Humanities Assignment for Mon 5/1

Research question update - I realize just asking about how people thought about the basic healthcare package may be slightly broad for my handle so I have slightly narrowed my topic to a single aspect of healthcare. My first choice was cancer care mostly due to my participation in the oncology department in the VA Hospital. Upon further research, I decided that studying how people thought about capping insurance (300,00 f.) based on genetic test results was a good idea. A quick explanation is that patients can choose to get genetically tested for a plethora of cancers that may be prevalent in their families. However, the results may a barrier from getting insurance. This topic is also relavant to us since this topic is such a big issue also in the US.

This assignment was hard for me because the methods are so different than the scientific methods I was taught. Thus, after much pondering, I was able to come up with a multifaceted question that will encompass both the verifiable and non-verifiable story.

[Question] It is worth getting genetically tested?

[Verifiable] If you look at the word, "worth" in the monetary sense, there is a slew of data that one can get about the costs on numerous expenses: medication, hospital service, possible psychiatric help, preventative measures, etc. If the sum of these aspects are over the capping amount, it might not be worth knwoing if you have a genetic predisposition unless you are willing to personally pay for the consequences.

[Non-verifiable] There are many more aspects to this question that just how much it costs.

• What kind of cancer is being tested?
• How much psychological trauma will be inflicted?
• (Underlying question) How much better is it to know?

Different people will have different reasons and priorities for wanting to know and these factors cannot be sytematically analyzed as the previous monetary example.

Hopefully, my sources for the verifiable story will allow me to also delve into further explanations about the non-verifiable narratives.

Reading Assignment for Wed 4/26

Jordaan:
I really liked this story because it touches this idea of how relatives interact of amixed family relate to each other and the clashing of different ideals (i.e. stictness of punishments). It reminds me when I visit my cousins down in San Fransisco. Although we are of the same ethnicity, the change in ideals is stark and I can understand how the author of this vignnette can be so facinated with city life due to her experiences with her cousins.

Red-Light District:
This story was by far the lightest and most enjoyable story I read. It paints an almost serene picture of this district (constrasted to the stereotypical portrayal). How is the Amsterdam red-light district different from any other city's district? What type of people make up the working population in Amsterdam and are they any different that employees from another red-light district?

Gay Amsterdam:
These articles were rather disturbing partially because there were so different than the previous two stories. Are these stories an accurate representitive of how homsexuals in Amsterdam feel?

Internet Search Results

Club of Amsterdam:
This is the webite for the journal they publish about multiple aspects of current Dutch issues and what are their future repercussions.
Possible contact experts

• Hans Hoogeweegen, Executive Vice President, Medical Knowledge Institute
• Wendy Asbeek Brusse, Staff Member, The Netherlands Scientific Council for Government Policy
• Ahmed El Sheikh, Scenario Planning, The Pharmaceutical Strategist?

Blogging available ()
Journal available (http://www.clubofamsterdam.com/content.asp?contentid=586)

Club of Amsterdam (Summit of the Future): May 3-5, 2006
Speakers are professionals that deal with govt. & healthcare system (more social issues)

• Jacqueline Ternier-David, International Forum for Social Innovation
• Joop Remmé, Knowledgedialogue

Blogging available

ExpatFocus:

This is a forum for people that are moving/studying abroad. People that post are people previously moved and are doling out some advice they've picked up along the way. No clear personable source at the moment, but a good site for posting questions.

Forums are available

Blogging available

Reading Assignment for Wed 4/19

C. Hine, "Virtual Methods":
Similar to adding new technology to scientific research (advent of molecular studies), the use of the Internet is their form of new techological avenue. An important aspect is it allows us to review our previous methods and assumptions. This article seems to be written for professionals from an older generation mainly based on some of the assumptions they try to disprove in the article .

C. Tatum, "Deconstructing Google Bombs":
This article was enlightening because I have always wondered how Google decided the order of links offered when you use their search engine. I was surprised that these Google bombs only take a few participants to initiate. However, with the increasing use of the Internet as a main avenue of communication, information from a single person can rapidly travel across the world. My questions are - how recent is this phenomenon and what other steps is Google taking to prevent participant manipulation of their search algorithms?

Reading Assignment for Mon 4/17

R. Steves, "How Travels Changed my Perspectives & Politics"
After reading this article, I started looking back on how my views of travel were as I was growing up. Much of my vactioning was much less than needlessly spending money, and mmore about spending time visiting relatives around the world (mainly in N. America and Asia). Many of my relatives in China were always eager to hear about life in the US as they in turn complained about their own. Human nature has a tendency to cast a more critical eye on ourselves than others, which was the feeling I got from this article. My first question is - how do the Europeans see their own government and how different is their view from ours?

R. Steves, "A United Europe in the 21st Century..."
The union of the European States today seems reminescent to when the American 13 colonies banded together to form the US in the 1770's. There was a line in the article, "The EU parliament can make lawa that supersede the laws of its member states," which oddly sounded like the Article VI of the US Constitution. Similiarly, the current Europeans (environmentalism, equality/welfare) are idealistic as our forefathers (democracy, human rights) were in the policies they envisioned. As the article states, the US has apparently succumbed to its capitalistic tendencies and may have overlooked some of the ideals they initially fought for. My second question is - how long can the Europeans hold up to to their idealistic standards?

Another key aspect brought up in this article is the issue of immigration in Europe. Unlike the US, which is known as a "melting pot," Europeans tend to sequester immigrants (or maybe they sequester themselves) into isolated communities - diasporas. If the EU extols human rights and tolerance, why is there such a big issue about immigration? What are the underlying issues that are causing these anti-immigration attitudes?

Reading Assignment for Mon 4/10

JK's Interdisciplinarity: History, Theory & Practice:
Towards the end of the Ch.7, the author talks about the necessity for creating a metalanguage for any interdisciplinary. I understand that it plays a role in explaining terms for each spanning discipline to understand each other, but doesn't this promote the creation of a separate discipline, which would defeat the purpose of being interdisciplinary in the first place?

New Methods in Humanities Research (online):
I really liked this article because I have always wanted to know what research in the humanities really was (that's the scientific bias coming out of me). They make a point in the article about how humanistic research differs from scientific reseach in having many different methologies. Thus my second question is - why is there such a discrepancy in methods in humanistic research, but not in scientific research?

Another observation from this article is that humanistic research seems to be somewhat subjective. On the other hand, it could just be from this example they were using to describe this type of research. My third question is - what are some examples of humanistic research that is more objective?

Preliminary Group Abstract (Healthcare)

Dutch Healthcare Reform

Shilpa Coorg, Biology, Univeristy of Washington
Belinda Luk, Cell, Molecular, and Developmental Biology, University of Washington
Erika Reinitz, School of Business, Univeristy of Washington

The Dutch government, known for its generous healthcare system in which all citizens receive universal access to health services, is limiting its policies. Once a liberal system, Dutch healthcare is now marked by a paradoxical combination of cost-containment policies and market-oriented reforms.¹ In such a case, the system works to keep labor costs and expenses low while maintaining market-oriented reforms that are responsive to patients’ needs. How do hospital administrators, then, who are focused on executing cost-containment policies, maintain a balance between their economic efforts and serving the needs of their patients? Furthermore, many Dutch patients feel that they are entitled, by the constitution, to universal health care. What is the response of insurance providers to this belief? Similarly, how are hospitals and insurance companies working together to ensure that low-income patients are able to afford treatments under the new conditions? Finally, according to the healthcare providers, patients, and insurance companies, what services should be provided in the basic healthcare package? Through preliminary e-research followed by interviews with the local Dutch, we will explore the effects of such a change in healthcare on the Dutch population, specifically those in Amsterdam.

¹ Blank, J. and Merkies, A. (2003) “Empirical Assessment of the economic behaviour of Dutch General Hospitals.” Journal of Health Economics. v13 i3, 265-280.

Reading Assignment for Wed 4/5

Geert Mak, "Amsterdam," Chapters 1-3
I don't know about everyone else, but when I read about Amsterdam I have this distinct picture of a bustling port (thanks to a childhood history book) during the 1600's. However, these chapters paint a picture of Amsterdam as a growing medieval town in the 1300-1400s. Similar to other European towns of that time, religion was a priority and familial roles were well-defined. Apart from these towns, Amsterdam was not ruled by a feudal system, but it was more of a early-democratic society. My first question is - how has Amsterdam's government affected their history apart from other medieval towns in Europe?

Research 101
I remember going over a similar website when I was in middle school, which was helpful when I was learning about research methods. Most of us have created our own research methods that we have come to always use (I'm fond of googling everything). In our high-tech age, I find that I tend to use the internet for much of my primary research sources (helps that most science journals are online now) as opposed to from libraries. My second questions is - is this a beneficial trend (seeing as internet sources aren't as credible)?

JT Klein, "Interdisciplinarity," Intro/Chapter 1
"A physicist may use the term interdisciplinarity to describe converging theory levels among parts of modern physics, biology, and chemistry, yet be unaware of its rather substantial role in the social sciences."

This quote from page 12 struck me becuase this is how I tend to view this term. This can be reflected in the coursework I am taking: biochemistry(chemistry, biology, genetics) and histology (biology, genetics, physiology). However, I think interdisciplinarity is innate to humans whereas we analyze the different apspects in our own lives to form some kind of synthesis. In our age where these concepts continually become thrust into a single entity - is it ever possible to study all aspects of an idea in view of every field?

Readings from Understanding Amsterdam

I really enjoyed the essay about immigrant assimilation in Amsterdam and how it was compared to New York. Being a 2nd generation immigrant myself, I can relate to many of these issues described in the essay. The main contrast I took away was that the two cities differed in their socioeconomic policies provided for their immigrants. Amsterdam tended to be more egalitarian than New York, thus it provided more services (cheap housing, healthcare, etc.) for their immigrant population than did New York. However, preliminary studies have shown that a greater percentage of American immigrants were able to assimilate and move up the economic ladder than their Dutch counterparts despite being offered less governmental aid. My first question is – could the Dutch policies, which were meant to aid their immigrants, be harming their integration into the native population in Amsterdam?

Page 209 gives a nice list of statistics on the percentage of immigrants that received a college education (a particular measure of socioeconomic integration) by race. In general, the majority of these races get the same treatment from the native population, yet certain races have done better in assimilating than others. I admit I come from the “exception” mentioned in the book (read page 208-9), which gives me a biased view, but – could rates of assimilation of different races be dependent on the immigrants’ home culture and values they carry?

The essay about city planning was interesting in the sense that Amsterdam is literally divided by eras (see map on page 61). The heart of the city is historical whereas the outskirts tend to be more modernized with neighborhoods separated by planned parks yet connected with mass transit. My last question is – could all their planning and dividing their city into isolated neighborhoods be slowing the integration of the different cultures and people in Amsterdam?