Social Justice and Medical Practice : Life History of a Physician of Social Medicine

"How do we understand and respond to the pressing health problems of modern society? Conventional practice focuses on the assessment and clinical treatment of immediate health issues presented by individual patients. In contrast, social medicine advocates an equal focus on the assessment and social treatment of underlying social conditions, such as environmental factors, structural violence, and social injustice. Social Justice and Medical Practice examines the practice of social medicine through extensive life history interviews with a physician practicing the approach in marginalized communities. It presents a case example of social medicine in action, demonstrating how such a practice can be successfully pursued within the context of the existing structure of twenty-first-century medicine. In examining the experience of a physician on the frontlines of reforming health care, the book critiques the restrictive nature of the dominant clinical model of medicine and argues for a radically expanded focus for modern-day medical practice. Social Justice and Medical Practice is a timely intervention at a time when even advanced health care systems are facing multiple crises. Lucidly written, it presents a striking alternative and is important reading for students and practitioners of medicine and anthropology, as well as policy makers."--Provided by publisher Social Justice and Medical Practice- Front Cover -- Social Justice and Medical Practice -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: A Road Less Taken -- Chapter 1: Alternatives in Medical Practice and Their Social and Personal Implications -- A Molecular Understanding of Disease -- The Patient-Centering of Healthcare? -- Unfairness -- The Social Gradient -- From the Trenches -- The Alternative of Social Medicine -- Chapter 2: The Social Construction of Disease Conception and Treatment in Biomedicine -- Biomedical Understanding of Disease as a Natural Entity -- Training Doctors to Understand the World -- The New Medical School -- Beyond Medical School -- The Affordable Care Act and Dissents -- Power and Healthcare -- Conclusion -- Chapter 3: Being a Person, Becoming a Doctor -- Formative Years, People, and Places -- Feeling the World: Values and Ethics -- The Path to Medicine -- Selecting Medicine -- Finding Love -- Parenthood -- In Medical Training -- Fatherhood and Worldhood -- Building a Career in Connecticut -- Chapter 4: Inside the Beast: An Engaged Physician and Modern Medical Institutions -- Social Justice and Access to Healthcare -- Hospital Corporatization -- Corporate Practice of Medicine Laws and the Health Insurance Industry -- Battling to Serve the Poor -- The University of Connecticut: The Struggle Continues -- Medical Director for the Hartford Department of Health -- Confronting Challenges: AHEC and the Farm Worker Clinics -- Quality Improvement Initiatives -- Sustaining Commitment -- Chapter 5: Struggling for Health Equity from the Inner City to Rural Farms -- Poverty and Health: Place Matters -- The Culture of Wealth and the Poverty Trap -- The Welfare Fraud Hoax -- Downsizing the Safety Net -- The Color of Income Inequality -- Wealth Management -- Social Immobility