Communication is one of the most important components of quality healthcare, yet many patients with limited English proficiency (LEP) continue to face significant barriers when communicating with healthcare providers. While previous research has shown that language barriers affect access to care and health outcomes, less attention has been given to how communication failures contribute to medical errors and increased healthcare costs. Building upon prior research examining the healthcare experiences of immigrant women, this study explores what happens when patients, interpreters, and healthcare providers do not fully understand one another. Specifically, the project investigates how communication breakdowns may contribute to medication errors, delayed diagnoses, inappropriate treatments, preventable hospital readmissions, and other adverse outcomes. The study also examines common causes of misunderstanding, including interpreter limitations, cultural differences, health literacy challenges, and gaps in communication between patients and medical staff. Using a comprehensive review of peer-reviewed literature, healthcare reports, and policy research, this study will identify patterns linking language barriers to both patient safety concerns and increased healthcare expenditures. In addition, the project will examine evidence-based strategies that have been shown to improve communication and reduce preventable errors among LEP populations. This research argues that language barriers are more than an issue of access or convenience—they can have serious human and financial consequences. By highlighting the hidden costs of miscommunication, this study aims to support efforts to improve patient safety, reduce unnecessary healthcare spending, and promote more equitable healthcare for diverse populations.

Health education is a required curriculum across schools in The United States being taught under Health ed., Health Education, or Health. In 2022, The United States updated their health education curriculum standards, the first revision since 2007. Do students believe they’ve benefitted from health classes while in school or would they consider it lackluster information being taught? This article examines Michigan as a case example to evaluate if school-based health education reflects both the updated national standards and Michigan’s own public health priorities. Using surveys conducted on Michigan school district graduates based on their experiences and knowledge from health courses taken prior to graduation. Aiming to understand and identify gaps within Michigan’s and The United States health education curriculum. This article will also assess and review quality school based health education curriculums to highlight possible opportunities to strengthen implementation and curriculums.

Balneotherapy is a mineral and thermal based therapy that can also include mud baths and inhalation therapy. Modern medicine has designated this centuries-old practice as alternative medicine and marked its usage medically as not being effective or only being effective coupled with other treatment methods. Additionally despite the fact that it has been around for approximately 2,000 years within Japan there are no studies that I have found that purely focused on its development over time. The majority of these studies are medical-based studies which analyze specific instances of applications that are usually within the past century. Thus this research aims to understand the evolution of balneotherapy and how it has impacted treatment methods within Japan from the Kamakura Period 1185 to modern day through three lenses: religious, medical practice, wellness and preventative care. As Serbulea and Payyappallimana stated in their article on onsen in Japan, balneotherapy and onsen healing practices are “deeply embedded in the geographical and socio-cultural landscape of Japanese life.” Overall, after reviewing the idealizations and understandings of balneotherapy within modern medicine, I plan to keep in mind this quote and remember that there are various factors that play into overall health and wellness which can influence the outcomes of balneotherapy. I argue that despite not fitting into the mold of modern medicine Balneotherapy has evolved over time and is still useful in aiding various conditions.

Since the early 2000s, Japan has launched successive internationalization initiatives, Global 30, the Top Global Universities Program, and most recently J-MIRAI, aimed at boosting the global competitiveness of Japanese higher education institutions by recruiting larger international student populations. While these policies emphasize recruitment, they offer little direction on how institutions should facilitate meaningful exchange once students arrive. Existing literature consistently identifies cross-cultural socialization as a persistent barrier for international students in Japan, citing linguistic divides, physical separation, and intergroup anxiety. However, this literature rarely examines the specific institutional strategies meant to address this gap, or how students experience them in practice. This study addresses that gap through a case study of a private liberal arts university in Yokohama that employs a buddy program, institutionally organized pairings between Japanese and international students, as its primary mechanism for fostering cross-cultural contact. Drawing on semi-structured group interviews with nine international student participants, this study explores how students experience institutionally facilitated contact and what they identify as its strengths and shortcomings. Findings reveal a central dichotomy: students consistently desired greater institutional involvement, in the form of structured events, clearer communication, and language support, while simultaneously resisting forms of involvement perceived as overly mandatory or artificial. This tension suggests that effective institutional support for cross-cultural contact requires not simply more programming, but a careful calibration between facilitation and imposition.