Alenia Kysela

As an emergency physician, Alenia Kysela believes that "seeing health through the narrow lens of science without the social is akin to not seeing at all." The importance of grounding the practice of medicine in social theory led her to Cambodia, as a part of a team of people working to re-establish the primary healthcare system. Already aware of the important issue of HIV/AIDS, it was when the team happened across a village solely populated by HIV positive individuals and their caregivers that questions arose: why are these people here; what are the benefits to congregating this way; what are the issues that are influencing their decisions for choosing this over other options; and are there other options? These are examples of questions in which Alenia Kysela is interested.