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Scholar shares world view of health, disabilities

by Cindy Abole
Public Relations
Focusing on health and how it is viewed within the United States and worldwide is what speech-language pathologist and disability epidemiologist Travis T. Threats, Ph.D. discussed as he met with MUSC faculty and students earlier this week.

Threats visited MUSC’s campus as part of the College of Health Profession’s (CHP) Visiting Scholars Program on April 1-2. On campus, he met and visited with CHP faculty, the deans and various members of faculty and practitioners. He also met with MUSC students and gave a presentation on April 2.

CHP Visiting Scholar Dr. Travis Threats chats with CHP students Dana Price, right, and Terri Dohlen, left, and others, following his April 2 presentation to students at the Gazes/Strom Thurmond building. 

An assistant professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Saint Louis University in Missouri, Threats has worked as a speech-language pathologist in various health care settings. His research interests are in disability epidemiology and its relations with cognitive, communication or swallowing disorders. The field explores people with disabling conditions and how public policy, education, legislation, health administration and other interventions influence outcomes for this population.

More recently, Threats is credited for helping to shape public policy in the field of disability epidemiology through his role with World Health Organization. Last May, he initiated the beta-1 version of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF), a system that will help people understand the effects of health conditions on the functioning of individuals.

“Ultimately, the reason a person wants good health is to be able to do the things they want to do,” said Threats. “What is not entirely understood is that there are different factors that contribute to an individual’s health and how healthy that person really is.”

Threats' classification system could be used with a patient’s health or disease diagnosis and recorded on their medical record. The process creates a systematic way of recording data that relates to a specific diagnosis. It also creates a whole-person view of care among patients, where all areas of care are recognized. 

According to Threats, the WHO defines health as a complete state of physical, social and mental well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. 

Another issue that Threats discussed is the importance of how people function.

As people live longer and their health improves, more people are likely to live with functional limitations. People with physical limitations and disabilities can be influenced by their environment, Threats said. 

“People should not be viewed for their abilities or disabilities, but what they are not able to do because of their abilities and this is what the health care system needs to recognize,” Threats said.

Finally, his message to health profession students and other health care professionals in training is keeping quality of life in perspective and an ultimate challenge.

“Students are entering health care at a very important time,” Threats said. “It will be up to this generation to take up the ideas that a previous generation has emphasized and put things into place. It is really a call to action.” 

Threats is the second visiting scholar and was sponsored by a grant from the department of diversity’s Earl B. Higgins visiting professor program aimed at promoting intellectual diversity among faculty, staff and students on campus.