Activity 1.1.1 Intervention Inventory

Introduction

Look around. Someone in the class is probably wearing glasses or contact lenses. Most likely someone in your school is sporting a cast or using crutches. Maybe you took an aspirin this morning for a raging headache or chugged a sports drink after your morning workout. In some way, each of these devices, medications or treatments, helped people improve their quality of life.Medical interventions are any measure whose purpose is to improve health or alter the course of a disease. Unless faced with a serious illness or injury, we often forgot about the variety of medical interventions thatfunction to keep us well.

Medicine is changing at a rapid pace. Many diseases that were lethal hundreds of years ago can now be controlled or even cured. New devices, medications, procedures, and tests help to extend and improve our quality of life. In both Principles of theBiomedical Sciences and Human Body Systems, you examined interventions related to specific illnesses or diseases.In this course, you will explore medical interventions of the past, present, and even the future.

In this activity, you will brainstorm the vast array of medical interventions, big and small, new and old, which function to maintain health and homeostasis in our bodies. You will then work with your team to organize your ideas and group these interventions into categories. This year, you will becomeacquainted with the members of the Smith family. Their stories will introduce you to modern medical interventions as well as help you visualize the future of medicine. As you follow their family, through good times and bad, be on the lookout for medical interventions.

Equipment

  • Post-it®Notes (3” x 3”) – assorted colors
  • Poster board or sentence strips
  • Black marker
  • Masking tape
  • Laboratory journal

Procedure

  1. Obtain a pack of Post-it® notes and a black marker from your teacher.
  2. Brainstorm the term “Medical Interventions.”Identify devices, treatments, medications, or other support items which qualify as a medical intervention. The intervention could be as complicated as a surgery or as simple as a Band-Aid.The intervention can occur before, during or after diagnosis of a disease.
  3. Write each idea, phrase or topic you come up with on a separate Post-it®note.
  4. Following directions from your teacher, walk around the room and randomly place each Post-it®note on the classroom wall.
  5. As you walk, continue to write ideas down on new notes and post them on the wall. Let ideas flow.
  6. When the teacher informs you that time is up, stop adding new Post-it®notes to the wall.
  7. Walk around the room and look at all of the ideas on the walls. If you see ideas, phrases or topics that seem to fit together, move these notes together to form groups. Discuss these changes with your classmates.
  8. When your teacher informs you that time is up, return to your seat.
  9. Discuss the ideas that you saw around the room. If additional interventions come up in the discussion, add new Post-it® notes to those already on the wall. Follow your teacher’s instructions for adding new notes to the wall.
  10. Meet with the team members you have been assigned by your teacher.
  11. Obtain sentence strips or pieces of poster board from your teacher. With your team members, stand near the Post-it® note groups you have been assigned.
  12. Exchange ideas with your team and come up with a title or heading for each group of notes. If you find ideas, phrases or intervention names that do not fit with the rest of the group, look around the room and transfer these notes to another team.
  13. Write the title or heading for each group on a sentence strip and tape it above the appropriate group.
  14. When instructed to do so by your teacher, report out your titles and the items in each group of interventions. Explain your reasoning for the grouping and for the name of the category.
  15. As a class, decide on the major categories of medical interventions.
  16. Write down these categories in your laboratory journal. Make sure to include a few examples for each category. Be on the lookout for these classes of interventions as you progress through the entire course.

Conclusion

  1. Explain how medical interventions are used in the diagnosis of disease.
  2. Describe one intervention that came up in the class discussion which surprised you.
  3. Describe at least two medical interventions you have encountered in the past week. How did these medical interventions relate to your overall wellness and body homeostasis?
  4. Describe two things can people do in their day-to-day life to protect themselves from disease or injury. Hint: Think about the actions that put a person at risk for disease or injury.
  5. What category of medical interventions do you feel is most important in the future of medicine? Explain your reasoning.

© 2010 Project Lead The Way, Inc.

Medical InterventionsActivity 1.1.1 Intervention Inventory – Page 1