DGHI News: "Faces of Global Health"

New and Noteworthy

Bringing Global Health Home: Student-created Cookbook to be Used in NC Obesity Study

Spinach Pasta and a No-Fuss Veggie Quesadilla are two of the low-cholesterol recipes found in a new cookbook that will be used by a DGHI-affiliated obesity intervention currently under way in North Carolina. The cookbook, "Cooking Healthy, Easy Foods While Saving (CHEFS)," developed by interns at DGHI's Center for Health Policy, aims to help low-income families and people with chronic health issues to eat healthy.

CHP interns left to right: Darren Webber, Yue Jiang, Ogechi Nzewi, Nandini Kumar, John Min, Ji Won Yeom.

"We are excited to incorporate some of the recipes into materials that we send to SHAPE Program participants," said DGHI member and researcher Gary Bennett, whose 18-month obesity prevention trial targets overweight female primary care patients aged 25-44. "We try to incorporate fun, new recipes into all of the educational materials used in our studies because they can help participants with behavior change, and having the CHEFS cookbook as an additional resource is one of the many great benefits of having summer internship programs at CHP."

The 91-page cookbook is an informative and practical guide to eating healthy and inexpensively. It contains nearly 50 recipes, healthy eating and cooking tips, and special dietary labels for low-sodium, low-cholesterol, and low-fat meals and snacks.

"Many of the recipes use local, widely-available ingredients in new and fresh ways," said Bennett, associate professor of psychology and neuroscience. "They dovetail nicely with many of the evidence-based recommendations we make to participants, such as eat more fruits and vegetables, eat less red meat, have more whole grains, and watch sodium levels."

Read more to find out other ways the CHEFS cookbook is being used, and hear from the students about their experience.

Engineering World Health Expands Biomedical Equipment Training Program to Three More Countries

Engineering World Health (EWH) began its biomedical equipment technician (BMET) training program in late 2009 to provide training for 45 technicians in Rwanda. The program was funded by the GE Foundation with the goal of providing enough trained technicians to

Jenna Maloka and Melanie Bloom reparing equipment. Maloka helped develop BMET Training curriclum being used in Rwanda.

service every hospital in Rwanda within three years. Thanks to further funding from the GE Foundation, EWH is now expanding its training program to Cambodia, Honduras and Ghana.

The EWH BMET training programs feature needs-based curricula tailored to each country in partnership with Duke University. The curriculum being used in Rwanda was developed by undergraduates at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering, including Allison Keane, Jenna Maloka, Kathleen Murphy and Marian Dickinson.

The introductory BMET training course teaches students about healthcare technology management, computer skills, principles of medical device operation, and professional development. Students build their equipment repair abilities through a broad base of specific skills that apply to the maintenance and repair of numerous types of biomedical equipment. In these countries, technicians attend a two-month intensive course twice per year. With this method, the student technicians reinforce their classroom learning with alternating time periods of hands-on practice at their hospital, and the hospitals begin reaping the benefits immediately after the first session of classes finish. After three years and six training sessions, the students receive a certification in BMET.

Read more from EWH's Blog.

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Scientific American Highlights Global Health in New Publication: "Lives: New Answers for Global Health"

A new partner publication of Scientific American,"Lives: New Answers for Global Health," highlights the vast global health challenges of our day through the lives of people.

As the publication's editor wrote, "the topic of global health is, in one sense, the additive health, ill-health, wellness and unwellness of every person on the planet. Global health is about our lives."

Click the image to read the publication.

Lives examines global health through the eyes of the world's most vulnerable inhabitants as well as individuals who have made contributions to the field. One of the profiles features Duke alumnus Sandeep Kishore, a student in the midst of a rigorous physician-scientist training program, but whose work has already made a difference in global health. Kishore has expanded the curricula at his medical school to include neglected tropical diseases (NTDs); he's spearheaded the addition of cholesterol-lowering drugs on the WHO's essential medicines list; and now he's launched a new organization for young professionals to battle chronic disease in developing countries at the grassroots level.

The publication also highlights new solutions and innovations in global health, the path to a malaria vaccine, and viewpoints on a variety of topics such as africa's hunger, the global water crisis, the value of nurses for health promotion, curbing chronic disease and the need for continued cross-sector collaborations to improve health in underserved and marginalized communities around the globe.

Download a PDF version of the Lives publication.