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Greetings!
You know it's officially summer when the thermometer hits 98 degrees and the DGHI blog starts buzzing with posts! Subscribe to Global Health Dispatch: Diaries from the Field for a range of stories and experiences from Beijing, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Kenya, and many more interesting locales.
Are you attending next week's Global Health Council conference in Washington, DC? If so, stop by the DGHI booth in the exhibition hall and say hi to Sarah and Brian. They'll be there to answer questions about DGHI's education programs and research projects. Also, check out the panel session by Nathan Thielman and colleagues where they'll be discussing their research on orphaned and abandoned children.
A reminder that News & Notes is operating on its summer schedule. Look for the next issue June 21.
Until then,
Geelea Seaford and Everyone at DGHI
PS: Save the Date: MONDAY, OCTOBER 3 for DGHI's Five Year Celebration. Stay tuned for the exciting details!
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Duke-NUS Celebrates Inaugural Class
What began in 2003 as a unique idea for an innovative approach to medical education to complement the ambitious Biomedical Sciences Initiative in Singapore culminated on May 28 as the inaugural class of 24 medical students at the Duke-National University of Singapore (NUS) Graduate Medical School celebrate the completion of their medical education training.  While the students do not officially graduate until early July as part of the NUS graduation ceremonies, a celebration of the graduating class highlighted by Singaporean Ministry officials, the U.S. ambassador, and senior leaders from NUS and the Duke School of Medicine will recognize the historic achievements of the first cohort. "The Duke-NUS collaboration was born of outrageous ambition and great promise, with the goal of developing a new generation of physician-scientists who would be transnational leaders in medical research, education, and patient care," said Victor J. Dzau, MD, Duke chancellor for health affairs and CEO of Duke University Health System. "It is gratifying to see that ambition and promise realized, as we celebrate the outstanding achievements of this first class and their role in creating a dynamic institution that will become one of the leading medical schools in Asia." The Duke-NUS educational model is an innovative departure from the English system traditional in Singapore and throughout many parts of Asia. It incorporates Duke's unique curriculum-which condenses basic-science study into one year instead of the usual two, giving students earlier clinical experience as well as an entire year devoted to independent research-with Duke-NUS' new, technology-supported model of team-based learning to create physician-scientists at home, in clinical, or research settings. 
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Women's Health Needs in Post-flood Pakistan
By Chanel Laguna for Duke Research
 Mothers and other women are dying from preventable causes in Pakistan because their lives are not valued, obstetrician Shershah Syed told Duke Global Health symposium on May 25. Syed, who works at the Koohi Goth Hospital in Karachi and the former president of the nation's Society of Obstetricians & Gynecologists, said the women suffer from a lack of medical assistance and abandonment by their husbands, fathers and brothers.
These problems were made worse by the massive flooding of 2010. He showed the global health meeting a video of his work in Pakistan's remote villages during that crisis. Those who survived the flooding in cities such as Sindh and Sukkur were left without food and medical supplies.
This need caused Syed to set out on a mission to deliver packages of medical resources to those who were left homeless. "This situation is so sad," Syed said. "One-third of these people are living below poverty."
He says it's disturbing to think how such affluent countries like India and Pakistan could have many areas below the poverty level. "These are rich countries, but their priorities are wrong."
Less than 6% of spending in Pakistan goes toward
medical care and less than 2% in education. Syed wants to see change.
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Engineering World Health Builds Partnership in Honduras
Engineering World Health (EWH) is building on the success of the first session of Biomedical Engineering Training (BMET) continuing education in Honduras and looking to increase capacity and strengthen the systems for managing and maintaining medical equipment in the country.
EWH and the Developing World Healthcare Technology (DHT) Lab at Duke, under the leadership of Robert Malkin,  collaborated to create the curriculum for second BMET training session in Honduras, running for four weeks through June 24. The training curriculum is covering five types of medical equipment: nebulizers, suction pumps, infusion pumps, centrifuges, and infant incubators. Other topics for the session include healthcare technology management, professional development, electronics, and English.
The first training session was conducted last fall in conjunction with Instituto Nacional de Formacion Profesional (INFOP), the national vocational training institution in Tegucigalpa. It included 20 practicing BMETs from 13 hospitals around the country.
As one of the objectives of the EWH BMET program in Honduras, funded by the GE Foundation, EWH is establishing an officially recognized professional association of engineers and technicians working in the biomedical field within Honduras.
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 DGHI Faculty Member Featured in North Carolina Medical Journal
A commentary by Marie Lynn Miranda, associate professor of environmental sciences and policy and global health, is featured in the latest issue of the North Carolina Medical Journal, which focuses on the connection between public health and environmental health. Miranda and Shannon Edwards, associate in research at the Nicholas School of the Environment, address the use of spatial analysis to support environmental health research and practice.
Recent advances in spatial statistics and geographic information systems provide innovative platforms for diagnosing environmental health problems and for developing interventions. This article discusses when and where spatial techniques can most effectively be deployed to address environmental health issues, especially as they relate to environmental justice concerns.
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