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Greetings!
Today's newsletter is loaded with good news. From the $10 million grant to enhance medical education in Tanzania, to a successful international, student-hosted UAEM conference, to a host of new funding and employment opportunities, you'll want to read from start to finish.
Let us know what you want to see in upcoming editions of News & Notes. Send your feedback and story ideas to globalhealth@duke.edu.
Until next week,
Geelea Seaford and Everyone at DGHI
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| $10M Grant Expands Tanzanian Partnership to Enhance Medical Education
With the help of DGHI, Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre (KCMC) has received a five year, $10 million grant from PEPFAR, Fogarty International Center and Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) to strengthen medical education in Tanzania. The Medical Education Partnership Initiative (MEPI) grant expands the decades-long partnership
The grant will transform medical education in Tanzania. | between Duke and KCMC by providing a new generation of Tanzanian physicians with the knowledge, commitment and tools to become their country's leaders in academics, research and policy.
"With the extraordinary health needs in sub-Saharan Africa, in particular Tanzania, we are wise to invest in medical training as one way of addressing the challenges," said John Bartlett, MD, DGHI associate director for research and co-principal investigator. "We are excited by the possibilities this grant provides to the future of Tanzania and medical education, and to extend our partnership with KCMC."
Dr. Moshi Ntabaye, executive director of KCMC, is also co-principal investigator on the MEPI grant.
Through the new KCMC-Duke education initiative, the medical curriculum at KCMC will be reviewed and enhanced, particularly training in basic and laboratory sciences and research methodology. The curriculum will also be revised to utilize team-based, problem-based and community-based learning methods. A series of faculty workshops will be held to train KCMC faculty in these new approaches to medical education. The initiative will also transform the information technology infrastructure at KCMC and increase access to online resources and emerging technologies including streamed videos.
The MEPI awards were featured in a variety of national and international news outlets, including
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| Obese Workers Cost Workplace More Than Medical Expenses, Absenteeism
The cost of obesity among U.S. full-time employees is estimated to be $73.1 billion per year, according to a new study by a Duke University obesity researcher and a DGHI member, published last week in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.
This is the first study to quantify the total value of lost job productivity as a result of health problems - a phenomenon called presenteeism - which is more costly than medical expenditures and absenteeism.
 Led by Eric Finkelstein, deputy director for health services and systems research at Duke-National University of Singapore, the study quantified the per capita cost of obesity among full-time workers by considering three factors: employee medical expenditures, lost productivity on the job due to health problems (presenteeism), and absence from work (absenteeism).
Collectively, the per capita costs of obesity are as high as $16,900 for obese women with a body mass index (BMI) over 40 (roughly 100 pounds overweight) and $15,500 for obese men in the same BMI class. Presenteeism makes up the largest share of those costs. Finkelstein found that presenteeism accounted for as much as 56 percent of the total cost of obesity for women, and 68 percent for men. Even among those in the normal weight range, the value of lost productivity due to health problems far exceeded the medical costs.
As part of this secondary analysis of the 2006 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey and the 2008 US National Health and Wellness Survey, presenteeism was measured and monetized as the lost time between arriving at work and starting work on days when the employee is not feeling well, and the average frequency of losing concentration, repeating a job, working more slowly than usual, feeling fatigued at work, and doing nothing at work. The study included data on individuals who are normal weight, overweight and obese, with sub-groupings based on BMI.
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DGHI Holds Meeting of Board of Advisors in Durham
On Oct 6, DGHI welcomed 11 members of its 15-member Board of Advisors to Duke for the second meeting of the group. Chaired by Dr. Thomas Gorrie, the Board of Advisors is made up of internationally-renowned global health experts, corporate and policy leaders and philanthropists.  Board members heard from four Duke students (three undergrads and one graduate) about their summer fieldwork experiences abroad. Second year MSc-GH student Jackie Ndirangu spoke passionately about her research on human papillomavirus (HPV) and cervical cancer in Haiti. The Board was energized by the student presentations and praised the students for their dedication to improving health around the world. Duke President Richard Brodhead hosted a private dinner for Board members following the student presentations.
Institute Releases Mid-term Update
 Provost Peter Lange often says: "Global health is part of Duke's DNA." This is increasingly evident as you consider DGHI's achievements during the past nine months in faculty recruitment, student learning and engagement, and international site development. Global health has become embedded in nearly every aspect of campus life.
As examples, global health librarians are now stationed within both campus libraries; more than 40 undergraduates from 17 different majors graduated with a global health certificate, with another 50 students engaging in global health summer fieldwork; and in early 2011 a new global health module will begin in the Medical School curriculum.
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In the Media
- ABC News: Obesity in the Workplace Costs the U.S. Billions |
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 UAEM 2010 Conference Recap
Student-led Conference Energizes International Movement for Greater Access to Medicines
Undergraduate and graduate students from more than 43 institutions and seven countries, including Canada, Tanzania, Brazil, Uganda and Australia, and the US, convened in the Triangle on October 9-10 for the annual international conference of the grassroots student movement, Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM).
The conference was jointly hosted by the local UAEM chapters at Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill. UAEM promotes socially-responsible licensing policies at universities to increase access to medicines in developing countries, advocates for greater research in neglected diseases, and is working to increase the transparency of university technology transfer. Over the duration of the conference, participants heard from a number of speakers on topics related to global access to drugs and the promotion of licensing and research on neglected diseases. Following opening remarks from DGHI Founding Director Michael Merson, the conference got under way with Matthew Spitzer, president of the US Board of Directors of Doctors Without Borders/MSF, and Emi Maclean, director of the Access to Essential Medicines Campaign, who put a human face on the issues when they discussed MSF's struggles in overcoming intellectual property barriers to better serve the poor in developing countries.
See photos from the event. |
Global Health Opportunities
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