Butterfly Arose

In this episode of Butterfly Arose I read about and think through in some more depth the way doctors essentially pushed midwives to the margins of birth medicine. I talk about the different approaches of doctors and direct-entry midwives, and my own thoughts about the current situation.

In this Episode of Butterfly Arose I complete my reporting on the 1982 edition of Paul Starr's book The Social Transformation of American Medicine. I include articles on how the system has evolved since he wrote his book and give my own thoughts on what might guide changes in the system. As a bonus, I include a description of a major private company in our system that takes specific steps that hel...

In this episode of Butterfly Arose I try to be honest about a theory or belief about how complex systems interact and grow becomes apparent as I learn from Paul Starr's book The Social Transformation of American Medicine.

In this episode of Butterfly Arose I try to be honest about a theory or belief about how complex systems interact and grow becomes apparent as I learn from Paul Starr's book The Social Transformation of American Medicine.

The founding of America's health care system from the beginning of European immigration to the early 1930's. What were the major factors in this story?

In this Episode of Butterfly Arose I begin to look at the larger system of medical care in the Unted States. I use my own experiences with to keep from getting too much into ethereal ideas and to hold myself accountable to humility as I acknowledge that my own experiences influence my ability to be objective.

In this episode of Butterfly Arose I talk about an important way researchers turn qualitative information into quantitative information, and some of the challenges when we try to spread improvements throughout medical care.

In this episode of Butterfly Arose, I use specific examples from my own experiences to show why patient stories are important to improving the quality of health care. I also use them to demonstrate that, while it would be wonderful to have lots of patient stories, in reality we often have to make do with what is available, and some initial thoughts on the gifts and challenges this approach brings...

In this episode of Butterfly Arose, I challenge you to appreciate the world of complexity we uncover when we actively try to improve and organization. Using the example of baking bread I show how complicated it can really get, and apply that seemingly simple example to changes being made in healthcare.

In Episode 16 of Butterfly Arose I used my personal experiences as a patient partner volunteer to talk about the value of Person and Family Centered Care from the patient and family perspective. But PFCC is a process of system improvement, and that means the staff of a health care organization must also be intimately involved. In this episode I'll talk about the third group, the Person and Family...

In this episode of Butterfly Arose I go more deeply into Person and Family Centered Care. I use my own experiences as both a volunteer and an employee to see what benefits PFCC can bring to healthcare from the patient perrspective.

For doctors, nurses and other practitioners the medical system asks a lot. Be excellent and knowledgable in medical science, but also kind and empathetic. Give every patient the best care, but hurry up, you day is full of appointments. Let's take a look at what it looks like from their point of view.

In the last episode I talked about the experiences of four people; three who are living after treatment for cancer, and one who recovered from debilitating symptoms that were at first misdiagnosed as dementia. All four stories raised important questions about the role of patients in their own recovery from medical issues. We began to look at what patients are saying they need from themselves, and...

In the last two episodes of Butterfly Arose I asked you to think about the complex world of health care from the perspective of doctors and health care systems trying to provide high quality care to their patients. We looked at the challenges and opportunities for both individual doctors and institutions. In this episode I delve into how things look from the patient perspective. What is it like to...

This episode of Butterfly Arose continues learning from Doctor Danielle Ofri in her book When We Do Harm, A Doctor Confronts Medical Error. Where the last episode looked at procedural errors, this one looks at cognitive errors, the harm they can cause and what, if anything, can be done about them. As always, you can find links to books and articles on the sections of my website that refer to eithe...

In this episode of Butterfly Arose I begin to go deeper into how we navigate the complex world of medicine.

Using the case of David Reimer, the boy who was raised as a girl, as a learning experience. Why did Dr. Money make this mistake, and what does it tells us about improving medical care?

Following up on Episode 8 I look into how the case of David Reimer, the boy who was raised as a girl, helps us understand the challenges of health care doctors and researchers in a complex world.

In this episode I talk about the case of a person whose life got caught up in a confluence of medical mistakes and errors that took place in a cultural space where sex and gender are surrounded by outdated belief systems.

My thoughts after reading the book Fixing Sex, Intersex, Medical Authority, and Lived Experience by Katrina Karkazis.

Learnings from the memoir Nobody Needs to Know by Pidgeon Pagonis.

Cultural beliefs can affect transgender people in negative ways. Here are thoughts from the perspective of one transwoman.

In this episode I talk about Frans de Waals research into sex and sexuality among nonhuman animals to help us understand ourselves.

In this episode I continue talking about what I am learning from the book Different, Gender Through the Eyes of a Primatologist, by Frans de Waal. It includes thoughts on how we sometimes don't see what is alive in the real world and how that can create errors in our thoeries or beiefs. I also talk aboout a female chmpanzee, Donna, whose life transgresses dualistic ideas about sex and gender.

The first of a series of episodes on biology and gender. Where does our gender identity come from and what is it?