MedSTEMPowered

Medicine in STEM, Empowering Youth

Medical Debate

TOPIC 1: Palliative Care

Description of Topic: Specialized medical care for people living with a chronic illness.
A group of specially-trained doctors, nurses, and other specialists work with the
doctors of the patient to provide an extra layer of support.
This type of care is focused on providing symptom and stress relief to improve the
quality of life for both the patient and family. It is provided based on the needs of the
patients, instead of the patient’s prognosis.

Stances Overview: When participating in palliative care, it is often asked why there
needs to be an extra group or “service” that professes to provide services to patients
and families, when there is already a primary care physician or hematologist/oncologist
doctor to do so. Many doctors, especially non-palliative physicians, ask, “What makes
you think you can provide palliative care better than us?”

Questions to Ask:
1. Are there benefits of physicians and palliative care professionals collaborating?

2. Is palliative care ethical?

3.What are the barriers and limitations to palliative care?

4.What is the difference between Palliative care and Hospice care?

Resources:
1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1142201/
2. ht
3. tps://www.geripal.org/2009/12/downside-of-growth-of-palliative-care.html
4. https://www.aafp.org/afp/2013/1215/p807.html
MedSTEMPowered
Medicine in STEM, Empowering Youth

TOPIC 2: Robots in Surgery

Description:
Until the 2000’s, surgery was a medical procedure and practice only applied by
medical specialists. If you were ever in need of a surgical procedure (i.e. appendectomy,
tumor removal, heart surgery, etc.), a surgeon would perform surgery, alongside a
team within the hospital setting.
However, since then several companies, such as Mazor X, Intuitive Surgical, and
several universities have explored the options of integrating robots - specifically,
robotic operating systems - within the surgical practice.
Robotic surgery is defined as surgery that is carried out by a robot. Generally, it’s
applied to minimally invasive surgery, meaning that it can carry out:
1. Complicated Surgical Techniques
2. Tiny Incisions
3. Leaves Little Scar Tissue Behind
4. Less Trauma
5. Higher Surgical Accuracy
6. Reduced Surgeon Fatigue
In order to perform robotic surgery, the robot is provided with a scalpel/set of
forceps, and the surgeon in charge controls the gears and settings through
high-definition 3-D cameras. Surgeons who have operated with these systems have
noted that it allows them to gain a closer look at the procedure they’re performing,
without the need to open the patient completely.
However, it isn’t all beneficial:
1. Da Vinci Surgery Robot ($3,000 and $6,000 more than a traditional
laparoscopic procedure
2. Movement Latency (making it difficult for surgeons to respond quickly to
problems that occur during the operation)
Questions to Consider:
1. How would introducing robots in surgery impact the medical field?
2. Do you envision robots taking over surgery in the next 10-50 years, displacing
surgeons and the surgical field?
3. Errors made during the surgery, via robotic procedures would raise the question
of fault: the surgeon, or the technology?
4. How will the funding for this occur in low-income countries/states?
5. How will patients gain access to this healthcare? How will it be funded?
MedSTEMPowered
Medicine in STEM, Empowering Youth
Resources:
1. https://spinehealth.org/robotic-surgery-what-is-it/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwxJqHBhC4A
RIsAChq4aswNcCZlyjE4Ut23ysh75a2PYhsGKinKb9NsJ1pRzMEBEiQAuXty-8a
ApyyEALw_wcB
2. https://www.milbank.org/quarterly/articles/robotic-surgery-an-example-of-whe
n-newer-is-not-always-better-but-clearly-more-expensive/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwxJ
qHBhC4ARIsAChq4aulJNMsF8p1zE7XI-CMS6lx_3et6OCmOfPBK2q83NElLt8u
R95byiwaApJyEALw_wcB
3. https://www.advancedurologyinstitute.com/advantages-disadvantages-robotic-t
echnology-urology/

TOPIC 3: Animal Experimentation

Description of Topic:
Around 100 million animals are being experimented on and killed each year in laboratories
causing people to debate whether animal experimentation is needed. Animal experimentation
first started in ancient Greece and Rome during the eighteenth century when an English
physician, William Harvey, discovered vivisection by cutting up live animals such as rabbits and
pigs for scientific or medical purposes to demonstrate his discovery. In the late eighteenth
century, an English philosopher, Jeremy Bentham started a philosophical debate over animal
experimentation which generated many animal rights activists. This caused an animal welfare
movement to begin which gained momentum during the twentieth century, but it faced some
setbacks when the development of vaccines for polio, smallpox, and hepatitis was first tested
on monkeys and the development of penicillin was first tested on mice.

Stances Overview: There was a shift in viewpoints on animal experimentation in the 1970s
when behavioral researchers proved that primates had high intelligence levels, social skills,
and a range of emotions, while other scientists discovered genetic similarities between humans
and primates that can be used to discover life-saving cures.

Questions to Ask:
1. Are there beneficial alternatives to using animals in experimentation?
2. What is the ratio of failed animal experiments to successful animal experiments
or vice versa? Why is this the case?
MedSTEMPowered
Medicine in STEM, Empowering Youth
3. Are the results of animal experimentation effective?

Resources:
1. https://www.sciencemag.org/careers/2008/07/courting-controversy-animal-right
s-and-wrongs
2. https://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~sather/the-debate-on-animal-experimentation/
3. https://www.scielo.br/j/aabc/a/84jMYJBdbpTGsMMSJcfZDpb/?lang=en
4. https://oxsci.org/the-controversial-world-of-animals-in-research/

TOPIC 4: Virtual Healthcare (Telemedicine)

Description of Topic:

Virtual healthcare is a provision of care through the use of technology, including

phones, video, mobile apps, messaging, and other communication platforms to deliver
health services to remote patients.

Stances Overview:
Through virtual videocare, many argue that it wouldn’t be the same with diagnosing in
person and also for those who don’t have access to technology wouldn’t; but it also
could be convenient for both the health care and the patient. What is your take?

Questions to Ask:
1. What are the opportunities and barriers of virtual healthcare?

2.Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, would it be beneficial for the healthcare worker
or even the patient for Telemedicine?

3.In the future, would having virtual healthcare be a better option?

Resources:
1. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6943a3.htm
2. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/06/29/the-promise-and-the-peri
l-of-virtual-health-care
MedSTEMPowered
Medicine in STEM, Empowering Youth

3. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK207146/
4. https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/telehealth/how-american-attitudes-
on-telehealth-have-changed-since-the-start-of-the-pandemic.html#:~:text=I
n%20March%202021%2C%2051.64%20percent,have%20decreased%20sin
ce%20using%20telehealth.