1. Applied medical anthropologists focus on developing more effective health interventions
2. Role as a "cultural broker" between doctors (or biomedical practitioners) and those with different cultural assumptions
3. In the United States today, applied medical anthropologists are involved with:
public and community health projects
consulting for hospitals and clinics
training medical professionals
applying ethnographic knowledge to the assessment of health needs
planning culturally acceptable interventions
improving communication difficulties between health workers and patients
Was applied medical anthropology used in the Lia Lee case?
Applied medical anthropologists did not exist in the Lia Lee case. Some people in the book such as Jeanne Hilt may helped to serve as somewhat of a "cultural broker" between the American medical system and the Lee family. However, no formal system was in place to assist the Lees(and the doctors) with communication difficulties and with forming a collaborative relationship(and treatment regimen)with the doctors. It is for this reason their daughter, Lia, was placed in foster care and why the family endured much suffering throughout the book.
I think that critical medical anthropologists would say there was too much of a presence of applied medical anthropologists(and not enough critical ones) in the Lia Lee case(and during this time) because
the doctors held all the power and control over Lia's condition and treatment
the problems the Lee's faced were not isolated to them, they were social problems among the Hmong people in Merced and the social problems were not being addressed