Christopher Cadham
Graduate Student, Sociomedical Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University
Christopher is a second year Master of Public Health student at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health in the Department of Sociomedical Sciences. His certificate is in History, Ethics and Law. He received a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from McGill University in Montreal, Canada. His research interest is in using ethics to assess how policies in the fields of public health and medicine work to balance efficacy, efficiency, and effectiveness. His fascination with precision medicine stems from the anthropology of the body and the implications that precision medicine has on phenomenological experience. Essentially, how can the body be changed without the mind (or experience of the mind) be changed? His year of public health studies has raised further questions about the efficacy of precision medicine specifically with regard to notions of justice. The history of public health repeatedly shows public, rather than precision have been the most effective interventions for improving health outcomes. Public interventions in water, hygiene and sanitation, vaccination programs and robust health systems have and continue to prevent millions of deaths worldwide. Yet, the recent turn in the United States and other countries has been towards the individualized precision medicine. In addition to being an Associate Fellow of the Precision Medicine: Ethics, Politics, and Culture working group, Christopher is also a Philanthropy Fellow at the New York Community Trust in the Health and People with Special Needs, and the Environment portfolios. He has also interned at Columbia University’s Earth Institute as well as at the United Nations Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS.
Working Group Affiliation