Horgan Seminar Blog

Are you healthily misinformed? Maribeth Suganuma HST 401  Professor Horgan February 11, 2025      In a perfect world, patients should be able to trust the care and treatment provided to them by medical professionals. In this post-truth era, patients often succumb to misinformed decisions and improper treatment from healthcare professionals who should be taking care of our well-being. Medical professionals are misinformed and suffer from diluted education concerning the type of treatment they recommend and how they treat female patients, specifically African-American female patients. Through multiple articles examined in this paper, it can be seen that medical professionals offer high-risk or improper treatment, can be negligent in practice, and lastly diluted by misinformation stemming from a possible systemic issue.        In middle school, my face, knees, and arms were covered in eczema. I was embarrassed to show my skin at school and I lived in...

Matias Lopez Carrete   BMS Drug Trials on Zeposia: A New Hope for Inflammatory Bowel Disease? Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) is a chronic condition that affects millions of people worldwide, causing painful symptoms like abdominal cramps, diarrhea, and fatigue. It includes disorders such as Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis (UC), both of which involve long-term inflammation of the digestive tract. Treating these diseases can be tricky, but pharmaceutical companies like Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) are working hard to develop new, effective medications. One of their promising drugs is Zeposia (ozanimod), an oral treatment that has shown potential in treating IBD, particularly ulcerative colitis. However, like all drugs, Zeposia has gone through rigorous clinical trials to prove its effectiveness and safety. Let’s take a closer look at how this drug has performed in BMS’s trials. How Does Zeposia Work? Zeposia is an immunomodulator, meaning it works by affecting the immune syste...

Introduction The healthcare system in the United States sucks. There are countless examples posted online about horror stories involving bills, inadequate care, or malpractice. In fact, according to David Blumenthal et al., it is “in a class by itself in the underperformance of its health care sector” when compared with Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Based on many different (about 70) performance indicators, the United States is often the highest spender on healthcare, with the lowest quality of the care itself according to this same study. Not only this, but in the cancer industry alone over $200 billion dollars were spent on care and treatment according to a study conducted by the National Cancer Institute. Statistics aside, I am sure that many of you reading this have had poor experiences with the healthcare system ranging from insurance to the care itself. So, this begs the question: Why, if we spend ...

  In my last blog post, I wrote about mental health and how the field of psychiatry was a big interest of mine. Being able to discuss the mysteries of the human mind and why psychiatry fascinates me, made my last post a very fun one to write. Well, it looks like that theme is continuing into my second blog, this time with a focus on something even more frustrating: the system that’s supposed to provide mental health care and why it’s failing so many people. I previously discussed briefly about my connection to mental health as a student-athlete but not in great detail. As a college lacrosse player here at Stevens, I know firsthand how difficult it is to balance academics, athletics, and personal life. The morning lifts/conditioning, late-night studying/homework, film sessions, and practices all push my body and mind to a different limit. The expectation is to always perform at your best, whether on the field or in the classroom, and if you're struggling, the societal message especi...

  Danny Moss John Horgan HST 401 Where are the doctors? Becoming a doctor is no easy job. According to B&F Advisors, It can take 11 years to become a doctor. The average age a person earns the privilege of being a physician is 29.5 years old. However, despite this difficult task, Medschoolinsiders says 60% of medical school applicants are rejected, even if the student has “exceptionally hard metrics.” Using an opportunistic mindset, I would wonder why we just don’t open up more universities and get that sweet tuition money while also benefiting the world with more qualified doctors to treat the sick. But reading into that question, I learned a hard truth—we have a severe lack of doctors. During the 2020 pandemic, Public Health Report’s study of 625 hospitals, 61% of hospitals had overcrowded ICUs. 80% of acute treatment hospitals stated that they were understaffed. By the year 2036, the Association of American Medical Colleges expects a shortage of over 40,000 primary care phys...