Medicine and Culture

The comments on the latest Jade Goody post by “Dr63110” made me think of a book I read many years ago called “Medicine and Culture” by Lynn Payer. Her comparative study of health systems showed that perceptions of disease and their treatments, or even what constitutes a disease, can vary dramatically even in Western countries and cultures.

The casebook link below contains bookmarks for what we think are roughly equivalent sites of government consumer health information in the United States, Great Britain, Canada, France and Germany. These are provided for anyone who might like to do comparisons for particular diseases and conditions.

Does anyone know what the equivalent sites might be in other countries for example, Japan? We’ll be really interested in your comments!

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Mark Boguski, M.D., Ph.D. is on the faculty of Harvard Medical School and is a member of the Society for Participatory Medicine, "a movement in which networked patients shift from being mere passengers to responsible drivers of their health" and in which professional health care providers encourage "empowered patients" and value them as full partners in managing their health and wellness.

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