Dr. Root gave an interesting perspective to medicine and global health from a viewpoint I had ever considered, that from a geologist. Dr. Root started her discussion with the story of John Snow and his map that helped explain the outbreaks of Cholera in London. John Snow is considered the father of modern epidemiology and was the first health geographer. His map traced the different water systems that explained the transmission of Cholera and led to interesting discoveries, such as how drinking beer prevented some of the workers from contracting the disease. Dr. Root used John Snow as an example of a paradigm shift, as termed by Thomas Kuhn in the reading for this class.
Before John Snow, it was believed that disease was spread by miasma or “bad air.” However, this was before the creation of germ theory and little was understood about the transmission of diseases. John Snow’s map and discoveries started to shift the thinking when he concluded that contaminated water supply was causing people to get sick with Cholera. Dr. Root also explained how her research with vaccines and other research coming about is leading to mini paradigm shifts in the world of medicine.
Dr. Root finished her discussion with topics that are helping shift medicine from the biomedical model to the “OneHealth” model, which integrates not only the human behaviors but environment which we are situated in. Root gave insight about how her research team used geographically random trials to improve the efficacy of their developing Cholera vaccine. Dr. Root then connected this to how one’s environment can effect someone’s overall health and how it connected to the OneHealth concept. Overall, I was very fond of Dr. Root’s discussion and how much it made me think about health from the perspective I never would have considered before. In the long run, it makes sense as to why having a geologist on a research team for something health related is important but it is something that often gets missed when thinking in a biomedical model as opposed to a more inclusive approach to health.
A lot of students have commented on how the involvement of geography in medicine makes sense, Amanda. Although it isn’t the first association that comes to mind, I think it s important for students to see the larger pictures so early in their scientific careers. I haven’t heard myself the term OneHealth, but you point out that it is a more comprehensive look on how big a role the environment plays in determining health status.