The authors are Paul E. Farmer, Bruce Nizeye, Sara Stulac, Salmaan Keshavjee. Paul. E. Farmer is a physician and anthropologist and co-founder of Partners in Health (PIH). He has been described as “the man who would cure the world.” PIH was involved in the disaster response after the earthquake in Haiti. Dr. Farmer has a number of publications including one titled “AIDS and Accusation: Haiti and the Geography of Blame.”
Emergency response does not appear to be specifically mentioned, instead the factors that could lead up to epidemics and disasters are studied. The conditions in the aftermath of disasters were also studied.
Data for this article was gathered through studies conducted with the PIH in the United States, Haiti, and Africa as well as researching other publications.
The “PIH Model of Care,” research in Rwanda, and work in Haiti were followed up on
“Yet risk has never been determined solely by individual behavior: susceptibility to infection and poor outcomes is aggravated by social factors such as poverty, gender inequality, and racism”
“we have transplanted and adapted the “PIH model” of care, which was designed in rural Haiti to prevent the embodiment of poverty and social inequalities as excess mortality due to AIDS, TB, malaria, and other diseases of poverty”
“Physicians can rightly note that structural interventions are “not our job.” Yet, since structural interventions might arguably have a greater impact on disease control than do conventional clinical interventions, we would do well to pay heed to them.”
The “PIH Model of Care,” research in Rwanda, and work in Haiti were followed up on
AIDS care was studied in the united states and it was found that social factors were more predicting than individual factors about whether or not an individual would contract the disease
This was also studied in Rwanda using a model designed in Haiti using the “PIH model of care” to study social inequalities and prevent the effects of poverty that lead to death by AIDS, TB, malaria.
Structural interventions were also incorporated into clinical medicine as it was argued that social interventions, while not traditionally part of a physician's duties, have more of an impact that clinical interventions
Most of the references are from articles published by PubMed/NCBI in reference to structural violence indicating a possible affiliation with the NIH and other authors researching structural violence.
One of the main arguments in this publication is that the spread of illness is often determined by social forces. For example, impoverished individuals may be more susceptible to illness because they cannot afford the proper treatment, not because they are more likely to contract the illness. This is described as structural violence: socio-structural factors that prevent people from achieving their full potential, e.g. receiving medical care.
This publication is referenced in various articles and Wiki pages (wikipedia, wikispaces).