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Greetings!
How do you address an overwhelming issue like improving the health system of a country? You start by listening. Read the story of Fuqua professor and DGHI affiliate Will Mitchell and his successful efforts to work with and train Nigerian health professionals in management and leadership.
Also this week, watch an interview with Dr. Merson and President Brodhead at a recent Duke Idea event, and read about DGHI's effort to instigate new research and new partnerships around the world by providing grants to faculty.
Until next week,
Geelea Seaford and Everyone at DGHI
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Duke Initiative Builds Model for Training Mid-level Nigerian Health Care Managers
MLMT 2010 Graduation | A training initiative developed in Nigeria with the assistance of Duke University faculty and staff is filling a gap in leadership and management training in the country's health sector, which is plagued by high rates of polio, malaria and tuberculosis. With program development and delivery assistance from Will Mitchell, Duke professor of international management and strategy and Duke Global Health Institute affiliate, the program's collaboration is helping Nigerian partners build a sustainable model for health management training, while improving primary care operations and health outcomes in their country.
This fall, 96 Nigerian mid-level health managers graduated from the Mid-Level Management Training program in Abuja, Nigeria's capital. The program's included participants from 36 of Nigeria's 37 states, who were all affiliated with the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA). The NPHCDA is made up of more than 700 employees and leads the country's immunization program and promotes the strengthening of primary health care. The training targeted doctors, community health officers, midwives, nurses and health administrators - the people serve as a link between direct local primary health care providers and top-level administrators and policy makers.
Consisting of six week-long sessions over 10 months, the discussion and practice-based training program focused on core areas of management, including leadership, financial management, economics, communications, strategic planning, and epidemiology, as well as key aspects of health policy . Rather than replicate a Duke program in an international setting, the training was tailored to local needs and maximized the knowledge and resources of strong faculty and staff already on the ground in Nigeria.
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DGHI Grant is Catalyst for Expansion of Faculty Research Around the Globe
Kristen Shirey in Kenya |
The Duke Global Health Institute is proud to announce five new recipients of grants for travel to India, South Africa, Egypt, Kenya and Argentina with the aim of expanding their global health research. DGHI International Travel Grants are awarded twice a year to Duke junior faculty, PhD or MD students or postdoctoral fellows interested in pursuing global health research opportunities in low- or middle-income countries. Each receiving up to $5,000 in travel funds, the grantees include Ravi Jhaveri, Viviana Martinez-Bianchi, Joanna (Asia) Maselko, Christina Meade and Kristen Shirey (pictured above).
This is the second travel grant awarded to Joanna (Asia) Maselko, whose first DGHI-funded trip to Kerala, India a year ago developed the framework for her research on aging and mental health. As the Kerala population over 50 has risen dramatically, the Indian state has one of the highest suicide rates in South Asia and high rates of diagnosed psychiatric disorders. In her second trip, Maselko will begin implementing a pilot data collection exercise and identify funding for a larger study. Potential research projects include a community study of elderly individuals and their caregivers to assess psychosocial needs, a pilot intervention of care centers for elderly with disabilities, or a population-based statewide epidemiologic assessment of mental health issues among the elderly.
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| Improving Health Around the World is a Strength at Duke
Click image to watch video |
Duke Global Health Institute Founding Director Michael Merson addressed Duke's strengths to improve health around the world at a recent " Duke Idea" alumni event in Baltimore, Maryland.
Merson shared what led him to a career in global health, his passion for reducing health disparities, and the success that DGHI has been able to achieve in just four short years. The conversation was led by Duke President Richard H. Brodhead.
Although the Institute works in many marginalized and underprivileged communities around the world, it also works on a number of health research and service-related projects in our backyard. Merson said the health challenges that impact populations abroad are not all that different from those in North Carolina and the US. DGHI has a growing list of research projects in North Carolina which address obesity, community health, HIV prevention, nutrition and child health and environmental health, to name a few.
Merson also discussed Winter Forum Pandemic 2011, an annual event which will be co-hosted by DGHI and the Office of Undergraduate Student Affairs this year. During the 2-day event, faculty will stage a pandemic and students will work in groups to learn more about the key components of response, assumptions the public make about disease and the ethical dilemmas health authorities are faced with in an emergency situation.
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Global Health News
 New Report Addresses Long-term Strategy to Combat AIDS
A new book previewed on World AIDS Day by the world's leading AIDS experts as part of the aids2031 initiative, lays out a new approach for addressing the challenges of AIDS. These challenges include better science, smarter public policy, more efficient and effective programs, adequate funding, and strategies for addressing the blind spots in existing efforts.
There have been many scientific advances in AIDS in its 30-year history, including greatly expanded access to prevention and treatment with scientific breakthroughs, unprecedented global funding, and a new model for human rights and public health policy. Most important, millions of lives have been saved. Many no longer see AIDS as a global emergency threatening everyone in every country and at every level of society. But, the book "AIDS: Taking a Long-Term View" stresses that AIDS is not over. AIDS has become hyperendemic in some countries, such as in Southern Africa, and has largely become concentrated in the most marginalized communities. Over 25 million people have died from AIDS since it was first reported in 1981, and more than 33.3 million are living with HIV today. Instead, AIDS is a generations-long challenge that can only be effectively addressed with long-term thinking, planning and investing.
Duke Global Health Institute Founding Director Michael Merson served on the aids2031 initiative's steering committee and co-chaired the Science and Technology Working Group with DGHI Board of Advisor member Chris Elias of PATH.
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Global Health Opportunities
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