EXPLORATIONS!!!!

Greetings Everyone!

      As one can see the big day lies ahead very soon, this Friday in fact! I'm really nervous and quite scared...this is the farthest I'v ever been away from family. In many ways their preparation is scaring me more than informing. (i.e be mindful of trafficking, kidnapping, terrorist, etc) So as you can imagine I have soooooooo much running through my head for this trip in addition to the research I'm doing. And to make matters worse I am FEELING the side effects of my vaccinations, I guess I'm the 1% (LUCKY ME...) Word to the wise DON'T wait till the last minute for those shots...Get them at least 2-3 weeks before traveling so your body has time to adjust. But needless to say I am grateful and excited for this excursion as well. My mom just informed me that my home church (Gospel Water Branch in Augusta,GA) is excited and sends prayer for me, and my grandfather announced to the church here (Episcopal Ascensions in Miami,FL) about my trip and sends their prayers as well. So I feel blesses and highly favored right now :) :) :)....



    However enough with the small talk and lets get down to business!!! I've been doing a little digging for more health policy information and still coming up dry...So instead of just using a the library database (Galileo)  I decided to check BBC News Asia and guess what I found???? Nothing.... But the search still continues, even as we speak. So instead of news hunting I decided to develop questions and concepts to better navigate my research and maybe my paper.

1. How the healthcare system impact the people...
2. Which type of medicine do they prefer (herbal or Western) ?
3. How bio-medical engineering is helping the people and is the system more of public health or industrialization?
4. What and Who is the primary care provider? [Doctors, Nurses,techs...]
5. And is healthcare paid with private or government insurance?
6. Understanding how care is provided as far as preventative or treatment based...
7. How the people of this country are impacted with the following questions and concerns above...

 So this is just a start to greater things coming with a more objective approach  until next time...


P.S Tomorrow is my 21st birthday!!!!! WOO WOO

Greetings Everyone!

    Sorry the delay in my postings...I've been preparing for my trip the closer the date approaches (July 5th). I've finally achieved plane ticket fair, which by the way was VERY expensive!!! And to place insult to injury I got inoculated today with hepatitis A and typhoid interesting process but finally done (a week before my plane trip). The ladies inside the clinic were really nice and gracefully placed a needle in my skin. lol Furthermore I also gained my visa within the last two weeks. But any-who I didn't forget where we left off....Bio-medical Engineering right?
     So the textbook definition is the application of engineering principles and design concepts to medicine and biology of healthcare purposes (diagnostic or therapeutic). This field seeks to close the gap between engineering with medical and biological sciences to advance healthcare treatment, including diagnosis, monitoring and therapy. Its only recently that the subject became its own discipline compared to many other engineering fields such as:

•  -biocompatible prosthese  
• -various diagnosis and theraputic medical devices 
• (ranging from clinical equipment to microimplants) 
• - i.e. MRIs
• - EEGs
• regenerative tissue growth
• pharmaceutical drugs
• therapeutic biologicals

But aside from understanding what Bio-medical engineering is rather what does it do for the people of Nepal?!?! Does is mean a second chance for those worst off or does it mean a better money market for the industrialization of medicine?  These are the concerns and questions we should be asking...How does this affect the different types of medicine practices? How can bio-medical engineering connect the two? Is this concept included in insurance for liability reasons as far as workers are concerned??? Just a little fruit for thought next posting... 

  

                                            

Discovery!

Greetings Everyone!

        Did you know that people in Nepal do not greet one another with a handshake,but rather put their palms together and bow their forehead and say Namaste (meaning I salute the God in you). So awesome right?! And guess what else???? Its also the birthplace of the Lord Buddha, Lumbini and a pilgrimage for many devout Buddhist. And their flag represents the two major religions Hinduism and Buddhism as well as symbolize the Himalayan mountains. But any-who just a little quid pro quo before I dive in the dense healthcare system of Nepal.
      So I did a little digging and found that its quite normal to incorporate herbal medicine along with western medicine. The Nepalese people use both interchangeably, consequently its starting to take its toll on the people as well as the community. Based on this article [Modern Desires, Knowledge Control, and Physician
Resistance: Regulating Ayurvedic Medicine in Nepal] it is suggesting that one may practice is better than the other. Within the Nepalese culture one is assumed to acquire the knowledge of herbal medicine because plant life is intertwined with ones everyday routine.

    " Nepal’s ethnic and caste diversity belies remarkably similar relationships people have to plant life economically, ritually, and medically. Skilled artisans craft tools from wood, weave baskets from bamboo, and fire clay pots under mounds of smoldering rice and wheat stalks. Farming families grow crops for subsistence and selectively cut branches of trees and shrubs for fuel and fodder for their domesticated animals. Hindu deities are embodied in various plants, and plants of many kinds are important ritual elements for Hindus and Buddhists alike. In their lifetimes, people develop deep knowledge of the plants that comprise their environment and they apply that knowledge in everyday life. When the daily routine is disrupted by illness, people again seek the plants. They carefully select and pick the roots, leaves, stems, flowers, bark, and seeds of familiar medicinal plants, jadibuti, (literally ‘protective entities from roots’) to cure a wide range of illnesses. Hindu and Tibetan based traditional medical systems, Ayurveda and Amchi respectively, both use medicinal plants to treat illness and, in the case of Ayurveda, to restore health by rebalancing the body’s humors."

Now one side of the argument is stating that Ayurveda is traditional concept and should be left alone, especially considering that country isn't recognizing all Ayurveda has to offer . Kind of emphasizing that saying '' don't fix something that isn't broken" however, the rebuttal to that is morality rates. No one is stating that the practice is bad but simply needs to be upgraded, because considering the MDG's (Millennium Development Goals) Nepal wants their morbidity rates lower for women and children, in addition to decreasing disease prevalence. What the government is recommending according to the article is bio medical medicine and technology...... Thusly I ask what is one to believe or trust in???