In this week’s lectures we learned about a few different inventions and innovations that revolutionized medicine and healthcare. In learning about these inventions, we also learned that some were adopted much more rapidly than others and it was interesting to learn the reasoning why.

The invention of anesthesia was taken up hospitals immediately and with little opposition where as the thought of aseptic techniques and other ways to prevent sepsis and infection were not. These examples pointed out how easy it can be to ignore a problem that doesn’t have a tangible or physical symptom or detriment associated with it. It is difficult to convince someone to change their routine to prevent a problem they don’t see or actively feel. I found that this could be applied to a lot of issues, both on the global level and on the individual level.

In this week’s assignment we read a New Yorker article titled “Slow Ideas” which examined various medical innovations and determined why they had not caught on and how they could improve usage and acceptance of these ideas.

In particular, I looked into the practices and devices used to keep a newborn infant warm and why many of them were not being widely used. Something as simple as swaddling a child with its mother would be enough to keep the baby warm and healthy, yet it was difficult for the nurses to get mothers to do. Since hypothermia doesn’t appear in obvious symptoms, these mothers see no need to actively warm their baby. It made me think about all of the ways I can be ignorant to my own problems just because I don’t see them actively hurting me.

I’m looking forward to applying the mind set to my final project in the coming week!