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Institute for Medical Humanities
Art by Lonfeldt

IMH CPEMPH publications illustrate new directions for medical humanities

5 May 2023
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A market street in Kenya with various traders and pedestrians

Two new papers from Fellows of the IMH’s Centre for Philosophy of Epidemiology, Medicine, and Public Health (CPEMPH) illustrate new directions that the critical medical humanities might take, by adopting philosophical methodologies and applying them to public health and epidemiological problems.

The traditional focus (though by no means exclusive) of the medical humanities is on clinical encounters and personal experiences, but public health and epidemiology are increasingly impinged on the lives of individuals. As awareness of infectious disease threats combines with the ongoing shift of attention towards preventative - rather than clinical - interventions, this trend is only likely to grow.

The medical humanities can develop methodologically by encompassing a wider range of philosophical approaches, complementing phenomenological thinking with philosophy of science and medicine.

Recently published in epidemiology journals, two new papers from CPEMPH Fellows are seeking to bring philosophical thinking to bear on current conceptual challenges in public health. In doing so, 'Pandemic response strategies and threshold phenomena' and 'Complexity in Epidemiology and Public Health' also mark the beginning of wider engagement by the humanities with these challenges.

The authors hope that others working in medical humanities and philosophy will follow suit and - in response to the growing recognition of the social and personal importance of such problems - engage critically with a wide range of conceptual problems in epidemiology and public health.

Links to the papers below:

‘Pandemic response strategies and threshold phenomena’. P. Streicher and A. Broadbent. Global Epidemiology.

‘Complexity in Epidemiology and Public Health: Addressing complex health problems through a mix of epidemiologic methods and data’. N.H. Rod, A. Broadbent, M.H. Rod, F. Russo, O.A. Arah and K. Stronks. Epidemiology.