Welcome to the Medical Cultures Lab Blog

MCL Backstory

By Dan Dohan

Welcome to the blog of the medical cultures lab (MCL), a community of scholars who work to understand the culture of medicine and advance health equity.

MCL is an inter-disciplinary group of social scientists, clinicians, and humanists — some at the inception of their career and others further along. Like any lab, MCL is a place where people with a scholarly bent gather to understand the world and make it better. At MCL, we discuss our research, read articles, hear from invited speakers, and (COVID willing) eat, relax, and enjoy each others’ company.

An unusual feature of MCL is its membership includes multiple faculty and fellows who lead their own projects as independent investigators. This keeps MCL super-lively as members share new ideas, projects, and insights. My role as the principal investigator (PI) of MCL is to ensure the Lab provides intellectual, professional, social, and (a bit of) material support for the broad range of activities that help us understand medical culture and advance health equity.

The MCL blog reflects the lab. We’ll post new entries approximately twice a month. Blog posts will cover a variety of topics and ideas. Some will introduce MCL members or describe their work in progress. Others will concern methodological issues related to qualitative research or theoretical questions about culture. The blog will also be a place to read about MCL’s perspective, insights, and experiences on medicine, science, and culture in the context of a more equitable society.

As Lab PI, I’ll post regularly. Contributions will also come from other MCL members and likely others as well. We want to highlight perspectives on culture and medicine across a range of intellectual viewpoints as well as diverse perspectives on the nature of health equity, what impedes it, and how to foster it. MCL does not have a singular voice or viewpoint so neither will our blog. Welcome and stay tuned.