|
Weekly News and Notes
From the Duke Global Health Institute
Greetings!
Campus is buzzing today following Duke's NCAA basketball championship victory! On behalf of DGHI, congratulations to the Blue Devils and Coach K for a great win last night and a terrific season.
We are also proud of the 23 undergraduate and graduate students who received DGHI summer fieldwork grants to support their research and service-learning projects. In addition, we're pleased to announce the recipient of the first Aalok S. Modi Fellowship. There's much to be excited about these days at Duke and DGHI. Join in our efforts by following us on Facebook, Twitter and our Web site. New information is posted daily. Geelea Seaford and Everyone at DGHI
|
|
|
23 Students Awarded DGHI Funding for Global Health Research
The Duke Global Health Institute is pleased to award 23 grants to support student global health research and fieldwork projects in 10 countries this summer. With a total of $64,564 awarded to students, awardees include 18 undergraduates, two MSc-GH students, one medical student and two PhD students.
"The project proposals we received this year continue to reflect Duke students' interest and commitment to academic investigation,
Last summer, Duke student Lisa Deng conducted fieldwork in Naama, Uganda. Her group donated a microscope to a local school.
 | especially as it relates to application and service," said Sumi Ariely, DGHI student projects coordinator. "These students are mentored by faculty across seven different departments at Duke and represent a variety of important global health topics, ranging from trauma in obstetric fistula patients to intergenerational transmission of weight-related behaviors, to an economic analysis of telemedicine."
DGHI supports 18 fieldwork projects in 10 countries. Each student will be working in conjunction with a community partner to carry out their project. Upon their return to Duke in the fall, each student will present their research and experiences at GH TRIPS 2010 before their peers and global health faculty.
"We are excited about the students' upcoming summer work and look forward to hearing their stories from the field," said Ariely.
This is the third year DGHI has administered the fieldwork grant program.
Duke Undergraduate Selected for Inaugural Global Health Fieldwork Fund
Aalok S. Modi's life was tragically cut short two years ago, but it was his life-long dream to pursue a career in medicine and global health. The new global health scholarship in his name represents Modi's legacy at Duke, and aims to empower other Duke students to engage in global health research that embodies his aspirations and commitment to serve humanity.
Shah, an economics major and chemistry minor who is pursuing the Global Health Certificate through DGHI, will receive $2,500 to carry out a research project in Naama, Uganda this summer. She will be conducting a needs assessment to determine the financial feasibility of an Emergency Obstetric Medical Service in Naama, where she hopes her research will lead to training of first responders and a community financing plan to sustain the service.
The Aalok S. Modi Global Health Fieldwork Fund is administered by DGHI, and the recipient was selected by members of the Modi family, the fundraising committee and Duke faculty. |
A New Way to Think About Health
In times of crisis, people are more willing to accept that they should care for one another, according to an eminent authority on global health who hails the recent passage of health care reform in the US. Dean of the Faculty at Harvard School of Public Health Julio Frenk, who introduced health care reform in his home country of Mexico, said this is a time of great change and complexity and encourages others to rethink how they perceive health.
 In a recent University Seminar on Global Health that took place on "Public Health Day" of the student-run Global Health Week at Duke, Frenk emphasized that health must be regarded as a human right, and that shared knowledge will drive improvements in health for the poorest and the wealthiest of nations.
"Global health is not foreign health. We need to understand that health takes into account the entire population of this world," said Frenk before a crowd of 75 Duke students, faculty and staff at the Bryan Center. "The defining feature of global health is its interdependence and interconnectedness. That's why we talk about equity, because what's unacceptable is not that certain people die, but that they die in certain parts of the world."
Many low-and middle-income countries are faced with a triple burden of disease today, according to Frenk. First, there is an unfinished agenda of reproductive health, common infections and malnutrition. Second, chronic diseases, in which Frenk said China and India have a higher prevalence of cardiovascular disease than all developing nations combined. Third, health challenges directly linked to globalization, which includes the AIDS epidemic and more recently H1N1.
Read the full story.
Duke Neurosurgery Resident Receives Holt Young Physician Leadership Award
Duke Neurosurgery Resident Dr. Stephen Parker is the recipient of this year's Holt Young Physician Leadership Award presented by the Southern Medical Association (SMA). The Holt Award recognizes a senior or chief resident who has exhibited excellent leadership traits early in their career and shows the promise of a future career of outstanding leadership in health care.
 A senior resident in the Duke University Neurosurgery Training Program, Parker has done an outstanding job over the past five years leading the Duke Resident Core and Duke Neurosurgery teams in the Neurosurgery Program in East Africa. Parker's leadership skills were further demonstrated when he helped organize the first ever trip in 2007 to Kampala, Uganda, where he worked with two other doctors to perform over 32 neurosurgical procedures while setting up a five-bed operating room, six-bed recovery and eight-bed neurosurgery intensive care unit.
Parker was one of only four selected to join the very prestigious program of the Inaugural Class of the Duke Global Health Residency Program. Administered by the Hubert-Yeargan Center for Global Health and the Duke Global Health Institute, the program includes nine months of advanced training in global health or public health and nine months in the field in East Africa. Parker performed in an outstanding manner in both the classroom and as a leader of the group of four residents.
Blogging from Honduras:
DGHI's Dennis Clements, Students Report Back to Duke on Experience
 This is the tenth year that Duke Pediatrician and DGHI Senior Advisor Dennis Clements has taken his "Exploring Medicine" class to Honduras. For two weeks each spring, his group delivers medical supplies and treats sick patients in the remote Honduran village of Las Mercedes.
This year also marks the opening of a new maternal clinic in Las Mercedes, the first in the area, an effort that was driven by Clements and a variety of Duke and Honduran community partners. The Duke medical team is working out of the new clinic, rather than the old schoolhouse they used in previous years.
Follow their journey on the Exploring Medicine 2010 Blog, in which they are seeing several hundred patients a day, many from outerlying areas. They will be treating patients in this underserved community through April 10.
Wednesday is World Health Day
 "For the first time in history, more people live in cities and towns than in rural areas. In a parallel trend, the burden of world poverty is also shifting from sparsely populated rural areas to densely populated cities. By mid-century, urban dwellers will count for 7 out of every 10 people. Most of this explosive growth is occurring in developing countries. Rapid, unplanned urbanization is expanding slums and informal settlements, and municipal authorities are struggling to cope.
The disparity in people's income, opportunities, living conditions and access to services is most vividly reflected by the mirror of public health. The threats are numerous: inadequate sanitation and refuse collection; industrial and traffic pollution; infectious diseases that thrive on squalor and crowded conditions; high rates of tobacco use; physical inactivity; unhealthy diets; crime, violence and the use of harmful substances.
To a large extent these problems lie beyond the direct control of the health sector. Improving urban health therefore requires sound policies across all areas of Government and awareness among all sectors of society. The broad family of United Nations agencies and programmes is involved in this effort: working to reduce air and noise pollution, traffic congestion and crime; helping to improve housing, sanitation and food and water safety..."
More information about World Health Day. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The 9th International Conference on Urban Health takes place in New York City on October 27-29th. Call for abstracts opens this week at www.icuh2010.org |
|
Faculty News and Funding
Grant Awarded to CHP's Chris Conover
 Center for Health Policy Research Scholar Chris Conover has been awarded $80,471 from American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research to develop a monograph on health care reform and its impact on the economy and global competition. The project entitled "The Illustrated Guide to the American Health Economy" will provide a broader context for understanding the debate over health care reform by illustrating the importance of the US health industry on the economy, how the health economy works and is financed, variations across states in access, costs and quality, and how these factors affect US performance in the global competition.
The position will report to the Director and will oversee the strategic planning efforts of the Institute as well as its international expansion. The Deputy Director will represent the Director in numerous settings, both internal and external to Duke University, and take a leading role in the recruitment and development of the Institute's faculty. Read more and apply.
Funding Opportunities
Grand Challenges Explorations: Accepting Grant Proposals for Round 5
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is now accepting grant proposals for Round 5 of Grand Challenges Explorations, a US $100 million initiative to encourage unconventional global health solutions. Anyone can apply, regardless of education or experience level. Deadline May 19. Read more.
NEW! Limited Competition: Administrative Supplements for HIV/AIDS Implementation Science in PEPFAR Settings
The NIH, in collaboration with the Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator, is soliciting applications for one-year supplements which will inform the President's Emergency Program for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) on effective and efficient approaches to HIV prevention, care and treatment. Deadline June 1. Read more.
NEW! Fogarty International Collaborative Trauma and Injury Research Training Program (D43)
The application must propose a collaborative research training program that will strengthen the capacity of institutions in low-and middle-income countries (LMIC), defined by the World Bank classification system, to conduct human trauma and injury research. Deadline June 8. Read more.
NEW! Call for Research Proposals in Tropical Diseases: Joint SEARO-TDR Small Grants Programme
Priority for this opportunity will be given to projects integrating operational research activities of more than one communicable disease, providing the opportunity for involving junior researchers, establishing links between institutions, and promoting research capacity strengthening in countries of the Region. Deadline June 15. Read more.
Education/Training Opportunity
NEW! Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center Residency
The Bellagio Center provides a platform for launching new ideas and solutions to some of the most difficult global problems. Residencies allow for disciplined work and collaborative action on these issues, uninterrupted by the usual professional and personal demands. Residency participants include scholars, scientists, artists, journalists, writers, non-governmental organization practitioners and policymakers from around the world. Deadline May 7. Read more.
* * * For additional faculty opportunities, click here. |
|
Video and Logo Contests for DGHI-affiliated Clinical Weight Loss Trial
How do 18-35 year olds control their weight? Love YouTube and viral videos? Duke weight loss researchers are hosting a competition to create a viral video or animation to entice overweight and obese 18-35 year-olds in the Durham area to join a two-year, randomized clinical weight loss trial. Videos can be funny, thought-provoking, whimsical, serious, or all of the above. Any cinematic style is acceptable. The video should entice viewers to consider recruitment in the study. View the flyer. Deadline April 30.
Duke researchers are also seeking help in designing the study logo for the two-year clinical weight loss trial. This study (named CITY) will help the participants in losing weight by adopting healthy lifestyles. The logo must be creative, inspiring and motivational. View the flyer. Deadline April 23.
The new clinical trial is under the direction of DGHI member Gary Bennett, associate professor of psychology and neuroscience. Read more about his research at BennettLab.
Global Semester Abroad in India and China: Call for Applications
Duke faculty from the Sanford School of Public Policy, the Department of Cultural Anthropology and the Duke Global Health Institute have partnered to offer undergraduate students an in-depth exploration of health and development issues in India and China. Deadline April 16. Read more.
NEW! Paid Internship Opportunity with Center for Health Policy
The interns filling these positions will be responsible for assisting with documenting of survey instruments; cleaning and conducting preliminary analysis of quantitative data; working with team members at the sites to assess and improve data quality; amd reporting on data quality and analysis results to the research teams. Deadline to apply April 10. Read more.
Grand Challenges Explorations: Accepting Grant Proposals for Round 5
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is now accepting grant proposals for Round 5 of Grand Challenges Explorations, a US $100 million initiative to encourage unconventional global health solutions. Anyone can apply, regardless of education or experience level. Deadline May 19. Read more.
NEW! Call for Scholarship Applications for Keystone Symposia Global Health Series
This October, Keystone Symposia will host the first Global Health Series meeting of its 2010-2011 season. The meeting is generously supported by a three-year grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Scholarships are available for students. Read more.
* * *
| |
|
|
|
Stedman Nutritional & Metabolism Center
Page Auditorium
Westbrook Room 0015, Divinity School
Searle Center Lecture Hall
FedEx Global Education Center, UNC
April 14 » 4:30-6 pm
John Hope Franklin Center, Room 240
April 16 » 2:30-4:30 pm
Westbrook Room 0015, Divinity School
|
|
Video Corner
As the Institute celebrates a new milestone this week, the first meeting of the DGHI Board of Advisors in New York City, we reflect on how far we've come, and our continued efforts to educate future global health leaders and seek to reduce health disparities, which underlies all that we do.
*****
Other recent DGHI Videos:
Harley Feldbaum
Johns Hopkins University
Kirk R. Smith
University of California, Berkeley
|
|
End of Gene Patents Will Help Patients, Force Companies to Change
-Reuters
with comments from DGHI affiliate Bob Cook-Deegen
Displacement
-WUNC Public Radio
with commentary from DGHI affiliate and cultural anthropologist Ralph Litzinger on the Three Gorges Dam project exhibit at the Nasher Museum.
| |
