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Greetings!
Happy 2011! At the Duke Global Health Institute, we're looking forward to another productive year of new and expanded education, research and service programs and partnerships.
The first task on our 2011 to-do list is to host a pandemic. Well, not literally! DGHI is proud to host the second Winter Forum event for Duke undergraduates. This year's theme: PANDEMIC 2011. More than 100 students and a dozen faculty will participate in-person, online and around the world on January 9-11 through an interactive learning space. Watch as breaking news about the spread of the Duke pandemic hits the airwaves, and join us for the opening keynote on Jan. 9 featuring CDC Rear Admiral Anne Schuchat. Read more below and on the Winter Forum site.
Until next week,
Geelea Seaford and Everyone at DGHI
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| First Students Graduate with Master of Science in Global Health
 Ndirangu Follows in Mom's Footsteps to Improve Health
A Kenyan native and one of the first to complete the Master of Science in Global Health (MSc-GH), Jackie Ndirangu honors her mother's legacy as she carves out her own path in global health. Ndirangu's first memory of being involved in health care was at the age of 10 when she went to work with her mother, Maria Njeri Matubia, who led a women's clinic in one of Nairobi's poorest slums.
A proponent of female empowerment, Matubia led seminars on reproductive health. She challenged the women she served to breast feed and to use contraceptives. A nurse and midwife, Matubia also took on the role of helping women work their way out of economic hardship. She wanted them to control their lives whenever possible. Sadly, Ndirangu's mother died when she was 13 years old.
Ndirangu came to the US in 2000, earning a bachelor's degree in biology at the University of Maryland. Back then, her dream was to get a master's degree and do research. Ndirangu first worked as a microbiologist at Digene, now the Qiagen Bioscience Corporation, in Maryland.
Catalino | Catalino Completes MSc-GH, Heads to Medical School with Newfound Perspectives One of the first recipients of DGHI's Master of Science in Global Health (MSc-GH) Michael Catalino calls the program "invaluable for his growth as a researcher." With plans to attend medical school next fall, his global health degree will help to inform his career in medicine.
"The MSc-GH is a new and exciting program that really makes the students responsible for their own growth," said Catalino. "DGHI has the faculty, knowledge and resources available at our disposal; it is up to us to become the global health researchers we desire to be."
Catalino's global health research and thesis project focused on the link between health, spirituality and religion. In the city of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, he trained a team of Honduran surveyors to collect data on cultural and personal beliefs associated with health-seeking behaviors and spiritual or religious practices. While few complementary and alternative medicine studies include prayer as a potential treatment, Catalino's research accounted for prayer to God and Saints, in combination with herbal medicines.
DGHI is currently accepting applications for the Master of Science in Global Health for the cohort beginning in Fall 2011. Apply by January 30. |
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| U.S. Public Health Leader to Give Keynote at Duke's Winter Forum Event
Beginning this Sunday, the Duke Global Health Institute will host Duke's second annual Winter Forum. This year's event, PANDEMIC 2011, will provide 110 Duke undergraduate students the opportunity to explore the complex implications and challenges of confronting a
Schuchat | pandemic spreading across the world.
To open the Duke event, the keynote address on Sunday, January 9 will be delivered by CDC Rear Admiral Anne Schuchat, MD. Schuchat is the Assistant Surgeon General of the United States Public Health Service and the Director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. Schuchat will discuss the challenges of surveillance and containment of influenza epidemics and the lessons learned from past outbreaks, including H1N1, Avian Flu and SARS.
During PANDEMIC 2011, students will explore how diseases spread, how and when vaccines are developed, the ethics of who receives treatment, how governments prepare and respond, and the role of the media in disseminating information during a crisis. This event is designed to appeal and be relevant to students in any program and department.
Winter Forum is an annual conference for undergraduates, sponsored by the Office of Undergraduate Education. Led by Duke faculty members and experts, students evaluate a global issue from perspectives of multiple disciplines and cultural perspectives as well as engage in collaborative work.
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| DGHI Announces New Faculty Grant Awards
 Manoj Mohanan, assistant research professor of Economics and Global Health, has been awarded a six-month $426,990 grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to conduct an evaluation of social franchising and telemedicine in Bihar, India. The Bihar Evaluation of Social Franchising and Telemedicine (BEST) project is an evaluation of the Private Provider Project in Bihar, which will be implemented by World Health Partners (WHP). The evaluation will be conducted by COHESIVE-India, a collaboration of researchers from Duke, Stanford, University College London, and World Bank.
COHESIVE-India will design the evaluation, conduct sample size estimations, develop study protocols, instruments, validate and pilot-test measures and indicators to be employed in the evaluation. The grant will also fund the recruitment and training of field workers in preparation for the evaluation fieldwork.
 Christopher Conover, research scholar at DGHI's Center for Health Policy, has been awarded a one-year $50,200 grant to conduct an evaluation of the on-site health center at SAS Institute in Cary, North Carolina.
Funded by the SAS Institute, Conover will examine the impact of the SAS Health Center (SHC) on health outcomes, utilization and costs of medical services, and workplace absenteeism. He and a team of researchers will work with SAS to operationally define the impacts of interest, to determine what information about SAS employees and dependents should be assembled to perform this analysis, and how to analyze the data to obtain conclusions about its effectiveness.
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Global Health Opportunities
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