Anthropologist psychiatrist sees global health through a cultural prism

As a pre-med major at UC San Diego studying biochemistry, Ippolytos Kalofonos discovered his future career while listening to a guest lecturer at an undergraduate seminar.Here was a field that wove together his interests in health, medicine and social context, he learned after listening to the medical anthropologist. Kalofonos was always interested in broader issues beyond the lab where he worked. He volunteered at a Red Cross emergency room in Tijuana, and was struck by the various forms of inequality “that were swirling around me” locally, nationally and globally.“I was really excited by the idea of medicine as a social and cultural system, rather than as just a technical skill set,” he recalled of that moment.Today, Kalofonos is right where he wants to be. A psychiatrist and medical anthropologist with a deep background in HIV/AIDS treatment and the cultural issues that surround it in Africa, Kalofonos has a joint appointment to the UCLA International Institute and the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior. In the spring, he will teach his first course inglobal health, “Living with HIV/AIDS in Africa,” for the International Institute.Much has changed since Kalofonos decided to change his major to anthropology and sign up for a study-abroad program in southern Mexico, where he worked with traditional healers and began delving into critical development studies.After finishing his undergraduate degree, he attended medical school at UC San Francisco. ...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news