Brina Ratangee is a medical school-bound alumna of the Medicine, Health, and Society (MHS) Social Foundations of Health Program. Yet it was not too long ago she was a Vanderbilt freshman considering her place in the world.
“I started out wondering if I should just focus on the clinical, scientific side of pre-med or develop my writing and journalism. I needed to figure out how to combine these disparate passions in a meaningful way,” Ratangee said.
Street medicine brings services offered in physical clinics to individuals who are homeless or living in encampments on the “street.” Ratangee had a background in this as a volunteer with Vanderbilt’s Hearts for the Homeless club, but she was also a writer for The Hustler.
“Sophie Vogel, a graduate student involved with Vanderbilt Homeless Health Services, was creating a group to work on a medical journal focused on street medicine and helping the homeless, so I reached out about getting involved,” Ratangee said.
Thus, in April 2023, Ratangee found a way to connect her experiences. Vogel, Ratangee, and three other students joined the team to create Ayu, a journal blending narrative medicine, street medicine, and stories of homeless healthcare. While the journal has been a large source of inspiration for Ratangee, it was not her first exposure to narrative medicine.
“I took an MHS class, Health Humanities, with Professor Lauren Mitchell where we talked about how literature and narrative can enhance the clinical atmosphere,” Ratangee said. “With narrative medicine, you get more out of patients’ stories. This emphasizes a unique, holistic form of healing that improves the care provided.”
Just as narrative medicine challenges traditional ways of thinking about medicine, Ayu aims to challenge social stereotypes.
“Ayu has become a creative space for students and people who are experiencing homelessness to share their stories,” Ratangee said, “In this way, we are highlighting a population that’s often overlooked and putting them in dialogue with the rest of the community to facilitate productive conversation.”
In just a few years, Ayu has grown into a moderator of conversation and a coalition builder, creating a visible impact across the country.
“Last fall in Kansas City, we hosted a workshop at the International Street Medicine Symposium. We had 10–15 attendees ranging from Pennsylvania medical students to an Arizona resident, and even though the journal is based on the experiences of others, the attendees were able to connect with and build on the narratives. People left wanting to tell their friends about it and establish a similar idea in their own universities. We’re now even working on other initiatives together,” Ratangee said.
The most recent development of Ayu’s success is a symbol of its importance on both the local and national levels.
“A few weeks ago, the journal officially became a part of the Student Coalition of the Street Medicine Institute, which is a national organization of medical and graduate students involved in street medicine,” Ratangee said. “Ayu has gone from being a primarily Vanderbilt-based journal to now being housed under a national council, providing us a broader reach to recruit more people.”
The success of Ayu goes back to the intentionality and creativity Ratangee emphasized the journal was created with, and this is reflected in the origins of the journal’s name as well.
“In Sanskrit, Ayu essentially means healing and wellbeing, and in Spanish, the root of the word ‘ayudar,’ meaning ‘to help,’ is ‘ayu,” Ratangee said. “Also, the pronunciation of ‘Ayu’ is like ‘I’ and ‘You,’ connecting back to this idea of sharing space with whomever you’re speaking to.”
