooming and exploitation during lockdowns

By Tessa de Mooij

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Horizontal politics

By Jennifer Brough

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Creative

Winter 2022 Issue
And so, she waits
Zoe Davis
And so, she waits
Zoe Davis

Zoe’s poem exposes the challenges women face in accessing equal and affordable healthcare, and how as a healthcare worker she is helpless to a failing system.

Zoe Davis
Artist feature: Gabriella Blumberg
Micah Fineberg
Artist feature: Gabriella Blumberg
Micah Fineberg

Micah interviews filmmaker and producer Gabriella to discuss how her filmmaking career has intersected with her genetic risk of breast and ovarian cancer.

Micah Fineberg
Horizontal politics
Jennifer Brough
Horizontal politics
Jennifer Brough

Jennifer uses powerful imagery to highlight the importance of her bed as a place of both rest and resistance for herself and others living with chronic illness.

Jennifer Brough
Artist spotlight: Liz Atkin
Eleanor Knuckey
Artist spotlight: Liz Atkin
Eleanor Knuckey

Eleanor speaks to artist Liz Atkin, an artist known for her unique exploration of skin as a means of redirecting her anxieties.

Eleanor Knuckey
Ghost in the shell
Armando Martinez
Ghost in the shell
Armando Martinez

From the perspective of a medical professional, Armando weaves a narrative of a patient and his family facing linguistic barriers in the medical system and a challenging diagnosis.

Armando Martinez
Power of the written word
Leah Kenny
Power of the written word
Leah Kenny

Leah speaks to three women who use poetry to speak up on sexual and reproductive health issues, and put them and their readers on a path towards healing.

Leah Kenny

Interview & Investigation

The need for radical change: Paul Allison on training future oral healthcare professionals

Dental Professor Paul Allison speaks to the KHR about his research and work, offering the compelling case that radical changes to both training and practice are essential to integrating oral healthcare into the wider medical system.

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Healing great and small: a lifetime in veterinary medicine

Dr Nila Kelly discusses the highs and lows of a lifetime spent working in veterinary medicine, and why she believes that vets play a vital role in protecting human health.

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