The Seminary Explores

Dr. Andre Lijoi, Associate Program Director of WellSpan York Hospital Family Medicine Program and Clinical Associate Professor for Penn State University School of Medicine joins Katy Giebenhain for a conversation about Narrative Medicine’s potential for clinicians and patients. A graduate of Ramapo College of NJ and Georgetown University School of Medicine, Lijoi did his residency and internship at University of Maryland Medical Center. He holds a CPA in Narrative Medicine from Columbia University. 

Information on narrative medicine

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/25/well/live/narrative-medicine.html

https://www.latimes.com/science/story/2020-06-10/doctors-use-narrative-medicine-to-cope-with-the-coronavirus

https://www.mhe.cuimc.columbia.edu/division-narrative-medicine

Dr. Tahmeena Ali, a longitudinal family physician in British Columbia, Canada has always enjoyed writing and, in 2013, obtained a creative writing certificate from Simon Fraser University's Writing Studio. Writing and medicine merged for her when she discovered Rita Charon's work in narrative medicine and attended a narrative medicine workshop at Columbia University in 2017.

The current President-Elect of BC Family Doctors, Dr. Ali writes and presents on topics including trauma-informed practice. She was awarded the Family Physician of the Year by the College of Family Physicians of British Columbia in 2020 for her dedication to her community and her profession. Her most rewarding and challenging work is raising three teenagers alongside her husband of 26 years.

Dr. Leonard Hummel is a Chaplain Hospice at Allina Health Care in Ulm, MN and is also Professor Emeritus at United Lutheran Seminary.  He shares with us the nature and importance of the hospice chaplain in the end-of-life process including how it is integrated into the healthcare system and each patients support and medical team. He also shares some of the more specific challenges of shepherding people through the end-of-life experience during the COVID-19 pandemic. He reminds us that the end-of-life is a universal experience, that while shared, is also unique for each individual. 

Elizabeth Pfiester is the founder and director of the non-profit T1International, which is based in the UK, and is dedicated to using ethics and solidarity in its quest for more accessible insulin. The initiator of the grassroots campaign #insulin4all, it does not accept funding from pharmaceutical companies or any organization that would compromise its ability to advocate for insulin affordability and access.

Pfiester holds a master’s degree in International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies from The London School of Economics and Political Science.  We caught up with Elizabeth during a busy August at T1International.

You can learn more about the insulin price crisis in the U.S. and how T1International advocates around the world are seeking change so that this essential medicine gets into the hands of all who need it. https://www.t1international.com/

Rev. Peter Kuhn, Director of Spiritual Care and Education, WellSpan Health joins The Seminary Explores for a conversation about spiritual care in some of South Central Pennsylvania’s hospitals. Like all hospital departments right now they are rapidly adapting to how they provide care and education in changing circumstances. Kuhn is an ACPE Clinical Educator and a Board Certified Chaplain. He studied Theology at the University of Heidelberg in Germany. His Supervisor training is from Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C.

Kate Braband, Senior Associate Director of Program Development, Carter Center, Atlanta, Georgia describes the success that the Carter Center, initiated thirty years ago by President and Mrs. Jimmy Carter, has had in controlling guinea worm, one of the more painful and debilitating of the Neglected Tropical Diseases (WTD) in Central Africa. Not long ago, cases numbered in the thousands; today in the twenties. Guinea worm is controlled, not by vaccinations, but by changes in behavior, especially drinking filtered water. Education and supervision are largely in the hands of the locals. Other projects by the Carter Center derive from their mission of building hope, restoring health, and fighting for peace. To achieve these goals, the Center enlists national governments, the United Nations, and international corporations.

Angela Dohrman, Vice-President and Chief Operating Officer, SpiriTrust Lutheran, discussed providing quality care for senior citizens. The discussion included: definitions of senior care, the difficulties in sustaining quality care, the recruitment of personnel, Affordable Health Care act, regulations for senior care facilities, the calling or vocation of SpiriTrust personnel. 

In a conversation with Fran Quigley the Seminary Explores learns of some deeply-held misconceptions we have about drug costs, the urgency for change, and how people of faith might fit in. Quigley is Clinical Professor and Director of the Health and Human Rights Clinic at Indiana University McKinney School of Law. He is the author of four books: Prescription for the People: An Activist’s Guide to Making Medicine Affordable for All, If We Can Win Here, How Human Rights Can Build Haiti, and Walking Together, Walking Far.

People of Faith for Access to Medicines

In the ongoing series of podcasts “Science for Seminaries”, Gettysburg Seminary board member Dr. Greg Yothers discusses his own faith and the connection he sees between his faith and his work as a researcher in clinical cancer trials. 

Recorded live at St. James Lutheran Church in Gettysburg, long time host, Dr. Gerald Christianson, talks with Dr. Elizabeth Wood, retired physician in private practice, about the decline of private practice in medicine.  Dr. Wood expresses concern that some important values are in danger of being lost: a single physician’s knowledge of the whole person; drug over-dose or contradicting prescriptions; lack of communication among specialists.  Much has been gained as well, but two universal issues remain open to debate: the delivery of quality care for all and end of life decisions.