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Greetings!
The National Cancer Institute estimates that by 2030, the number of annual cancer deaths worldwide may be as high as 13.2 million, due to population growth and aging. In a recent issue, we briefly mentioned the emerging field of global cancer, and DGHI's work to address the growing burden of disease and death due to cancer.
This week, the National Cancer Institute's Center for Global Health is holding its inaugural meeting in Washington, DC. DGHI Director Michael Merson is among the experts gathered to help set the priorities for global cancer research. Dr. Merson will serve on a panel titled Building Capacity for Global Cancer Research. You can watch his presentation live on the web tomorrow at 10:45 am.
DGHI is not only at the forefront of global health challenges; it is also at the table when important policy and funding decisions are made.
Until next week,
Geelea Seaford and Everyone at DGHI
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A New Approach to Keeping the Weight Off
Regular medical feedback, self-monitoring and a set of personalized goals can help obese patients in a primary care setting lose weight and keep it off, according to a two-year study. While more than 30 percent of Americans are obese, only about a fifth of them receive counseling treatment from their primary care providers to help them lose weight.  | Click to watch video on this study.
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A Duke University-led study reveals that the low-cost mix of behavior-change strategies that also included optional group meetings and interactive phone and Web apps can help obese adults control their weight and blood pressure more effectively.
"The study was conducted in the primary care setting. That's important because primary care providers, particularly those who treat high-risk patients, don't have many tools for treating obesity," said lead author Gary Bennett, associate professor of psychology and global health at Duke and director of the university's Obesity Prevention Program (www.bennettlab.org). The randomized trial involved 365 obese adults who were receiving treatment for hypertension at three Boston community health centers. Researchers selected participants who have some of the highest obesity rates in the world and have traditionally been the most challenging to treat. Nearly 99 percent were low-income racial/ethnic minorities, with 71 percent black, 13 percent Hispanic and 68.5 percent female. The average age of all participants was 54.5; 33 percent did not finish high school. 
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Duke Physical Therapy Students to Embark on Global Health Rotation in Sri Lanka
This week, four doctor of physical therapy students will travel to Sri Lanka for an immersive four-week global health clinical rotation. The clinical fieldwork experience  is jointly funded by the Frist Global Health Leaders Program and the Duke Physical Therapy (PT) program and is being administered by the Duke Global Health Institute. The clinical rotation will allow PT students Colleen Gillette, Shawn Kintz, Megan Richey and Karen West to experience firsthand the challenges of delivering medical care in an international setting. They will be working with Duke Global Health Institute collaborators at Ruhuna University Faculty of Medicine in Galle, Sri Lanka to learn and practice their clinical skills under the supervision of a Sri Lankan physical therapist, and learn the context in which rehabilitation services are funded and delivered in a different country. They will spend time in the intensive care unit, the orthopedic and neurological departments and will work with a local non-governmental organization in pediatrics in the community. "We're so delighted for our students to participate in such a wonderful initiative," said Michel Landry, chief of the Doctor of Physical Therapy Division in the Department of Community and Family Medicine at the Duke Medical Center. "Part of the redesign of the physical therapy division is to seek opportunities to participate in appropriate and sustainable global health initiatives, and the evolution of the partnership between Ruhuna University and the Duke Global Health Institute is an excellent example of sustainable development and academic partnership."
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Peace Corps, PEPFAR and Global Health Service Corps Launch Partnership to Boost Training for Health Professionals
The Peace Corps, the U.S. Presidents' Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), and the Global Health Service Corps are launching an innovative public-private partnership to place nurses, physicians and other health professionals as adjunct faculty in medical or nursing schools overseas. The Global Health Service Partnership (GHSP) will address health professional shortages by investing in capacity and building support for existing medical and nursing education programs in less developed countries. The new program is expected to begin in Tanzania, Malawi and Uganda in July 2013. Participants will serve in the Peace Corps Response program for one-year assignments.
"Through this exciting new partnership, the Peace Corps will supply medical and nursing professionals to help developing countries strengthen their public health systems," said Peace Corps Director Aaron S. Williams. "By building on the Peace Corps' model of grassroots assistance, as well as our existing infrastructure in developing countries, we will work with medical and nursing schools to build capacity, bring critical prevention and health care to remote communities and provide additional service opportunities for Americans."
"The Global Health Service Partnership is an innovative initiative to address the need for health care professionals in countries hard-hit by HIV/AIDS," said U.S. Global AIDS Coordination Ambassador Eric Goosby. "Country ownership - with partner countries leading the way in the fight against AIDS - depends on countries having strong health systems, and that in turn depends on a strong health workforce. PEPFAR is proud to partner with Peace Corps in supporting countries' efforts to save the lives of their own people."
"The shortage of health professionals is profound in many areas of the world, and sadly worst where the global burden of disease is highest," said Global Health Service Corps Executive Director and Mass General physician, Vanessa Bradford Kerry.
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Economics and Human Biology Journal Now Housed at Duke
The Economics and Human Biology journal is devoted to the exploration of the effect of socio-economic processes on human beings as biological organisms. The Department of Economics will now be the official host of the interdisciplinary journal. "The economy actually affects our biological processes down to our very flesh and bones," said Professor John Komlos, the founding editor of the journal. "Let us not forget that healthier people are also more productive people. Analyzing such relationships is crucial at a time when we are clueless about how to treat a third of the U.S. population suffering from obesity." When Komlos, an economic historian, started the journal in 2003, he wanted to broaden the concept of living standards by giving health a more prominent place in thinking about welfare. "Health is listed as one of our basic and intrinsic rights in the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights," mentioned Komlos. Despite being relatively new, the journal already has the 24th highest impact factor in economics partly because of the recent popularity of obesity literature and also due to its interdisciplinary nature. Contributions are welcome from auxology, anthropometry, biocultural anthropology, demography, development economics, economic history, epidemiology, health economics, human biology, human nutrition, health sciences, medicine, physical anthropology, public health and sociology.
Komlos is joined in his work by his colleagues Charles Becker and Duncan Thomas, who both serve on the editorial board for the journal.
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Global Health Opportunities
Job Opportunity
Assistant Professor, Health Services and Systems Research, Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School Singapore
Upcoming Conferences
NCD Child Conference, March 12-21, Oakland, CA
Global Surgery Conference, March 22-23, Salt Lake City, UT
Global Health & Innovation Conference, April 21-22, New Haven, CT
Genetics Awareness Project Conference, May 31-June 1, Miami, FL
International Conference on Global Health, July 18-21, Washington, DC
Health Disparities Summit, Oct. 31-Nov. 3, National Harbor, MD
Faculty
New Investigators in Global Health Abstract for Global Health Council Conference - due Mar. 16
Saving Lives at Birth: A Grand Challenge for Development Round 2 - due Apr. 2
NIMHD Research on Minority Health and Health Disparities (R01) - due May 4
HIV Vaccine Research and Design (HIVRAD) Program (P01) - due May 13
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