Medical Geography Research Articles

Doctor of Biology Nina Gomboeva: Harmony of Human Relations

An essay is presented about Nina Gyndunovna Gomboeva, who has made her career at the Geography department from an assistant to a professor. Twice she was the head of the department; she created a master’s degree in geographical education at the department. In 2021, she celebrated her 70th anniversary, and in 2023 the department celebrates its 70th anniversary. The fate of Nina Gyndunovna is closely connected with the history of the department. Nina Gyndunovna has her own view of this history, which is of great interest both for historical and scientific research on the geography of higher education in the Transbaikal Region and for students, graduates, teachers who have connected their lives with geographical and pedagogical sciences. Doctor of Sciences Gomboeva has tried to highlight the activities of all teachers, to characterize their best qualities. Scientific researches by N.G. Gomboeva fit into the direction of medical geography, or rather, they can be defined as the geography of the physiological adaptation of a person to the physical and geographical conditions of the Transbaikal region. Nina Gyndunovna has a thorny path in science, but her intellect, talent, positive attitude towards people have helped to overcome all difficulties and achieve success.

Health and wellbeing in urban South Africa: an overview

ABSTRACT The health and wellbeing of residents in South Africa’s towns and cities are currently threatened by the burden of disease, high incidences of crime/violence, and increasing economic, social, and environmental inequality. The impact of past and present spatial exclusion has exacerbated high levels of poverty and ill health, and the rapid rise in urbanization has put further pressure on already strained urban systems. While significant progress has been made, poor levels of service delivery, neglected infrastructure, and a lack of social amenities continue to pose a challenge. A further concern has been the prioritization in policy and literature on the ‘hard’ traditional elements of health over ‘softer’ dimensions (wellbeing aspects). The field of medical geography in South Africa has also remained relatively peripheral, with most geographical and human settlement research on health being driven by public-health scholars. This special issue brings together the voices of researchers working on health and wellbeing in South Africa’s urban spaces to address these and other concerns. Several key findings have emerged including the need for governance models that focus on overall wellbeing, the importance of interdisciplinary approaches, the role that wider socio-economic context and history play, and the importance of access to open space.

(Applied) geography, policy, & time: whither health and medical geography?

ABSTRACT In this provocation, we discuss the potential for health/medical geography to contribute to a policy-relevant geographical research agenda that remains attentive to social theory debates. We illustrate the importance of time as a social determinant of health, through the case study of racial/ethnic inequities in spatial access to acute hospitals in the U.S. South region amid rural hospital closures, conversions, and mergers, which have decreased the supply of hospitals since 1990. In sum, racial disparities in spatial access were most pronounced for travel distances/times to the nearest alternative hospital, underscoring the importance of both temporal and spatial equity.

The review of the book “The History of Medicine and Medical Geography in the Russian Empire” edited by E. A. Vishlenkova, A. Renner

The review of the book “The History of Medicine and Medical Geography in the Russian Empire” edited by E. A. Vishlenkova, A. Renner

Freedom from Violence and Lies: Anton Chekhov’s Life and Writings by Michael C. Finke

Reviewed by: Freedom from Violence and Lies: Anton Chekhov’s Life and Writings by Michael C. Finke Carol Apollonio Finke, Michael C. Freedom from Violence and Lies: Anton Chekhov’s Life and Writings. Reaktion Books, London. 2021. 236 pp. Illustrations. Notes. Select bibliography. Index. £25.00. In this essential, gripping book, Michael Finke combines biography and criticism with rare sensitivity and authority within a slight, action-packed 200 pages. Donald Rayfield’s classic 1997 biography, which drew on previously unavailable archival sources to offer readers a fresh, fully human Chekhov, will remain on the scholar’s bookshelf. Finke’s book shows why Chekhov’s life — as a writer, doctor and public figure — matters. Drawing upon new sources — notably the volumes in the second series of the Letopiś zhizni i tvorchestva A. P. Chekhova (2000–16) — and offering fresh readings of the epistolary and memoir literature, he tells the story of a man embedded in the social and intellectual culture of his time, and a writer whose works remain relevant in contexts unimaginable during his lifetime. Finke tells of Chekhov’s medical study and practice, his active social life, and his pathway to fame through the literary institutions of his time. Chekhov long cherished the goal of a scholarly career, which both prevented him from wholly committing himself to fiction during the 1880s and informed his distinctive treatment of narrative point of view as he became a literary master in the 1890s. Finke introduces Chekhov’s three planned dissertation projects — a history of sexual dominance; a history of doctoring in Russia; and the one that was realized, though did not lead to a doctoral degree: his famous research work, Sakhalin Island (pp. 25–26), the medical — Finke emphasizes — study where, [End Page 362] and only where, Chekhov ‘presented himself as the hero of his own narrative’ (p. 85). Despite the writer’s resistance to ‘being seen’ in his works, psychology is ‘the ground floor’ (p. 75). Characters’ utterances function lyrically and musically, ‘pointing to larger hidden complexes’ (p. 12). As early as the 1883 ‘The Death of a Clerk’, plot projects inwards — into the mind (or belly) of one individual, rather than emerging from the actions, reactions and interactions among characters (pp. 39–40). Troubled father-son relationships or absent fathers figure prominently from the early (disputed) play, Fatherlessness, to the late drama (p. 30). In works such as ‘Story of an Unknown Man’ and ‘My Life’, ‘the main character is the son of a dominant father; his life choices involve submissiveness, humiliation and pain’ (p. 155). Finke demonstrates that for Chekhov ideology is secondary to psychology, even in stories which have attracted attention as ‘anti-Tolstoyan’ narratives (p. 156). Finke reads Chekhov’s 1998 ‘Little Trilogy’ as a set of case studies presenting developmental stages a la Freud ‘from which remaining fixations may lie at the core of psychopathology’ (p. 148). The cycle traces a path of decreasing distance between storyteller and subject (neighbour, brother, self): the ‘man in the case’ suffers from a castration complex and obsessional neurosis; the ‘Gooseberries’ protagonist manifests pathological narcissism; and the narrator of ‘About Love’ has fallen into an Oedipal trap (p. 148). Chekhov’s attitude toward Jews evolves throughout his lifetime. Finke offers a nuanced treatment of the theme in life and works — though not, interestingly, in the pages devoted to Chekhov’s friend, the painter Isaac Levitan. Jewish women are prominent in Chekhov’s life, including as sexual partners. Chekhov’s unsavoury, eroticized portrait of a Jewish woman in the 1886 story ‘Mire’ was published, not coincidentally, in the antisemitic Alexei Suvorin’s New Times. Finke’s chronicle introduces welcome subtlety into the story of Chekhov’s ten-year friendship with Suvorin, addressing the complex forces at work for the young writer whose refusal to take political stands earned him the enmity of the liberal literary establishment, and who for some time depended on the wealthy publisher’s financial support — including for his research trip to Sakhalin in 1890, which Finke analyses as a ‘medical geography’. Chekhov’s famous support of Alfred Dreyfus in 1897, Finke shows, was only one of the factors at work as their paths diverged. As Finke...

The main criteria of dental morbidity in children under seven years of age living in regions with different fluoride content in drinking water

Relevance. Early caries is one of the most prevalent childhood diseases worldwide. Up to 32% of three-year-olds have tooth decay, the prevalence of caries in 6-7-year-old children in different cities of Russia increases to 65%, while 55.7% of children have caries of permanent teeth. In order to improve the quality of dental care, it is necessary to receive information about the prevalence and intensity of dental diseases, taking into account medical geography. Purpose – to assess caries and fluorosis incidence rate in primary teeth, to determine the hygiene index and the level of dental care for children under seven years old living in regions with different fluoride concentrations in drinking water.Materials and methods. The study conducted dental examinations of 150 children living in the South-Eastern Administrative District of Moscow aged 1 to 6 years and of 200 children living in Krasnogorsk aged 1 to 6 years. The study included the patients based on the developed inclusion criteria and informed voluntary parent consent. We entered the data into the registration card, which noted the dental formula, the prevalence and intensity of caries, the hygiene index according to Fedorov-Volodkina, the level of dental care according to P.A. Leus (1987).Results. Children living in an area with a low fluoride concentration in drinking water show the first signs of caries by the first year of age, then there is a significant increase, observed in the group of 3and 6-year-olds. The prevalence of caries in 1-year-old children living in an endemic focus of fluorosis is almost two times lower than in children living in an area with a reduced content of fluorides in drinking water, in 3-4-year-old children – 1.5 times lower, and in 5-6-year-old children 2 times lower. Along with this, 16-year-old children living in the focus of endemic fluorosis, Krasnogorsk, Moscow region, revealed fluorosis of primary teeth with a prevalence of 27%.Conclusions. The results indicates the need to increase the frequency and quality of patient education and increase the level of dental care.

A closer look at the historical progress and various applications of medical geology in Italy

Medical geology is defined as the science that deals with the relationship between geology and health in humans, animals, and plants (Skinner and Berger, 2003; Selinus et al., 2005, 2010; Florinsky 2010; Centeno et al., 2016). While medical geology can be recognized as having distinct links to geomedicine, an emerging field that focuses on geographic location and environment into account when studying individual and public health, it should be distinguished from medical geography, which has slightly different meaning and application. Medical geography is solely concerned with the geographic distribution of disease without focusing on the underlying geological basis of health factors and examines the causal associations between specific diseases and physical and social environments (Foster, 2002). Medical geology, a complex and emerging field, requires a multidisciplinary approach using a wide variety of specialists ranging from geologists, health specialists, physicians, veterinarians, and biologists.

A closer look at the historical progress and various applications of medical geology in Italy

Medical geology is defined as the science that deals with the relationship between geology and health in humans, animals, and plants (Skinner and Berger, 2003; Selinus et al., 2005, 2010; Florinsky 2010; Centeno et al., 2016). While medical geology can be recognized as having distinct links to geomedicine, an emerging field that focuses on geographic location and environment into account when studying individual and public health, and should be distinguished from medical geography, which has slightly different meaning and application. Medical geography is concerned solely with the geographic distribution of disease without focusing on the underlying geological basis of health factors; it examines the causal associations between specific diseases and physical and social environments (Foster, 2002). Medical geology, a complex and emerging field, requires a multidisciplinary approach using a wide variety of specialists ranging from geologists, health specialists, physicians, veterinarians, and biologists.

Medical Geography and Civil Society in the Russian Empire

In the intellectual construction of empires in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, one of the principal building blocks was medical geography. A discipline located at the boundary of medicine, ethnography, sociology, and geography, medical geography devoted itself to understanding the social and environmental factors that neo-Hippocratic medicine thought determined public health. Thanks to A History of Medicine and Medical Geography in the Russian Empire, co-written by a team of researchers under the direction of E. Vishlenkova and A. Renner, there exists for the first time a study of the role played by medical geography in the development of the Russian Empire. The book begins by discussing what it calls the infrastructure of Russian medico-geographic research: the top-level medical agencies, the system of Baltic maritime quarantines, the training and career paths of physicians, and the development of medical associations. Then it examines the findings of medico-geographic researchers, discussing the climate theories of early modern European medical thinkers and the development in Russia of the three principal forms of medico-geographic writing — statistics, mapmaking, and narrative “medico-topographical descriptions”. The final section offers a series of casestudies from spaces as diverse as Lithuania, the Kazakh steppe, the Arctic shipping route, and global voyages of the vessels of the imperial Russian navy. Systematically placing Russia in the comparative framework of European empires and alternating in its perspective between St Petersburg and distant frontiers, the book explores how medical geography and its practitioners connected Russia with Europe and helped simultaneously to form the imperial state, the Russian nation, and a nascent civil society.

Abstract PO-212: Educating the next generation of cancer researchers: Evaluation of a cancer research partnership research training program

Abstract Background: The Temple University Fox Chase Cancer Center and Hunter College Cancer Health Disparity Partnership (TUFCCC/HC Cancer Partnership) is a collaborative effort to develop a regional comprehensive collaborative cancer health equity research infrastructure in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York City (PNN) Region and to establish rigorous and sustainable cancer research, education, and outreach programs at both institutions. One key component of the training efforts of this Partnership is the annual Summer Cancer Research Institute (SCRI), an 8-week intensive summer program that includes hands-on research training in laboratories or research centers under the mentorship of established investigators supplemented with cancer seminars, skill-building workshops, journal clubs, social activities, poster sessions and presentations. Methods: The goal of this study was to evaluate the recruitment process and the outcome of the first three cohorts of the SCRI. We assessed the previous recruitment and implementation process to identify successes and lessons learned. We also conducted program evaluation through pre-program and post-program evaluation, and long-term annual follow-up survey, and other formal and informal feedback among the 3 cohorts from the previous 3 years. Results: Through targeted multi-institutional recruitment strategies and by utilizing social media (e.g., Twitter, Instagram, institutional newsletters), the program received increasing numbers of applications each year, from 64 applications received in 2019, to 179 in 2020, and 345 in 2021. The number of students accepted were 10 in 2019 (admission rate 15.6%), 10 in 2020 (5.6%), and 15 in 2021 (4.3%). Among the 34 SCRI trainees, 10 (29.4%) identified as Black/African American, 6 (17.5%) as Hispanic/Latinx, 10 (29.4%) as Asian, and the rest as non-Hispanic white. Students come from a variety of majors, including biology, nutrition, biochemistry, bioengineering, public health, sociology, and medical geography. The SCRI trainees reported a high level of satisfaction with the overall SCRI program as well as the specific seminars, workshops, and journal clubs. The long-term follow-up survey data showed that among the first two cohorts (20 trainees), 4 applied to graduate or medical school, 9 completed graduate school, and 7 accepted a full-time or part-time job position. Trainees particularly enjoyed the hands-on experience in basic, translation, and population research, the skill-building workshops, and the annual symposium to gain presentation experience. Conclusion: The Partnership evaluation has identified strengths (e.g., hands-on research experience under established mentorship, multidisciplinary training) for implementing the SCRI program. Updates are being made to refine recruitment processes and adjust program components. Citation Format: Lin Zhu, Gargi Pal, Taylor Kazaoka, Rubia Shahbaz, Marsha Zibalese-Crawford, Sarah-Jane Dodd, Carolyn Y. Fang, Yin Tan, Grace X. Ma, Olorunseun O. Ogunwobi. Educating the next generation of cancer researchers: Evaluation of a cancer research partnership research training program [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Virtual Conference: 14th AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2021 Oct 6-8. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2022;31(1 Suppl):Abstract nr PO-212.

Medical Geography

Medical Geography

Профессор кафедры государственного врачебноведения университета Св. Владимира в Киеве Ф.Ф. Эргардт (1828—1895/1896)

The work highlights a number of gaps in the biography of F.F. Ergardt. At the same time the emphasis is on researching his academic career. Four stages of the academic service of F.F. Ergardt at the Kiev University of St. Vladimir are highlighted. 1) In 1853-1857 he worked at the Department of Anatomy. 2) 1857-1871. During these years he headed the Department of State Medical Science. In 1871 the Departments of Hygiene, Medical Police, Medical Geography and Statistics emerged from this Department. 3) In 1871-1888 he was a professor in the same Department, but no longer taught the Medical Police with Hygiene, but only Forensic Medicine. 4) From 1888 until the end of his life he was a supernumerary professor of the same Department and continued to read Forensic Medicine.

Spatial modeling of zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis with regard to potential environmental factors using ANFIS and PCA-ANFIS methods

This study compares two adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) and principal component analysis (PCA)-ANFIS techniques for spatial modeling and forecasting of zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis (ZCL) cases in rural districts of Golestan province, Iran. We collected and prepared data on ZCL cases and climatic, topographic, vegetation, and human population factors. By applying the PCA algorithm, the parameters affecting the ZCL incidence were decomposed into principal components (PCs), and their dimensions were reduced. Then, PCs were used to train the ANFIS model. To evaluate the proposed approaches in model assessment phase, we used test data in 2016. In this phase, we showed that PCA-ANFIS model with values ​​of R2 = 0.791, MAE = 0.681, RMSE = 0.904 compared to ANFIS model with values ​​of R2 = 0.705, MAE = 0.827, RMSE = 1.073 has better performance in prediction of the ZCL cases. Actual and predicted maps of ZCL cases in 2016 by both models demonstrated that the high-risk regions of the disease are located in the northeastern, northern parts, and some central rural districts of Golestan province. Sensitivity analysis of the ANFIS model showed that population, vegetation, average wind speed, elevation, and average soil temperature, respectively, are the most significant factors in predicting the ZCL cases. The findings indicated the importance of machine learning (ML) techniques (ANFIS and PCA-ANFIS) in medical geography studies. By using these approaches, with less cost and shorter time, high-risk areas of diseases can be predicted, and the most effective factors on the spatial prediction of diseases can be identified. Public health policymakers can use these useful tools to control and prevent the disease and to allocate resources to disease-prone areas.

Infectious addictions: Geographies of colliding epidemics

Medical geography and health geography have made significant contributions to studies of human health by addressing the spatial patterns of disease exposure, location of health care services, and place-specific processes producing health and wellbeing. Human geography and human-environment geography have also contributed with emerging attention to the body, uncertainty, and health and environment interactions. What remains understudied are the co-occurrence of multiple disease patterns, including the relationships between infectious disease and addiction. We review geographic research on infectious disease and addiction to advance a theoretical framework that emphasizes the centrality of complexity, uncertainty, difference, and care in shaping human health.

Environmental Analysis of the COVID-19 pandemic in Saudi Arabia: A Study in Medical Geography

Environmental Analysis of the COVID-19 pandemic in Saudi Arabia: A Study in Medical Geography

Territorial analysis of medical geographical conditions of Uzbekistan

• Maternal mortality in the Republic of Uzbekistan is relatively high. It is necessary to further strengthen medical supervision among women. • The incidence of tuberculosis in the population of Republic of Uzbekistan is growing. Appropriate practical measures are required to improve the epidemiological situation. • In the regions, diseases of the musculoskeletal system, congenital defects, blood and blood-forming organs are on the rise. It is necessary to improve the existing nosogeographic situation, improve the sanitary and hygienic condition of the premises. • In order to prevent brucellosis, it is expedient to carry out decontamination of foci of the disease in livestock areas, the establishment of sanitary protection zones. • It is necessary to focus on the role of medical geography in the system of geographical sciences. The relevance of this study lies in the fact that the UN program says about the elimination of epidemics by 2030, the elimination of epidemics of diseases such as AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, as well as measures to combat hepatitis and other water-borne diseases. The purpose of this article is to analyze the medical geography of Uzbekistan and health problems. After covering the geographical features of morbidity and mortality in the country, the following conclusions were drawn. One of the achievements of the socio-demographic development of the Republic of Uzbekistan in recent years is the reduction in mortality in all age groups. During this time, the country's health care system was improved, attention was paid to the health of the population. Also, an increase in the number of young and middle-aged people in the population, a decrease in the birth rate has led to a decrease in infant mortality, maternal mortality and overall mortality. However, there are areas with higher rates (Tashkent, Tashkent and Andijan regions), which can be explained by their location at a transport hub and industrialization. The authors believe that the theoretical issues of medical geography, medico-geographical zoning and forecasting, the identification of nosogeographic regions and foci require further research in this area. In such studies, it is necessary to focus on the role of medical geography in the system of geographical sciences, which, in turn, refers to aspects of natural and socioeconomic geography and geoecology.

ORIGINS OF FORMATION OF KYIV SOCIAL AND HYGIENIC SCIENTIFIC SCHOOL: FROM THE FUNDAMENTALS OF MEDICAL SCIENCE, MEDICAL POLICE AND SANITARY STATISTICS TO SOCIAL MEDICINE AND PUBLIC HEALTH

The aim of the work is to study the stages of formation of the Kyiv social and hygienic scientific school, the contribution of its founders to the development of medical and social scientific direction.
 Materials and methods. The source base consisted of published scientific papers and archive materials. The historical-bibliographic method has been used in this work.
 Results. The formation and development of the Kyiv social and hygienic school has deep historical roots, beginning with the scientific achievements of many generations of researchers, which were generalized and transformed into the discipline of "state medicine" and began to be taught at the department of state medicine at St. Vladimir's University in Kyiv, and later – at the department of hygiene, medical police, medical geography and statistics. Teaching of medical and social issues continued for a long time at multidisciplinary departments. Prominent hygienists contributed to the formation of the socio-hygienic scientific direction, including professors Subbotin V.A. and Orlov V.D., who highly appreciated the importance of statistics, epidemiology and organization of health work, contributed to their teaching within the training programs for future doctors. A decisive role in the formation of the Kyiv social and hygienic scientific School was played by Professor Korchak-Chepurkivsky O.V., who is considered to be its founder. The course on epidemiology and sanitary statistics developed by him in 1903 and the course "Fundamentals of Social Hygiene and Public Medicine" in 1906 laid a solid foundation for the progressive development of social and hygienic science in Ukraine, helped to establish its theoretical principles, substantiate its content, and improve methodology. Consistent advocacy by scientists of scientifically sound results of socio-hygienic research has often led to his persecution and harassment by the authorities. Insistence of Korchak-Chepurkivsky O.V. on the differentiation of the social and hygienic direction and the creation of a separate department, the mandatory teaching of social hygiene in higher medical education has been crucial for further establishment of departments of social medicine, training of scientific personnel and health professionals.
 Conclusion. The path of formation of the Kyiv social and hygienic scientific school, which was long, difficult and sometimes tragic, constitutes evidence of the progressive development of social hygiene in Ukraine, highlights the trajectory of the medical and social direction, the role of prominent personalities, especially Korchak-Chepurkivsky O.V. in the formation of conceptual principles and content of social hygiene, training of scientific and pedagogical staff, who continued the work that he started.

About medical geography

Many believe that medical geography is intended only to study the features and patterns of development and spread of diseases that are typical only for certain parts of the world.

Urboekological Situation and Regional Analysis of Population Health In Uzbekistan

With the intensification of the urbanization process, the nosogeographic situation in different regions, population morbidity, types of diseases occurring among them, especially the nervous system and mental disorders, malignant tumors, allergic diseases are more characteristic of highly urbanized areas. This article covers issues related to the development of cities and the consequences of population growth, factors affecting the urban environment, problems related to public health. The amount of toxic gases emitted into the atmosphere in Uzbekistan was also analyzed. The health of mothers is extremely important in the health of the next generation, that is why the authors have developed a system of factors that affect maternal and child health. Analysis and study of regional aspects of these problems is one of the main tasks of medical geography. In medical geographical research, the analysis of regions in terms of nosogeographic situation is of great importance. Analyzes show that the deterioration of the environment, man's unlimited domination of nature, the deterioration of the ecological situation, as well as the spread of related diseases on earth pose new challenges to medical geography, which studies the causes and patterns. The rapid development of science and technology, the steady increase in human impact on nature and consequently, a number of negative changes in the natural environment have a significant impact on human health. The acceleration of the process of urbanization which in turn causes problems such: as air, water and soil pollution.

Paradigm Shifts in Geographical Research and Geospatial Applications

Geography enlightened a vast area of social sciences. It consists earth’s land and ocean surface, different landforms and their formation, evolution, sub-surface phenomena, atmosphere and related activities, environment and its attributes, environment as a habitat of living elements as well as a human being and their reciprocal relationships in a very critical and analytical approach. From the inception of geography as a separate discipline, it evolved through its versatile, comprehensive and holistic nature. Alteration and modification change its nature through space and time. And accordingly, the established paradigm always changed depending on the demand of the geographers. This paper highlighted specifically the paradigm shift in geographical research with special reference to geospatial applications. Geography has two basic aspects, Pure and Applied. Recent trend shows that most of the geographical research is focused on the applied field rather than the pure aspects of the subject itself. The most interesting fact is that the applied research is basically depends upon the Geospatial technology. A distinct paradigm shifts have been taking place in both the Geographical Research and the Geospatial Technology through Digitalization. The large growing population of the world require a logical and scientific shift in both pure and applied research in the domain of geography. Particular mention may be made in the fields of Geography such as geomorphology, population geography, urban geography, rural development and environmental geography. This paper also highlights the major paradigmn shifts in the behavioural geography, systematic geography, regional geography, medical geography, geospatial sustainability and cartography from paper map to digital map. It is now established that no discipline can survive without adopting a new strategy and technology.