“Know every student by name and by story.” Students at WashU have had the phrase engraved into their minds after hearing it many times over. However, while students know the phrase, do they truly understand it? While most people can learn someone’s name fairly easily, knowing their story is more complicated. A story can include…
Arachnophobia? A valid fear: the long legs and erratic movements of tarantulas are enough to send chills down my spine. Heights? Also reasonable— just the thought of bungee jumping makes my stomach queasy. But vaccination? It’s surprising that the agent responsible for eradicating such fatal diseases as smallpox is at the root of great controversy….
“I am not a disease,” as Nancy Mairs wrote in 1986 as a person living with Multiple Sclerosis. This syndrome is characterized for unknown causation and non-fatalness, bringing carriers a broad spectrum of symptoms, most of which involve exacerbation, the sudden onset of worsening, and the recovery from it (1).Diagnosing someone with MS can be…
We are facing an epidemic – one that, ironically, both damages our healthcare system and stems from the healthcare system itself. This epidemic is a large contributor to the variability of healthcare effectiveness, the perception of overall health status, and the presence of higher mortality rates. The system we initially established to help others is…
An alarmingly small fraction of physicians are familiar with the concepts of evolutionary medicine. Why? Because evolutionary medicine is rarely included, especially in the form of full courses treating the topic as a basic science, in medical schools. Nearly half, 48%, of North American medical school curriculum deans stated that they “anticipated igniting controversy at…
As a loyal Kansas City Chiefs fan for the last decade, I have lived through forgettable season followed by forgettable season. I remember watching the Indianapolis Colts erase a 28-point deficit in the second half to defeat the Chiefs in the Wildcard Game in 2014. One could imagine how excited I was about this season…
“Prinum Non Nocere”; Medical School Students say these lines in the Hippocratic Oath, pledging to do no harm. Traditionally this promise is made with the notion that physicians will do everything in their power to cure ailing patients. Yet, complications arise when doctors make decisions on who, and what to prioritize when they must provide…
An effective democracy calls for the active participation of its citizens through voting. Regardless of socioeconomic class, gender, race, or religion, every citizen of the United States, above the age of eighteen, has the right to vote. Nevertheless, only about fifty to sixty percent of eligible voters turn up at the polls in presidential elections,…
It’s midnight and Olin Library is packed with students studying for their exams. Soon enough, midnight becomes 2:00 am, yet most students still study away. In fact, most of these students don’t return to their dorms until around three, which is often a mere seven hours before their first classes. By the time they get…
The problem of gun violence in the US is deeply complex and especially serious among developed nations in the world. Despite being declared as a major public health issue in 1989 by the American Medical Association Council on Scientific Affairs, gun violence has received remarkably little attention from researchers, due to political controversy and lack…