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Experiences And Talks With Members Of Partners In Health By Tracy Kidder

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Tracy Kidder presents many important themes in this book through his experiences and talks with members of Partners in Health including Dr. Paul Farmer. One of my takeaways was the emphasis on compassion and spending time with patients. In my experiences with the healthcare system in the United States, everything seems very rushed, almost like it is an inconvenience for the doctor to see the patient. However, Paul Farmer went great distances to care for his patients. He took hour-long hikes in Haiti to see patients, there were many nights when he didn’t sleep in order to see patients instead, and he traveled back to Haiti against recommendations because of his injured leg. Although he wanted to find another way to treat John, a child with cancer, he ultimately supported his expensive treatment in the U.S.. At the beginning of the book, he spent a long time talking to his patient Joe, trying to find a housing solution for him. This connects to a second theme …show more content…

Since cost-effectiveness seems to be the most argued consideration for global health interventions, what are other ways that cost-effectiveness could be accomplished while still treating more “expensive” diseases in low-income countries? Or, what considerations should be brought forth that are potentially more important than the cost-effectiveness argument?
What are ideas for ways to help prevent burnout in physicians, especially after witnessing so much trauma in low-income countries? In the book, there were many healthcare professionals that wanted to leave Haiti and go to the U.S.. This could be for many reasons, but how could doctors be retained better in low-income countries?
How can the misconception of non-compliance be fazed out as a patient label? In the book, there were misconceptions about voodoo and cultural beliefs meaning that people wouldn’t believe in medicine or follow

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