Vulnerable Populations

It was nice to finally hear a physician talk about the importance of community health workers and environmental health. Rishi Manchanda did a phenomenal job on arguing that the future of our health, and our health care system, depends on growing and supporting a new generation of health care practitioners who look upstream for the sources of our problems, rather than simply go for  symptomatic relief. Normally, a physician is known for providing clinical care and prescribing medications. However with Dr. Manchanda, this is not the case. He points out that our health begins in our everyday lives, in the places where we live, work, eat, and play. More physicians should adopt the upstream approach and look at how health begins at home and in the workplace, with the social and environmental factors of our everyday lives. 

Medical care is not all about the smart doctors, stethoscopes, imaging machines, high-tech tests, labs, and the best prescriptions and procedures. Our health is beyond that and depends even more on our social and environmental settings. A public health approach from the start of the medical appointment, can definitely make a difference in our health. According to this weeks material, environmental exposures affect our reproductive health and brain in early development therefore, it is important for future upstreamists to understand that health is more than prescriptions and procedures administered in a health facility such as a clinic. Clinicians can improve health by starting where it begins – in a patient’s home and work environments.