Author Archives: epihealth

About epihealth

Professor Emeritus of Epidemiology and Medical Geography, University of Washington, Seattle. Formerly Adjunct Prof, Depts of Medicine (Div of Infectious Diseases), Family Medicine, Health Services, and Global Health. President, Health Improvement and Promotion Alliance-Ghana www.hip-ghana.org Expertise in infectious diseases, epidemiology and clinical epidemiology, epi. of pain, community health, travel medicine, tuberculosis, disease control.

On Writing–and Rejections

Posted on July 30, 2018 by epihealth

Submitting an article to a journal and having it accepted is always, for me, an energizing experience. Rejections may be harder to take, but my philosophy and practice has always been to wait, think, consider, and resubmit elsewhere. Surely, I … Continue reading →

Posted in End of life, goals of medicine, medical ethics, narrative, personal accounts, stories | Leave a comment

Letter From My Mother’s Doctor After Her Death: On Knowing the Patient

Posted on July 9, 2018 by epihealth

I came across a letter written by my mother’s physician after her death, post-stroke, and post pulmonary embolism while being med-evaced by air to Seattle (and the ensuing drama and heartache while unexpectedly on the ground in Bismarck, ND, where … Continue reading →

Posted in End of life, narrative, Patient-physician relationship, personal accounts | Leave a comment

Pain, the patient, and the goals of medicine

Posted on April 14, 2018 by epihealth

By:Jonathan Mayer, Univ of Washington I came across a study yesterday that at first stunned me in its conclusions until I gave it deeper thought. The study aimed to ascertain whether the goals of physicians and patients were the same … Continue reading →

Posted in goals of medicine, medical ethics, Pain, suffering | Leave a comment

Narratives of medicine or medical narratives?

Posted on April 8, 2018 by epihealth

I have long been fascinated by stories of and from medicine,  and medicine’s patients. This fascination has been since childhood, really, with a respite in late high school and college. Now, I have been writing some of those myself. Regularly, … Continue reading →

Posted in narrative, personal accounts, stories | Leave a comment

Conflict of interest?

Posted on April 3, 2018 by epihealth

Yesterday 3 colleagues and I submitted a refutation of an article concerned with opioids to a major journal. When it came to the section on stating whether I had a conflict of interest, I realized that I did not have … Continue reading →

Posted in clinical research, epidemiology, evidence, Pain, proof | Leave a comment

Beyond the numbers: experiences with patients and the health care system, part 1

Posted on April 3, 2018 by epihealth

By Jonathan Mayer ********************* This is the first installment of a continuing account of my experiences in medicine and with patients. It will continue periodically as part of epihealth. ********************* My first night working in the ER of the new … Continue reading →

Posted in narrative | Leave a comment

Research in service to the pain community by Jonathan Mayer

Posted on April 1, 2018 by epihealth

While working in Ghana, one of my first reactions to the largest “slum” in the country was that I could not be one of those researchers who would take research data from the community and then leave the community. I … Continue reading →

Posted in opioids, Pain, public health | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Academic turfitis and budgets: public health undergraduate education (by Jonathan Mayer)

Posted on April 1, 2018 by epihealth

In the mid 1990s, I was asked by the Dean of the School of Public Health to develop a Minor and Public Health at the University of Washington, and it became so popular that we decided to extend that into … Continue reading →

Posted in epidemiology, Health, higher education, medical and health geography, public health, science, Uncategorized | Tagged | Leave a comment

Emergency Medical Services, Survival, and a Nightmare: Ethics 101 (by Jonathan Mayer)

Posted on March 24, 2018 by epihealth

Early in my career, much of my research centered around determinants of survival from out of hospital cardiac arrest. Coming from a background in geographical and spatial epidemiology, it was axiomatic that location of facilities was very important, or even … Continue reading →

Posted in clinical research, epidemiology, medical ethics, patient outcome | Tagged | Leave a comment

There is no one “opioid epidemic”

Posted on March 17, 2018 by epihealth

I am now spending more time on pain and opioid research than I am on infectious diseases. There’s a dearth of knowledge on the epidemiology of chronic pain. What we keep on hearing about, though, is “the opioid epidemic.” I … Continue reading →

Posted in clinical research, evidence, opioids, Pain | Leave a comment