“Underdiagnosis and undertreatment are a big part of this attitude,” says geriatrician Clara Tsui, of the medical frame of mind around “adult failure to thrive.”
Felicia Chang for STAT
Reflecting back on our favorite photographs from 2022, we are struck by how many portraits were in our selection. This year, more than others, the strength of individuals was at the center of our visual journalism. Our photographers have pictured medical students fighting for racial justice; harm reduction workers and crisis line volunteers; and patients, families, and researchers fighting to find life-saving cures. These images also document a pipeline program for Indigenous medical students, an incarcerated person fighting for better hepatitis C care, and a trailblazing Alzheimer’s researcher.
Below are the most illuminating moments captured by STAT’s contributing photographers this year.
From left, Jordan Owen, Sheila Castillo, and Kalista White, students from the Ohiyesa Premedical Program, practice administering CPR at the STRATUS Center for Medical Simulation. Read the story. Kayana Szymczak for STATJane, a Call2Talk mental health helpline volunteer, speaks with a caller during the first weekend of the federal 988 Suicide and Crisis Hotline, in Framingham, Mass. Read the story Kayana Szymczak for STATAnkit Bharat, chief of thoracic surgery at Northwestern Medicine, operating on a woman with early-stage lung cancer in Chicago. Read the story. Laura Brown for STATTashina Hosey quit her job at a Pittsburgh post office when she was assigned to work a seventh consecutive day just as her second daughter was about to be born. Desperate to find her next paycheck, she stumbled upon a free 10-week emergency medical technician course. Read the story. Nate Smallwood for STATMathiew Loisel, walks back to his cell block at the Maine State Prison in Warren, Maine. Loisel, an inmate at the Maine State Prison, lead a class action lawsuit against the Maine Department of Corrections for the state’s failure to provide sufficient treatment to inmates suffering from hepatitis C. Read the story. Ashley L. Conti for STATPhysician Gladys Maestre talks to Areli T. Castillo, director of the El Centro Cultural community center, about hosting workshops at their facilities in Brownsville, Texas. Read the story. Verónica Cárdenas for STAT “The goal of a safer supply program is really to keep people alive,” said Angela Robertson, executive director of Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre in Toronto. Read the story. Laura Proctor for STATBrian Wallach says goodbye to one of his daughters before she leaves for a playdate. Wallach, who has ALS, and his wife have built a movement that culminated in President Biden signing legislation to fund $600 million of ALS research and patient-focused programs in the next six years. Read the story. Kristen Norman for STATPhysician Rosandra Daywalker poses for a portrait in The Texas Medical Center in Houston. A STAT investigation found that Black residents either leave or are terminated from training programs at far higher rates than white residents. Read the story. Michael Starghill for STATJamiel Martin of Planned Parenthood passes out shirts in support of Proposition 3, after Sunday services for Renaissance Unity Church in Royal Oak, Mich. Read the story. Anntaninna Biondo for STATLaura Esserman, surgeon and breast cancer oncology specialist, at home in San Francisco. She asks, “Why are we still screening the way we did in 1980, when we didn’t know what an estrogen receptor is?” Read the story. Constanza Hevia for STATFatu Conteh in Pediatric Ward 1 of Connaught Hospital, the largest government hospital in Sierra Leone. Conteh left Sierra Leone in 1999, a teenaged war refugee. She graduated from a magnet health sciences high school in Houston, earned a chemistry degree from Princeton University, and committed to becoming a physician after seeing the immense medical need during a trip back to her homeland.Read the story. TJ Bade for STATL. at her home in San Francisco holding her son’s toy rabbit. L. made the devastating decision to terminate her pregnancy when her son was diagnosed in utero with a severe medical condition. Read the story. Constanza Hevia for STATPhysician Stephanie Kayden interacts with actor Edgar Daniel during an emergency medicine antiracism and trauma-informed de-escalation training session at Brigham and Women’s in July. Read the story. Kayana Szymczak for STATLena Harvey outside her home in Indianapolis, Ind. Harvey is a sickle cell patient who started taking Oxbryta in February 2021. It markedly alleviated her pain and fatigue, allowing her to begin living her life more fully and advocate. Read the story. Lee Klafczynski for STATJulia Vitarello in her daughter’s bedroom in Longmont, Colorado. In 2018, Vitarello’s daughter, Mila, was given a drug created just for her, the first time a medicine was specifically tailored to one patient’s genetic disease. The drug, called milasen, halted her rapidly progressing condition and later improved her quality of life. But the disease, already in an advanced stage, eventually resumed its assault. Mila died Feb. 11, 2021, at 10 years old. Read the story. Rachel Woolf for STATVino Edwards foraging for active psychedelic and culinary mushrooms at Mount Tabor Park in Portland. Read the story. Ayşe Gürsöz for STAT
For more, check out STAT’s most memorable photos from 2021 and 2020
