dodging the shark attacks and the hurricanes

I'm off to Miami this afternoon for a conference sponsored by the International Association of Physicians in AIDS Care, focusing on antiretroviral adherence. I'll be giving a presentation about how physicians talk to their patients about this subject. (Hint: Think Daddy. Maybe Homer Simpson.) I'm not a real doctor, I'm a doctor of philosophy, so we'll have to see if they listen to me.

I'll try to post about anything interesting I hear while I'm there -- last year there was quite a bit. Just as funding for health research and public health comes down disease specific stovepipes, our conferences and our journals tend to reflect the same reductionist approach to people, as piles of separate organs and systems. HIV exceptionalism extends to sociology -- there's a lot more about the sociology of HIV than there is about, say, kidney failure or heart disease. But in fact, while there are some differences having to do with issues like stigma and the demographics of the population of sufferers, there is also a lot in common, and we should really be learning from each other and trying to understand the health care experience of whole people. I'm trying to stretch in that direction if I possibly can.

With luck, my new laptop will work and you'll be hearing more from me soon.