NEWSTHE DEPARTMENT OF GLOBAL HEALTH & SOCIAL MEDICINE

A warm welcome to all of our new colleagues; Dr Giorgio Di Gessa, Guntars Ermansons, Dr Kriti Kapila (who works jointly with us and the India Institute), Sam McLean, Dr Michelle Pentecost, Dr Ursula Read, Dr Gabrielle Samuel, Dr Nancy Tamimi, Dr Georgia Venner, Dr Sigrid Vertommen and Dr Gry Wester.

I am also pleased to let you know that Professor Anne Pollock will be joining our Department in June. Professor Pollock is currently at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia. She is an internationally recognised scholar in the fields of science and technology studies, critical race studies, and women and gender studies, and is the author of Medicating Race: Heart Disease and Durable Preoccupations with Difference.

Many of you will have already met Professor Lochlann Jain who recently joined us. She is a world-leader in the fields of medical and legal anthropology, gender studies, and science and technology studies. She is the author of Injury: The Politics of Product Design and Safety Law in the United States and Malignant: How Cancer Becomes Us. Professor Jain splits her time between King’s and Stanford University in California.

Professors Jain and Pollock will be among those offering new undergraduate modules next year; descriptions of all the Department’s modules are now available on the online prospectus.

I am also delighted to let you know that our Department was involved in two large grant successes this year. Dr Hanna Kienzler and

colleagues at King’s were awarded a £6m Research Council UK (RCUK) Global Challenges Research Fund Award for a project aimed at building sustainable research capacity in the Middle East and North Africa to address major health challenges arising from conflict – specifically cancer and mental health.

Dr Mauricio Avendano, Dr Ann Kelly and Dr Sridhar Venkatapuram are part of an interdisciplinary team that was awarded £7m to establish the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Global Health Research Unit

aimed at finding practical and equitable ways to improve the coverage and quality of healthcare across sub-Saharan Africa.

Finally, I am pleased to tell you about two new international funded internship placement opportunities that are open to students in GHSM this year: The Tata Social Internship in India, and an internship at the Desmond Tutu TB Centre in Cape Town, South Africa.

As it looks like we will be moving to the wonderfully restored accommodation in Bush House at the end of the summer, I look forward to seeing everyone there at the start of the coming academic year.

Karen GlaserProfessor of Gerontology and Head of Department

Research on London showcased in the Principal’s conference

The event London Leads: The Capital Challenges, King’s Responds explored the breadth and depth of King’s expertise on London. It highlighted the potential for greater collaboration between academics and policy makers in addressing these challenges.

Professor Anthea Tinker, Institute of Gerontology, Global Health & Social Medicine, presented evidence about how the Department was contributing to research on London. She was one of four academics highlighting relevant research. Her presentation included evidence about comparative research on mental health in London compared with China.

One of these is the extensive programme of research carried out by Professor Nikolas Rose and Professor Nick Manning on mental health, migration and megacities, and the other is Professor Mauricio Avendano’s study on mental health and cognition. Anthea’s own study on an Age Friendly London was given as an example of research funded by the Greater London Authority.

Finally, an example was given of students seeking the views of older people in London. This was about the oral health of older people and one of the eight dental students who are undertaking the research spoke about their involvement.

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NEWS FEATURE 4

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FIELD REPORT 8

PUBLICATIONS 10

POSTCARD FROM THE FIELD 11

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Grants awarded...Postgraduate Bioethics ConferenceDr Silvia Camporesi, Giulia Cavaliere and Edgar René Ruiz López (Department of Global Health & Social Medicine) have been awarded a grant from the SSPP Faculty Education Fund to organise this year’s Postgraduate Bioethics Conference (PGBC) at King’s College London. Registration at this event is free.

Addressing the needs of older peopleProfessor Anthea Tinker (Institute of Gerontology) has obtained a collaborative London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM)/King’s College London grant. Her fellow PI is Professor Alex Mold (LSHTM).

Addressing the needs of older people in relation to the places they live is one of the urgent public health issues of our time, and this project will explore ageing in urban environments by focusing on how the health needs of older people are incorporated within the design and planning of ‘new’ towns.

New towns were constructed across the UK during the post-1945 period to house overspill from London and other major urban areas. Much of the interest in this topic has looked to the future, but what can we learn from the past and the present? Building on work that has considered the importance of whole town approaches, this project will consider what is peculiar about ‘new’ towns and ‘old’ people, and how this has changed over time and place. This multifaceted issue requires a multidisciplinary approach.

The project will analyse this topic from a historical, anthropological, sociological and geographical perspective. A cross-disciplinary team of researchers from LSHTM and King’s includes a historian (Professor Alex Mold), a gerontologist (Professor Anthea Tinker), a geographer (Dr Clare Herrick, King’s College London) and an anthropologist (Dr Sarah Milton, LSHTM). A shared mode of working that draws on our different disciplinary expertise will enable us to explore this urgent issue from a range of perspectives.

The grant is for six months and is for £14,930.60.

Four successful PhD defences in the departmentWe are all exceptionally proud of four of our students who successfully defended their doctorates:

Katharine Orellana (‘The role and purpose of generalist day centres for older people: case studies of four day centres from multiple perspectives’);

Tara Mahfoud (‘Blue Skies and Glimmering Stars: Visions of the Human Brain Project’);

Sebastian Rojas Navarro (‘Pharmaceutical entanglements: an exploration of the effects of stimulant medication in children’s lives’);

and Abin Thomas (India Institute, affiliated to GHSM) (‘An Anthropological Study of Organ Transfer in Kerala, India’).

James Fletcher wins Sowerby Prize for Philosophy and MedicinePhD candidate James Fletcher has been awarded this year’s Sowerby Prize for Philosophy and Medicine.

He received the prize for his essay ‘Why we should assess decision-making capacity (even though we cannot)’. In the essay, James challenges the idea of objectively assessing the legal capacity of people with dementia to make decisions, before concluding that, despite various shortcomings, formal assessments do provide a crude but useful indication of capacity. The prize was awarded during the annual Sowerby Lecture at New Hunt’s House on 10 November.

Beauty Dhlamini wins King’s Principle Global Leadership AwardBeauty is a second-year student who is pursuing a BSc Global Health & Social Medicine (Neuroscience). She was the President of the Global Health Society in 2017/18, where she co-founded a leading initiative which focuses on providing outreach workshops to young people in Widening Participation schools.

This initiative was created to align with the society’s values of exposure to non-STEM fields, with the aim of inspiring young people to find success in spaces that lack representation. In addition to this, membership to the society increased by 300 students from varying disciplines – and the society’s events and engagements this year were reflective of this. They included The History of Eugenics (chaired by GHSM’s very own Giulia Cavaliere), Medical Apartheid of Black Bodies, and collaborations with other societies such as the Intersectional Feminist Society. Most importantly, the society has managed to engage postgraduate students (finally), as many were regular contributors to our Health Matters blog – which is only growing bigger and better!

She continues to expand her leadership skills as a recipient of the Principle Global Leadership Award and has successfully been awarded an internship with Professor Funmi Olonisakin at the African Leadership this

summer; making her the first undergraduate student ever to work within it. In addition to this, Beauty continues to challenge herself in her field of study, currently interning as a policy researcher and writer at the African Health Organisation. She regularly volunteers at annual global and international development conferences to immerse herself in the emerging dynamic challenges and knowledge of her field. Lastly, Beauty has found her purpose working in a mental health hospital for the last three years. After graduation she aspires to work in global mental health and use her diverse background to reform the mental healthcare systems of southern African countries.

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Giulia Cavaliere wins 2018 Dan David Prize Scholarship Award in BioethicsThe Dan David Prize Scholarship is a competitive international award endowed by the Tel Aviv-based Dan David Foundation. Each year, ten scholarships of US$15,000 are given to outstanding doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers of exceptional promise worldwide.

PhD candidate Giulia Cavaliere has won a prestigious Dan David Prize Scholarship for her work in bioethics.

Giulia's PhD research is concerned with the ethical implications of new assisted reproductive technologies, including genome editing and mitochondrial replacement.

Her work has been published in The Journal of Medical Ethics, Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy, and BMC Medical Ethics.

The award will contribute towards her future work on procreative decision-making and reproductive freedom. Drawing on her research on eugenics and assisted reproduction, Giulia is planning to use the Dan David Scholarship to carry out research concerning the wide-reaching effects of procreative decisions. She plans to investigate how such decisions have an impact on our humanly and naturally constituted environment and to challenge the standard framework to discuss the ethics of procreative decisions – the individually-centred framework inspired by reproductive freedom.

Dr Silvia Camporesi publishes her second bookTitled Bioethics, Genetics and Sport, and co-authored with Mike McNamee (Swansea University) Dr Camporesi’s book is available now from Routledge in hardback and paperback.

Drawing on real case studies and grounded in rigorous scientific evidence, this book offers an ethical critique of current practices and explores the intersection of genetics, ethics and sport. Written by two of the world’s leading authorities on the ethics of biotechnology in sport, the book addresses the philosophical implications of the latest scientific developments and technological data. It covers key topics such as the genetic basis of sport performance and the role of genetic testing in talent identification and development. The first book to be published on this important subject in more than a decade, this is fascinating reading for anyone with an interest in the ethics of sport, bioethics or sport performance.

Nikolas Rose conferred as Fellow of the Academy of Social ScienceProfessor Nikolas Rose is one of 58 leading social scientists conferred the award of Fellow by the Academy of Social Sciences.

Fellows of the Academy of Social Sciences include researchers, policymakers and practitioners whose work has fostered excellence and impact in their fields.

Roisin Dillon wins top prize in Map the System competitionHuge congratulations to Roisin Dillon, one of our postgraduate students, who has won top prize in Oxford University’s ‘Map the System' competition. This is a global competition in which students are asked to undertake research on a social or environmental issue they feel passionately about.

Roisin’s presentation on the opioid crisis came first out of 470 entries from 27 different universities across the globe.

In an interview with 660 News, Roisin said: ‘We’re oversimplifying the problem and we have a lot of misconceptions and assumptions about who might be experiencing any kind of struggle with opiate addiction.’ She argues that public health solutions need to tackle over-prescribing and the assumption that we should eradicate pain at all costs, rather than helping people to manage it.

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King’s Global Health Institute launchedPresident & Principal Professor Ed Byrne welcomed 120 guests to launch the King’s Global Health Institute (KGHI) on 27 March. The Institute will act as a focal point and catalyst for the growing community of researchers, educators and students working in Global Health at King’s College London. KGHI embodies King’s commitment to cutting-edge and high-impact interdisciplinary research, focusing on improving healthcare across the world.

Professor Chris Whitty, Chief Scientific Advisor at the Department of Health and Social Care, delivered the event’s opening address. He began his remarks

reminding the audience of the long history of King’s College London’s contribution to global health, from building capacity for quality surgical care in Somaliland to the central role King’s researchers and volunteers played in the Ebola outbreak response. Pointing to the great medical advances in the past 20 years – new vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics that have radically reduced child mortality across the world – Whitty suggested the disparities in health within and between populations are much a matter of delivery as that of scientific innovation. To address today’s most pressing global health problems, he argued, requires a comprehensive grasp of the social determinates and political contexts of health and health care – the kind of broad-based and collaborative approach that characterises KGHI’s mission.

A key area of focus for KGHI will be healthcare delivery in the context of continuing care, environment, conflict and health. These areas fit well with the expanded agenda of the new UN

Sustainable Development Goals, in particular Universal Health Coverage.

Director of the Institute, Professor Martin Prince said:‘This is an incredibly exciting time for King’s as we harness our interdisciplinary strengths across the arts and sciences, including social science, global affairs, and policy studies; working with our health researchers to develop radically different approaches to delivering healthcare in challenging circumstances.’ Professor Prince began his talk by showing a video made by our very own students. Selma Azzubair Del Riego, Katya Baker, Sean Carr, Kate Ferguson, Meryem Cicek, Beauty Dhlamini and Claudia Oakley, offered their vision on what KGHI could mean for students.

With more than 100 academics and post-doctoral researchers affiliated to KGHI from across King’s health, arts and sciences schools, the Institute will be well placed to deliver a truly interdisciplinary approach to education. Even more important, from our student’s perspective, was the need to work in partnership with healthcare professionals and public across the globe.

Following an impressive set of presentations showcasing the global health work of students, partners, alumni and faculty, a panel discussion

This is an incredibly exciting time for King’s as we harness our interdisciplinary strengths across the arts and sciences, including social science, global affairs, and policy studies; working with our health researchers to develop radically different approaches to delivering healthcare in challenging circumstances.

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tackled the issue of partnership. Professor Funmi Olonisakin asked the assembled panellists – global health experts from a range of institutions across the UK – about the principles that should guide international collaboration and critically, how a commitment to equity and respect might help enhance capacity building in global health. The debate that followed demonstrated the importance of moving away from a tech-transfer model to one of co-development – an approach where partners orient the research agenda and health solutions are appropriate to the specific contexts of care.

As global health activity grows across the UK higher education sector, the panel emphasized the need to pursue opportunities for inter-institutional collaboration in research, education and capacity-building. It was the consensus that this collaborative effort should be focused on the need not only to implement health services to some of the world’s most challenging and least resourced settings, but to improve their coverage, equity and quality.

Reflecting King’s Vision 2029, the Institute’s principles include a commitment to serve through partnership and capacity-building. The KGHI

seeks to lead the development and evaluation of innovative continuing care models taken to scale, informing policy, planning, system design and service delivery. The Institute’s approach will be trans-diagnostic, seeking translatable innovations capable of transforming the context of care from acute, curative interventions to a framework for chronic disease care that promotes engagement on locally-appropriate defined care pathways. This agenda will embrace the challenges of taskshifting and task-sharing models of care including the training, support and supervision of non-specialist health cadres by specialist services, with the aim of scaling up coverage of basic healthcare services for all.

The launch closed with a reception in the auditorium flanked by the Bush House roof terrace. It was a beautiful evening and the assembled attendees were in great spirits at the prospect of further collaborations. In the words of third-year GSHM student Jessica O’Hara who attended the event, ‘it was a fantastic opportunity to connect with other universities and organisations to work for a common goal.’

It was a fantastic opportunity to connect with other universities and organisations to work for a common goal.

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Esteban Guzman Benitez, third year GHSM student and LightMountain Project Leader, was recently the winner of the Unilever ‘Made by You’ competition, and part of the King’s College London Enactus Team that came in second place in the recent Enactus UK National Expo 2018. Emily Brothwood, second year GHSM student, has been president of the Enactus Society for 2018.

Unilever, as one of the leading sponsors of Enactus UK, ran the competition, and challenged teams to address the impact

of waste while taking ownership for the full social, environmental and economic impact of their projects. The competition considered the sustainability of the projects and of the waste that is produced across the lifecycle of the project.

Esteban is the project leader of LightMountain, a social enterprise that provides clean cooking solutions to rural villages in Tanzania. Through the creation of entrepreneurial female cooperatives, the project tackles indoor air pollution, deforestation and gender inequality while

providing a secure source of income for beneficiaries. The products employed are a locally-made cooking stove made of 95 per cent recycled and locally available sources and biomass briquettes made of agricultural waste. So far, this enterprise has empowered 15 women, positively impacted 30 people and improved the lives of more than 18,000 people in the villages of Mkuyuni, Changa, Kivuma, Kibwaya and Kiroka.

At the event, Esteban and his team pitched this idea to a panel of judges and won a £1,000 prize to expand the project further. The King’s Enactus team also presented LightMountain at the 2018 Enactus UK National Expo. This event gathers the top

32 universities in one of the greatest events for social entrepreneurship for universities in the UK. After two days and three rounds of presentations, the team presented in the final round to an audience of more than 500 people including businesses, universities and sponsors, and finished in second place. This is an extraordinary achievement, building on last year’s successes as the UK champion and presenting in the Enactus World Cup.

Esteban hopes that these achievements encourage students from the department to take part in similar initiatives and believes that making an impact can be a part of everyone’s university experience.

Social entrepreneurship

Esteban Guzman Benitez with his award. Emily Brothwood. Locally-made cooking stoves.

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Internship reportKatarina Dudova (third-year GHSM undergraduate)

During the summer of 2017, I had an amazing opportunity to spend three months working for the STEP-IN organisation, which provides medical care for IDPs and refugees in Northern Iraq.

Beside the medical care being administrated through two clinics inside the IDP (internally displaced people)

and refugee camps and one mobile clinic, another vital component of this organisation is the Social Cases Program. The aim of this program is to identify and support people living inside the camps who need special medical support, but who can’t afford it.

As an intern, I worked on this Social Cases Program, which included regular social visits in various IDP and refugee

camps in order to collect and process data about potential social cases, developing relevant documents for assessments and managing fundraising campaigns for many of them.

During this time, I had a chance to talk to many IDPs, refugees, health professionals and humanitarian workers. I also attended a meeting called ‘Health Cluster’ provided by the government, where all humanitarian organisations working in certain governorate gathered together to discuss their work, challenges and progress.

This experience, mixed with real life testimonies of many people who were forced to leave their homes in the effort to save their lives, helped me to better understand their daily suffering, challenges and gaps in humanitarian aid provided for them. Furthermore, because of my interest in areas of mental health related to war conflicts, I decided to focus my final dissertation on the exploration of preparedness of humanitarian mental health responses for victims of ISIS sexual-based violence.

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Updates from the fieldKatharine Orellana (PhD student in Gerontology) recalls her 13 months of fieldwork in day care centresI spent thirteen months carrying out fieldwork at four day-centres for older people without dementia. This involved visiting a day-centre on the same day each week for fourteen weeks, staying for the entire day. On these days, I chatted with the older people, staff and volunteers, joined in with activities and collected data on which to build case studies that incorporate rich and contemporary descriptions of day-centres. These visits were also crucial to recruitment and the content of in-depth interviews, as they helped potential participants accept, trust and feel comfortable with me. Over this period, I also interviewed 69 older day-centre

attenders, family carers, day-centre staff, volunteers and managers as well as local authority social care staff. The findings of my mixed methods case study research, funded by Dunhill Medical Trust, improves the understanding of day-centres’ purpose and role, how they are viewed and their use within a changing policy and practice context.

Since finishing it, in late 2017, I have produced a research evidence briefing for commissioners summarising the findings about day-centres’ role and purpose. The implications for social workers are discussed in a Community Care article published in January (4–1–18).

Philippa Machin talks about her PhD research into digital technology use during pregnancy and childbirthI am currently conducting fieldwork for my PhD project on the role of digital technology in pregnancy and childbirth. Though my research, I investigate how and why digital technology – particularly in the form of pregnancy apps – is a part of the lived experience of women before, during, and after pregnancy. To this end, I am interviewing a small cohort of women across the UK at different stages of pregnancy, and after birth. In our discussions we explore how and why they use apps, and the choices women make regarding other aspects of pregnancy and birth.

I have spoken with women who feel empowered by their newly found

knowledge about their bodies, and those who simply want to know how the fetus compares to the size of a vegetable or Parisian baked good (my personal favourite being the ‘three chocolate croissants’ at 33 weeks). The interactions that users have with technology are also an entry point for conversations about deeply human experiences; from hearing stories about struggles with loss, to navigating interviews during which a newborn is keen to make their voice heard.

Through this fieldwork, I hope to gain insights that will engage with wider conversations on the sociology of pregnancy, health data, and self-quantification.

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Penelope Quinton on starting fieldwork and selecting field sites in the West BankMy research examines how Israeli house demolitions and land seizures in the West Bank of the occupied Palestinian territories impact on Palestinian women’s self-perceived health, and capability to lead lives they value.

In March 2018 I travelled to the West Bank to establish field sites for a nine-month ethnographic study in three Palestinian villages situated in the Jordan Valley, Bethlehem and South Hebron Hills for my PhD fieldwork. In this project I use three research methods: participant observation, unstructured and semi-structured interviews and (only) after my informants feel comfortable, mapping workshops with small groups of five women to create wellbeing maps to explore the connections they make between place and well-being.

From 13 March – 30 April, I travelled throughout the West Bank holding meetings with gatekeepers to establish the fieldwork sites. This involved introducing the project to village leaders and women’s health organisations, who had access to the communities living in Area C. This scoping process even involved

accompanying a day trip of high school students from Askar refugee camp in Nablus, who were learning about the impact of Israeli occupation in Area C on the Palestinian economy and the well-being of Area C residents. We travelled in a coach with the boys at the back keeping up an enthusiastic chorus of wedding songs, to two villages in the Jordan valley AL Jiflik, and Farush Beit Dajan.

The local mayor and head master told us that most of the area is dependent on agriculture for its economy and that the biggest problems for the villages are lack of emergency medical infrastructure as well as the water restrictions imposed by the Israeli military administration. I then visited another village in the Jordan Valley called Al Aqaba and met the mayor, a charismatic figure, Haj Sami Sadiq, who was paralysed in 1971 aged 16, when the Israeli army shot him during military training on his family’s land. He introduced himself to me as ‘Haj Sami, who was shot in the spine by the Israelis but I speak for peace’. Al Aqaba is in a mountainous area where the Israeli army train for military operations in South Lebanon because of the

similarity of the terrain. Haj Sami generously agreed to support my project and arranged for me to stay in the Al Aqaba guest house and offered me the services of ‘his’ village librarian as a translator. Al Aqaba generates much of its income from rearing sheep for dairy products. I have been begun working five days a week in Al Aqaba and will be working there until July.

It is currently Ramadan and we have been in the grip of a severe heatwave with the temperature in the high 40s – even reaching 51°C – so under these conditions the interviews happen slowly. We have been visiting women’s homes to tell them about the project. We then return a few days later to arrange to hold the interview.

I am extremely grateful for the vigour of the King’s ethical approval process, as the confidentiality aspect of the project, clearly outlined in the information sheet, has been the main deciding factor for the women feeling able take part in the project. I feel incredibly privileged to be doing this work and am learning a great deal from my informants.

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Cavaliere, G, Palacios-González, C (2018) ‘Lesbian motherhood and mitochondrial replacement techniques: reproductive freedom and genetic kinship’ Journal of Medical Ethics

This article has been quoted in two media articles: Bioedge and the New Scientist.

Del Savio, L, Cavaliere, G, and Mameli, M (2018) ‘Migration and cooperative infrastructures’ Philosophy & Technology (2018): 1-20

Fletcher, JR (2017) ‘A symbolic interactionism of dementia: a tangle in ‘the Alzheimer conundrum’’ Social Theory & Health

Kelly, A H (2018) ‘Ebola vaccines, evidentiary charisma and the rise of global health emergency research’ Economy and Society

Pentecost, M, Ross FC, Macnab, A (2018) ‘Beyond the dyad: making DOHaD interventions more inclusive’ Journal of Developmental Origins of Health and Disease, Themed Issue: DOHaD Africa 9(1): 10-14.

Pentecost, M (2018) ‘The first thousand days: epigenetics in the age of global health’ The Palgrave Handbook of Biology and Society. Meloni, M, Cromby, J, Fitzgerald, D, Lloyd, S (eds). London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Reubi, D (2018) ‘Epidemiological accountability: philanthropists, global health and the audit of saving lives’ Economy and Society

Sacco, LB, Leineweber, C, Platts, LG (2018) ‘Informal care and sleep disturbance among caregivers in paid work: longitudinal analyses from a large community-based Swedish cohort study’ Sleep

Professor Parry has recently published a new book with collaborator Dr Beth Greenhough. Titled Bioinformation, the book is published by Polity Press.From DNA sequences stored on computer databases to archived forensic samples and biomedical records, bioinformation comes in many forms. Its unique provenance – the fact that it is ‘mined’ from the very fabric of the human body – makes it a mercurial resource; one that no one seemingly owns, but in which many have deeply vested interests.

Who has the right to exploit and benefit from bioinformation? The individual or community

from whom it was derived? The scientists and technicians who make its extraction both possible and meaningful or the commercial and political interests which fund this work? Who is excluded or even at risk from its commercialisation? And what threats and opportunities might the generation of ‘Big Bioinformational Data’ raise?

Bronwyn Parry and Beth Greenhough explore the complex economic, social and political questions arising

from the creation and use of bioinformation. They show how demand for this resource has grown significantly driving a burgeoning but often highly controversial global economy in bioinformation. But, they argue, change is afoot as new models emerge that challenge the ethos of privatisation by creating instead a dynamic open source ‘bioinformational commons’ available for all future generations’.

Professor Anthea Tinker has continued to work with students to undertake research outside the course. Recent publications with the intercalated medical students include the following:

Tinker, A, Molloy, L, Monks, I, Pennells, L, Russell, E, Haines, E (2017) ‘The benefits and barriers of exercise for the physical health of older women’ Journal of Aging and Clinical Research, vol 6 73-79

Tinker, A, Berdugo, V, Buckland, M, Crabtree, L, Maheswaran, A, Ong, A, Patel, J, Pusey, E, Suershkumar, C Response to Margaret McCartney, 'Medical school interviews are needless and unfair’ BMJ letter 27.5.17 (Impact 20.785)

Tinker, A, Berdugo, V, Buckland, M, Crabtree, L, Maheswaran, A, Ong, A, Patel, J, Pusey, E, Suershkumar, C (2017) ‘Volunteering and getting into medical school’ European Geriatric Medicine 8. 480 – 482

Tinker, A, Berdugo, V, Buckland, M, Crabtree, L, Maheswaran, A, Ong, A, Patel, J, Pusey, E, Suershkumar, C (2017) ‘Volunteering with older people in a care home’ Working with Older People, vol 21 No 4 229-235

Crabtree, L, Tinker, A, Glaser, K (2017) ‘Men’s sheds: the perceived health and wellbeing benefits’ Working with Older People (based on her dissertation)

Research funded by Silver Marque on baby boomers with Dr Aideen Young has resulted in these publications:

Young, A and Tinker, A (2017) ‘Who are the baby boomers of the 1960s?’ Working with Older People, vol 27, No 4, 197-205

Young, A and Tinker, A (2017) ‘The 1960s baby boomers: future needs and preferences’ Working with Older People, vol 27, No 4, 224-238

Wester, G (2018) ‘When are health inequalities unfair?’ Public Health Ethics, phy004

Department of Global Health & Social Medicine 11

Dear GHSM colleaguesIn August 2017, I arrived in Mumbai to start a new ethnographic research

project on cancer care in India. This project is based in one of India’s largest

cancer hospitals, Tata Memorial. For the last eight months, I have spent every

day in the hospital working with a small team of researchers. We’ve conducted

participant observation and interviewed over 300 patients and family members

who generously shared their experiences with us. Tata Memorial is a fascinating

institution; one of the best cancer clinics in the country, it is visited by over

1,000 patients every day. People, both rich and poor, come from near and far.

Most arrive with advanced disease.The study is funded by a grant from the Wellcome Trust. It examines the

therapeutic economy that is emerging today in India. Distinctive for this

economy is a large population of patients and a small number of hospitals in

the public sector with appropriate medical facilities, adequate expertise and

sufficient staff. The abundance of patients and the scarcity of resources have

resulted in an unprecedented movement of people. Faced with a diagnosis

of serious disease, people sell whatever they have (a tractor, a buffalo, a

piece of land) and travel enormous distances across the country to access

medical care in hospitals like Tata Memorial. The pressure emerging from this

movement makes it difficult for doctors and nurses to provide adequate care.

It has put an enormous burden on public hospitals in metropolitan regions,

forcing staff to think on their feet and experiment with standards of care.

Given the daily rush, the situation is difficult, but the hospital has been very

active, starting new initiatives to support patients and family members.

Among these projects is the National Cancer Grid; it was launched to establish

uniform standards of medical care, provide training in oncology and facilitate

translational research. From the start the hospital has been incredibly

welcoming and supportive, helping me getting all the required approvals for

the research. It has been a pleasure to talk to the doctors, nurses and social

workers and learn from their experiences.As always in fieldwork, one gets involved and immersed in all kinds of things

while living in a new milieu. Mumbai has daily traffic jams, massive air pollution,

and extreme rainfall in the summer. There was a major flooding of the city

that left me stranded with no option to return home for the night. Now, in early

March, the heat and the humidity are returning to the city. The winter season

is ending, but the mangoes have not arrived yet. The changing weather will

make it easier to leave the people and places that have been close to me. With

over 6,000 pages of transcribed and translated interviews (conducted in Hindi,

Bengali, Marathi, and English) in addition to 10 months of intensive participant

observation in one of the largest cancer hospitals in India (imagine doing

research in an overcrowded train station), this will be one of the most detailed

social science studies on cancer care in the South. The research will provide

insights into the incredible difficulties that patients and family members face

when they try to access affordable treatment in a country with no universal

health coverage.

Carlo Caduff

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School of Global AffairsBush House (NE) 4.01King's College London40 AldwychLondon WC2B 4BG

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Upcoming: Bioethics Conference Register now!The Department of Global Health & Social Medicine at King’s College London will host the 2018 Postgraduate Bioethics Conference (PGBC 2018) on the 23-24 July.

The PGBC is a two-day annual conference for postgraduate students (taught and research) interested in bioethics. This year, the theme of the conference will be Bioethics in the Public Square.

The call for abstracts and more info about the event can be found on the conference website postgradbioethics.com/pgbc-2018, and on the Department’s blog.

Department moveIn August the department will relocate to Bush House, an iconic building that includes state of the art teaching spaces, Harvard-style lecture theatres, a 395-seater auditorium and a number of cafés and terraces.