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Weekly News and Notes
From the Duke Global Health Institute
Greetings!
Today we highlight two new global health courses offered this semester to Duke undergraduates and graduate students. Global Nutrition and Global Health Financing address two of the most important issues in global health. Duke students will want to consider these opportunities this semester.
Also, the priority deadline for applying to the Master of Science in Global Health program is January 30. See details and view a video from a current MSc-GH student at the link below.
Finally, make plans to attend the annual Blue Jean Ball on Feb. 13 hosted by Duke Department of OB/GYN. Proceeds benefit maternal and child health initiatives in Tanzania. Click here for details.
Until next week,
Geelea Seaford and Everyone at DGHI
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New Global Health Courses Focus on Nutrition and Financing
By Alyssa Zamora, Duke Global Health Institute
Global Nutrition and Global Health Financing are the topics of two new courses offered this Spring. These courses are geared toward undergraduate students in the global health certificate program and graduate students enrolled in DGHI's Master of Science in Global Health. They explore relevant global health issues that offer students a broader understanding of the challenges that face many resource-limited communities.
 Global Nutrition: Over and Under Nutrition in Developing Countries (GLHLTH 220S) will discuss the epidemiological, biological and behavioral consequences that lead to malnutrition as well as obesity. The course will also have a strong emphasis on ethical and political issues related to nutrition policy and programs in poor nations. Taught by DGHI faculty member Sara Benjamin, the course will culminate in a final project in which students will develop a program to address a particular nutrition-related health issue in a developing country. Students will also have the chance to engage with key players in the field.
"Students will have the opportunity to interact with researchers and other students currently engaged in projects related to nutrition in developing countries," said Benjamin, assistant professor, Department of Community and Family Medicine. "We are excited to enable students interested in nutrition to be able to learn about opportunities to get involved in those projects."
Global Health Supply, Financing and Organization (GLHLTH184.02/ECON184.02/ECON284.02) will explore how financing drives pharmaceutical and vaccine research, health delivery and technology adoption in low and middle income countries. The issue is vital for resource-poor settings.
"The average income in some of these countries is roughly a dollar a day per capita," said Frank Sloan, DGHI affiliate and professor of health policy and economics. "If you don't have financing, you don't have health care. If you don't have physicians, nurses, hospitals and vaccines, you don't have health care."
The course will explore the organization of health care, the costs and benefits associated with health technologies and the availability and financing of pharmaceutics in resource-poor settings. Students will also study whether the public or private sector is more effective in delivering health care services.
Economics is not a pre-requisite for this course.
Students still have time to enroll for these and other global health courses prior to the drop/add deadline on Wednesday, January 27. For a full listing of global health courses offered this semester, click here. |
New and Noteworthy
DGHI Faculty Author New Publications in the American Journal on Public Health
Winners of Smart Global Health Essay Contest Emphasize Cooperation Across Wealthy, Poor Nations
After receiving hundreds of submissions, the CSIS Commission on Smart Global Health Policy has selected two winners of the 2009 essay contest.
 Winner of the non-student division is Dr. Michael Strong, postdoctoral fellow in the Genetics Department at Harvard Medical School. Winner of the student division is Annie Dude, an MD/PhD student at the University of Chicago.
Seeking fresh new approaches to global health policy, the CSIS Commission on Smart Global Health launched the contest to attract innovative ideas that work. Essayists answered: What is the most important thing the U.S. can do to improve global health over the next 15 years? Both winning essays centered on the need for further collaboration across developed and developing countries.
"In India, I lived at a hospital envisioned, funded, and built by a cardiologist raised in Hyderabad but who now worked at the University of Pittsburgh, said Dude. "Local people, who previously shunned hospitals as 'the places where people go to die' had begun coming in droves once they realized the pharmacy always had drugs, and the operating room lights stayed on."
"As a scientist, conducting research on tuberculosis for the better part of a decade, I have been most impressed by those individuals who have made an effort to bridge geographic boundaries to collaborate and work in countries where diseases such as tuberculosis, malaria, and AIDS are rampant," said Strong. "It is my hope, that in the next 15 years, more individuals will get involved in the global health movement, to help reduce global health disparities and to devise solutions to raise the quality of life and healthcare for all individuals, unrestrained by geographic boundaries."
Read the winning essays, as well as those of second place winners and honorable mentions here.
Secretary Clinton Reaffirms U.S. Commitment to Reproductive Health
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Friday reiterated the Obama administration's support for universal access to family planning, improving maternal health care and other goals outlined at the 1995 International Conference on Population and Development Action Plan held in Cairo, Egypt.
 "Too often, still today in 2010, women and girls bear the burdens of regional and global crises, whether it's an economic downturn or climate change or political instability," said Clinton. "And 15 years after the Cairo conference, far too many women still have little or no access to reproductive health services, including family planning and maternal healthcare," Clinton said, noting that "more than 215 million women worldwide" do not have access to "modern contraception."
Clinton said the Obama Administration is "convinced of the value of investing in women and girls," adding, "we understand there is a direct line between a woman's reproductive health and her ability to lead a productive, fulfilling life." According to a State Department transcript, Clinton said the administration will integrate "women's issues as key elements of our foreign policy agenda and in, especially, our Global Health Initiative and our Global Food Security Initiative." Read more from the Kaiser Daily Global Health Policy Report.
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Faculty News and Funding
Engage with Students on Global Health Research
Duke's "Research in Practice" Program (RIPP) serves as an information clearinghouse to match student interests with appropriate personnel and faculty across the university and community. The RIPP administers a series of undergraduate independent studies that identify and analyze feasible solutions for issues within the fields of global health, the environment, and other societal concerns. Read more >>
NIH Basic Behavioral and Social Science Opportunity Network Short-term Mentored Career Development Awards
This NIH Funding Opportunity Announcement supported by funds provided to the NIH under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 invites applications for short-term mentored career development (K18) awards in the basic behavioral and social sciences research (b-BSSR) from three months to one year in duration. Deadline for letters of intent is January 20. Read more >>
Gates Foundation Seeks New Diagnostics for Developing World
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is now accepting letters of inquiry for a new grant program to develop point-of-care diagnostics for the developing world. $30 million in new grants will be available through Grand Challenges Diagnostics, a part of the Grand Challenges in Global Health initiative. The program will develop components and technologies that allow assessment of multiple conditions and pathogens at the point-of-care in a variety of settings. Deadline to apply is February 16. Read more >>
Recovery Act Limited Competition: NIH Director's Opportunity for Global Health Research
This NIH Funding Opportunity Announcement, supported by funds provided to the NIH under the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act of 2009, solicits through this limited competition applications from domestic institutions/organizations proposing to develop and implement critical research innovations in one or five thematic areas, including global health. Application Due Date is March 16. Read more >>
Education, Training Opportunities
FICRS-F Announces New Fellowship in Global Mental Health Research
The Fogarty International Clinical Research Scholars Support Center at the Vanderbilt University Institute for Global Health (VIGH) is pleased to announce a new one-year clinical research training program for persons in post-residency clinical fellowships, in other health-related post-doctoral programs, and/or within three years of their last major degree training (e.g., registrar, residency, fellowship, doctoral program). Deadline to apply is February 12. Read more >>
* * * For additional faculty opportunities, click here.
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Engage with Faculty on Global Health Research
Duke's "Research in Practice" Program (RIPP) serves as an information clearing house to match student interests with appropriate personnel and faculty across the university and community. The RIPP administers a series of undergraduate independent studies that identify and analyze feasible solutions for issues within the fields of global health, the environment, and other societal concerns. Read more >>
DGHI Fieldwork Project Opportunities
The Duke Global Health Institute is accepting applications for more than a dozen projects in nine countries this summer. Deadline to apply for DGHI funding is March 5. New opportunities include:
Internships for Summer 2010: Become a Leader in Global Health
The Global Health Fellows Program (GHFP) has a range of exciting compensated internships for summer 2010 in two different programs, one based in Washington, D.C., the other based overseas in Uganda, Senegal and Cambodia. Each program has its own unique opportunities that can have a significant impact on your career in global health. Deadline February 1 and February 5. Read more >> GHEI 2010 Summer Serve and Learn Program
Ghana Health and Education Initiative (GHEI) is now recruiting volunteers to participate in the 2010 Summer Serve and Learn Program. GHEI is a small non-profit based in the Western region of Ghana in the small farming community of Humjibre. Our mission is to promote education and health through principles of sustainable development and community empowerment. Deadline to apply is February 1. Read more >>
DGHI MSc-GH Program - Call for Applications
The Duke Global Health Institute, in collaboration with the Duke Graduate School, is accepting applications for the second cohort of the Master of Science in Global Health (MSc-GH) program, which will begin in August 2010. Deadline to apply is January 30. Read more >>
2010-2011 Graduate and Young Professional Fellowship Program in Public Policy
The Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute (CHCI), the nation's premier Hispanic educational and youth leadership development organization, is seeking applicants for its Graduate and Young Professional Fellowships. The Graduate and Young Professional Fellowship Program offers exceptional Latino graduates and young professionals unparalleled exposure to experiences in the underserved public policy areas of health, housing, law, international affairs, and science, technology, engineering and math. Deadline to apply is February 19. Read more >>
Funding Opportunity
The NEW AID Foundation: Working to reverse the "10/90 Health Research Gap"
The NEWAID Foundation provides grants to public health graduate students and early-career, American scientists to conduct research abroad in areas of neglected infectious diseases. Through these grants, the hope is to advance our understanding of the scientific basis of these diseases and the social factors which lead to their marginalization. Deadline is January 31. Read more >>
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January 14, 2010 »
4:30-5:30 pm
Stedman Nutritioanl & Metabolism Center
January 20, 2010 »
4:30-6 pm
John Hope Franklin Center, Room 240
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January 21, 2010 » 4:30 pm
Duke School of Nursing Auditorium, Room 1014
School of Nursing/OGACHI nnual Lecture on Global Health: "The Millennium Development Goals: Will Developing Countries Meet Them by 2015?" - Gary Cohen
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January 28, 2010 » 4:30-6 pm
Perkins Library, Room 217
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February 3, 2010 » 4:30-6 pm
John Hope Franklin Center, Room 240
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February 9, 2010 » 12-1 pm
Trent Hall, Room 124
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February 11, 2010 » 4:30-5:30 pm
Stedman Nutritional & Metabolism Center
February 13, 2010 » 6 pm
Sheraton Imperial Hotal, Durham
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February 17, 2010 » 4:30-6 pm
NOTE NEW LOCATION: Perkins Library Room 217
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View more upcoming events.
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