Engagements and connections between humanities, health, and medicine are ever more crucial as we face new local and global health challenges. Concerns such as epidemics, illnesses related to life style or environment, and increasing chronic illness, infertility, and mental health issues require new approaches and attention. Moreover, medical technologies such as the field of personalized medicine and genetic testing are radically changing the diagnostic practices and treatments of today. Concurrently, institutional change and public health policies are also transforming organizational care.
Health Humanities is comprised of researchers from a wide array of fields within medical and health humanities and social sciences employing qualitative, ethnographic, philosophical, quantitative, and literary methods. We address issues regarding:
- Values and ethics in relation to medical care and medical technologies
- Cultural interactions between patients and the healthcare system
- Health epistemologies and educational challenges within the health professions
- Interprofessional collaboration between health professionals
- Changes in organizational work environments, technologies, and leadership in the health sector and beyond
- Discrimination and inequality in regard to health, medical treatment, and well-being
- Changing perceptions of the body and logics of care
- Health promotion and health policies