Honors Students Present Research at International Conference
This past November, Honors students Sarah Dallas and Jane Putnam presented their research at the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in New Orleans, Louisiana. After working with an international team to study the complexities of public health in Bangladesh, Sarah and Jane are tidying up their Honors theses and enjoying the fruits of their labor.
Investigating Healthcare in Rural Bangladesh
Working with Honors professor Melissa Watt, Sarah Dallas and Jane Putnam researched the roles of formal and informal medical care in rural Bangladesh, one of several countries with a very prominent informal healthcare infrastructure (in which independent, unlicensed physicians provide care for cost, in comparison to the largely socialized hospital system). They crafted complementary research questions that delve into the social expectations of parents of children with viral pediatric diarrhea and how these expectations impact the medications that formal physicians or village doctors provide. Sarah and Jane also compared parents’ perceptions of the differences in the cost, accessibility, and efficacy of both forms of healthcare.
Jane Putnam: Antibiotics and Informal Medical Expectations
Jane focused on the relationship between informal healthcare and parents, who often believe antibiotics are a “miracle drug” that work for most ailments. Jane explains, “Generally, parents are motivated to visit a village doctor over a formal provider because of geographic accessibility and finances, and what they expect to see from a village doctor are things like efficient medications, prompt treatment, and ability to diagnose.” Her research suggested that, in reality, many parents understand that antibiotics are unnecessary and generally have relaxed expectations. Because of social misconception, however, village doctors perceive lofty conditions from parents and tend to over-diagnose and over-prescribe to fulfill expectations.
Sarah Dallas: Trust, Cost, and Formal Care
In turn, Sarah specialized in the dynamic between formal medical physicians and parents. While not all parents request antibiotics, there is enough demand that educated specialists frequently lose unsatisfied patients to village doctors. Further, Sarah found that families will typically visit at least one informal physician before even meeting with a hospital doctor. Sarah explains, “Families have a lot of trust in those village doctors because, though they’re not formally trained, their dad was a village doctor and their grandpa. People see themselves reflected in that and are more tempted to visit someone they trust rather than a stranger in the hospital.” Parents also have misconceptions concerning the cost of the respective systems, leading them to visit multiple village doctors and accrue high balances.
From Classroom to Conference: A Transformational Honors Experience
The twin papers gave Sarah and Jane the opportunity to work in tandem throughout their research, bolstering a friendship that began with their participation in the Honors Integrated Minor in Health. And, even more wholesomely, their interest in public health began with Melissa Watt’s course on social determinants of health during the minor. At the close of the program, Watt invited the cohort of students to apply to her research lab, launching their undergraduate research careers. Watt has greatly impacted both Sarah and Jane’s careers. Jane dotes, “She’s extremely helpful, she’s very attentive, and she always wants the best from her students and from her assistants. She really is just great.”
A year and a half later, Sarah and Jane presented their posters in New Orleans among leading specialists in tropical medicine. The two were both thoroughly excited and thoroughly intimidated upon arrival but came to enjoy the bustle of knowledge. Jane says, “I just kind of realized that everyone is there to learn, regardless of if you have five degrees or none. It’s all a big learning opportunity and a big networking opportunity.”
McKenna Hall | Journalism Intern, University of Utah Honors College