Diary of a Dying Girl: Storytelling to Shift Perspectives
In briefAI summary — tap to read
Diane Shader Smith shares her daughter Mallerie's powerful 10-year diary documenting life with antimicrobial-resistant bacteria, illustrating how storytelling can shift public understanding of AMR as a global health crisis. Through Mallerie's writing and the launch of the Global AMR Diary initiative, Diane advocates for narrative-driven awareness campaigns to mobilize action against antibiotic resistance, which kills as many people as a jumbo jet crashing every 39 minutes.
Key takeaways
- Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a top global health threat causing over 1 million deaths annually, yet remains largely unknown to the general public due to poor awareness and storytelling.
- Mallerie's story demonstrates how patient narratives can inspire policy change and clinical innovation, including her receiving the first phage therapy treatment for cystic fibrosis in the U.S. under compassionate use.
- Key drivers of antibiotic resistance include patient and physician overuse, animal agriculture practices, war and healthcare infrastructure collapse, and the lack of rapid diagnostic tools that lead to inappropriate prescribing.
- The Global AMR Diary Collective, launched in partnership with the WHO, CDC, and other health organizations, aggregates caregiver, patient, provider, and innovator stories to reach mainstream audiences and mobilize political will.
- The Pasteur Act proposes a Netflix-style subscription model to incentivize pharmaceutical companies to develop antibiotics without requiring immediate sales, addressing current market failures in antibiotic drug development.
- Fast, accurate diagnostics and phage therapy represent promising alternatives, with five U.S. centers now conducting phage research and multiple companies entering the marketplace to bring these treatments to clinical practice.
About Diane Shader SmithDiane Shader Smith is a communications professional and antimicrobial resistance advocate who works to amplify patient and caregiver stories about antibiotic-resistant infections worldwide.
AI-generated from the meeting recording — AI can make mistakes, so check the recording for anything important.
MEETING FOR THE WEEK OF June 10, 2024
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Program: Diary of a Dying Girl: Storytelling to Shift Perspectives
Speaker: Diane Shader Smith
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Program: Diary of a Dying Girl: Storytelling to Shift Perspectives
Speaker: Diane Shader Smith
Every week we bring you a new program on innovation, entrepreneurship, and education, and how those contribute to service to others.
The Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley seeks to explore perspectives on service from across the world. The views of the speakers in our programs are their own, and unless stated otherwise, are not necessarily reflective of the views of our eClub or Rotary International.
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This week's speaker, Diane Shader Smith, has had a vibrant career as a writer, speaker, publicist, and fundraiser with an extensive roster of clients during her multi-decade career. When Diane’s daughter Mallory died at the age of 25, she brought Mallory’s memoir to publication as Salt in My Soul (Random House 2019), which led to the documentary of the same name (3Arts Entertainment).
Using Mallory’s words, Diane has given 250+ talks worldwide about patient insights, the global health crisis called AMR, and phage therapy - everything Mallory wrote about and stood for. In May of 2024, Random House published an adaptation of Mallory’s first memoir under the title, Diary of a Dying Girl, that shifts the lens towards the emotional hurdles and mental health challenges of living with resistant bacteria. Two months before publication, Diane, a recent graduate of the Narrative Medicine CPA Program at Columbia University, conceived of the idea to create The Global AMR Diary: Collective Storytelling to Shift Perspectives and Shape Policy. The World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and many other public health organizations agreed to be part of this important global initiative. Diane has been interviewed by many major media outlets and written an Op-ed for USA Today and for the CDC.
In her talk, Diane Shader Smith will delve into the global crisis of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), illuminated through the powerful narrative of her daughter Mallory’s experience as captured in "Diary of a Dying Girl." Diane will explore how storytelling can be a transformative force in shifting perspectives and shaping health policies. She will showcase compelling slides that bring to life the urgent need for action, emphasizing the critical role of narrative medicine in public health advocacy. Drawing on her extensive experience and the impactful work of The Global AMR Diary, Diane’s presentation will not only highlight the personal stakes of AMR but also mobilize stakeholders to commit to meaningful change. This talk promises to leave audiences armed with knowledge and a renewed drive to tackle this pressing health challenge.
Members and guests, please welcome Diane Shader Smith!
To learn more, go to:
https://diaryofadyinggirl.com/
https://www.globalamrdiary.org/
https://www.calfund.org/mallorys-legacy-fund/
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