|
|
|
Greetings!
Today marks the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day. In many places- particularly in Africa- today is a national holiday, banks are closed and celebrations abound. However, around the world 1,000 women will die today of complications due to pregnancy and childbirth. Ninety percent of those deaths could be prevented with access to basic health services.
International Women's Day is a day we should redouble our efforts to address the challenges faced by women and girls. DGHI and ABC News: Be the Change are doing this by launching a Maternal Health Innovation Challenge for university students worldwide. We're challenging students to send us videos describing their best ideas and innovations that will save the lives of mothers. In return, the best idea will be awarded $10,000 and the opportunity to develop and deploy their idea in the world.
Think you have the winning idea? Go to www.saveone.net and show us what you've got! The result won't be just a good idea, but the lives of women saved.
Until next week, Geelea Seaford and Everyone at DGHI |
|
|
|
Maternal Health Challenge Issued for University Students Worldwide
University students around the world are being issued a challenge by ABC News and the Duke Global Health Institute: design solutions that prevent women worldwide from dying during childbirth. Around the world, more than 350,000 women die each year of complications due to childbirth. In the vast majority of cases, the  causes are preventable: severe bleeding, infection, obstructed labor and other problems that can be averted with skilled care and improved technology. ABC News' Be the Change: Save a Life and the Duke Global Health Institute, in partnership with The Lemelson Foundation, have established awards to those university students- undergraduate, graduates and professional students- who design emerging innovations in maternal health care. That could include finding ways to improve health care delivery or designing an inventive piece of technology for low-tech clinics and home delivery.
The challenge encourages students from around the world to submit a five-minute video explaining their big idea for improving maternal health.
Three finalists will be selected and one winning individual or team will win $10,000 and the opportunity to work with experts to develop and test the idea in the field. The Lemelson Foundation will connect the winner with its partners, who will offer mentorship support in the development, marketing and distribution process. The winner also will be invited to present his or her work before global health experts at the Consortium of Universities for Global Health Conference in November in Montreal, Canada. An international panel of global health experts will select the winning entries based on the innovation, potential impact and feasibility of the idea. For more information about the challenge guidelines and criteria, visit saveone.net. Entries will be accepted through April 29. Winners will be announced in early May. |
|
Improving Reproductive Health Outcomes in Argentina
Three Duke physicians and global health researchers have begun forging collaborations with Argentinean partners in the public and private sectors to explore research opportunities to improve reproductive health and prevent unplanned pregnancies. Given the illegality of abortion in Argentina, many women resort to unsafe  procedures that endanger their health and their lives, and as a result, abortion-related complications are a leading cause of maternal mortality.
With pilot funding through DGHI's International Travel Grant Program, Duke physicians and researchers Viviana Martinez-Bianchi, Jeff Wilkinson and Serina Floyd met with key health care leaders in Rosario, Argentina. According to Martinez-Bianchi, assistant professor of family medicine and an Argentina native, Rosario is a prime location to build partnerships in health since the city is undergoing changes in its health care system and has sought to improve health care training.
"The Municipal government of the City of Rosario has seen progress in access to health care in recent years. The curriculum of the Medical School of the National University of Rosario has been redesigned to better respond to the needs of the population. I also visited their community health centers where the focus is on team care for the population, understanding clinical care in the context of the community, the local and national health system and the role of the doctor as an effector of change," said Martinez-Bianchi. "This site visit through DGHI made me realize that no dream is too big if enough people are ready to push together for a change in health care access for all."
DGHI is currently accepting applications for the International Travel Grant program. Apply by Tuesday, March 15, 2011. |
|
|
First Global Health Doctoral Scholars Selected
 Christopher Paul and Sarah Wilson have been selected to participate in the Global Health Doctoral Scholars (GHDS) Program for the 2011-2012 academic year. Under the leadership of DGHI faculty member Joanna (Asia) Maselko, they will be the first Duke doctoral students to pursue global health research in tandem with their primary discipline.
The GHDS program aims to foster dynamic intellectual exchange between Duke doctoral students and DGHI faculty as scholars undertake innovative research addressing important global health problems. Through the  program, scholars also develop a global health dissertation and become involved in DGHI's growing community. "We are extremely excited to have Chris and Sarah as our inaugural Global Health Doctoral Scholars. Their interests in environmental health and psychology reflect the diversity of the global health field overall and Duke's strengths in particular," said Maselko, assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and global health. "We welcome them to our community of very interdisciplinary students and faculty who are engaged in innovative research addressing important global health problems." Paul is a doctoral student in Environmental Policy at the Nicholas School of the Environment. Wilson is a doctoral student in the Duke Department of Psychology and Neuroscience Clinical Psychology Program.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 DGHI Director is Panelist at CSIS Forum: Advancing US Leadership in Global Health
Michael Merson, founding director of DGHI, was a featured panelist at Monday's forum examining the achievements of the last decade in global health and how best to advance America's global goals. The forum, hosted by the Center for Strategic & International Studies, convened key officials from government, members of the CSIS Commission on Smart Global Health Policy, and other leading experts for a discussion on how to preserve and build upon the legacy of US bipartisan support for global health. Commission Co-chairs Dr. Helene D. Gayle and Admiral William J. Fallon (ret.) hosted the Forum, joined by CSIS President and CEO John Hamre.
|
|
|
| Received this as a forward? Sign up for future issues.
|
|
|
|
|
|
