Resident physician in combined internal medicine and pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania Health System and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, United States.
Consultant pediatric neurologist at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital and a senior lecturer at the School of Medicine and Dentistry, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana.
Health Hum Rights. 2023 Jun;25(1):51-65.
Extended life expectancies and shifting dynamics in chronic disease have changed the landscape of public health interventions worldwide, with an increasing emphasis on chronic care. As a result, transition from pediatric to adult care for medically complex adolescents and young adults is a growing area of intervention. Transition medicine is a nascent field whose current emphasis is on middle- and high-income countries, and thus far its methods and discourse have reflected those origins. Through several case-based examples, this paper aims to highlight the possibilities of an analytic approach grounded in structural competency for transforming transition medicine through a human rights-based framework, with an emphasis on imagining a more global framework for transition medicine. Our cases highlight the disparities between patients navigating pediatric to adult-based care, illuminating social stigma, stratification between public and private insurances, engagement in risk-taking behaviors, family conflict, and challenges with transition readiness. To reimagine transition medicine so that it is based on human rights, we must prioritize structural solutions that embrace multisectoral integration and holistic mental health support rather than oppress and marginalize these critical systemic adaptations. We aim to reconfigure this scaffolding to center structures that integrate holistic well-being and imagine alternate realities to healing. Our work contributes to the literature bringing structural competency to new spaces of clinical practice, contextualizing new frontiers for the exploration of chronic diseases across diverse clinical contexts worldwide.
预期寿命的延长和慢性病动态的变化改变了全球公共卫生干预措施的格局,对慢性病护理的重视程度不断提高。因此,从儿科向成人医疗过渡,为患有复杂疾病的青少年和年轻人提供医疗服务,已成为一个日益重要的干预领域。过渡医学是一个新兴的领域,目前的重点是中高收入国家,到目前为止,其方法和论述反映了这些起源。通过几个基于案例的例子,本文旨在强调一种基于结构能力的分析方法的可能性,通过基于人权的框架来改变过渡医学,重点是想象一个更具全球性的过渡医学框架。我们的案例突出了患者在儿科到成人护理之间过渡时所面临的差异,揭示了社会污名、公共和私人保险之间的分层、冒险行为的参与、家庭冲突以及过渡准备方面的挑战。为了重新构想以人权为基础的过渡医学,我们必须优先考虑结构解决方案,这些解决方案应包括多部门整合和整体心理健康支持,而不是压迫和边缘化这些关键的系统适应性。我们的目标是重新配置这个框架,以整合整体幸福感,并想象出替代现实的治疗方法。我们的工作有助于将结构能力引入新的临床实践空间的文献,并为全球不同临床环境中慢性疾病的探索开辟新的前沿。