April 10, 2012
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Greetings!   

For more than five years, DGHI has worked with partners at Duke and abroad to develop a wide range of research, training and capacity-building programs that bring innovation and hope to global health.

That tradition continues today with an exciting, new opportunity for Duke faculty physicians to help build up Rwanda's health system by training a new cadre of Rwandan health workers. The collaborative international effort shows great promise for improving health in Rwanda for decades to come.

As we approach the end of the semester, it's the start of awards season! Students, did one global health faculty member stand out to you as an exceptional teacher or mentor? We encourage you to take a minute to nominate him/her for a DGHI Teaching or Mentoring Award! Submit your nomination by 5pm on April 23.

Students, also learn about a special summer opportunity in China with our partners at Fudan University. The deadline has been extended to April 30.

  

Until next week,

Geelea Seaford and Everyone at DGHI

  

Upcoming Events
 

Duke Recruiting Faculty Physicians for Rwandan Health Worker Training Program       


The Hubert Yeargan Center for Global Health, the Duke Global Health Institute, and Duke Schools of Nursing and Medicine are recruiting Duke faculty for involvement in a bold approach to improving Rwanda's health care system through the training and mentoring of a new cadre of Rwandan health care workers.

 

The Rwanda Human Resources for Health (HRH) Program is a seven-year effort led by the Ministry of Health in Rwanda in partnership with the US Government and the Clinton Health Access Initiative. Funding is available for US physicians and nurses in a variety of disciplines to live in Rwanda and function in the role of teacher and mentor to Rwandan medical residents and faculty. The end goal is to build a strong and sustainable health system in Rwanda through the training of physicians, clinicians and specialists.

 

Duke is part of a consortium of US universities involved in the initiative. In the first year, Duke will likely send faculty from Nursing, Pediatrics and Medicine, with the aim of expanding to other specialties in subsequent years. See the call for applications for details and to apply.

 

"Through this program, the number of Rwandan specialists in internal medicine, pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology, surgery, anesthesiology, and family and community medicine will increase from 150 to approximately 550," said Nathan Thielman, associate professor of medicine and global health. "At the end of our involvement, we hope to have worked ourselves out of a job, having left behind a well-trained cadre of Rwanda faculty who will continue to provide top-notch education to Rwandan medical students and residents."

 

   

 
Duke Awarded Funding to Train Global Health Researchers   
 

Duke is among the recipients of a $20.3 million award from the Fogarty International Center and its partners at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to support 400 early-career health scientists on year-long research fellowships in 27 low- and middle-income countries.  

 

Over the next five years, the Fogarty Global Health Program for Fellows and Scholars will provide five consortia of academic institutions with roughly $4 million each for the training activities of its partner institutions.  

 

A portion of the $4 million allocated to the consortium led by Vanderbilt University, and includes Cornell and Emory Universities, will support Duke trainees interested in global health research.  Candidates will primarily be selected from research-oriented post-graduate training programs, including but not limited to the Duke Global Health Residency/Fellowship Pathway (GHRF). The GHRF program is a collaboration of the Hubert Yeargan Center for Global Health and the Duke Global Health Institute.

 

We're excited to be a part of this consortium and to offer this opportunity to Duke trainees," said Nathan Thielman, principal investigator for the Duke site and associate professor of medicine and global health. "This award is a testament to the quality of the Duke model for providing outstanding mentored global health research education experiences to clinicians, as well as the quality of our research and training activities at our partner sites around the world."

 

From Kenya and Tanzania to Sri Lanka, South Africa and Nicaragua, Duke trainees have studied global health issues, including cardiovascular disease and diabetes, malaria and other infectious diseases, maternal and child health, mental health, environmental health, and head injuries from motorcycle accidents.  In tandem with this clinical research experience, many of the trainees are enrolled in, or have completed, the Duke Master of Science in Global Health.

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DGHI Board Meets in New York, Welcomes New Members   

 



The DGHI Board of Advisors held its spring meeting in New York City today. It was kicked off by a dinner hosted by Leslie and Mac Bains that featured remarks by Duke Board of Trustees member David Rubenstein. Rubenstein challenged the Board to help find new ways to connect to and invest in the future of global health at Duke.

 

At the biannual business meeting, the Board discussed DGHI's strategic priorities, including its growing presence in China and India, as well as the five year strategic plan. The Board will convene next in Durham in the fall.

 

Thomas Gorrie, chair of the DGHI BOA, also welcomed three new members at the meeting.

 

"These new members of the Board of Advisors bring rich and varied experience in global health, business and international relations," said Gorrie. "Their perspectives and insights will only strengthen the outstanding group of leaders we've assembled to guide the future of global health at Duke."    


Stefano Bertozzi, PhD

Director of HIV
Global Health Program
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation


Dave Gendell, T'83
Partner
Tontine Associates LLC



Andrew Huang, MD

President and CEO
Koo Foundation Sun Yat-Sen Cancer Center

 

    

 

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In the Media
 
Noteworthy                                          

DGHI Looks to Expand Global Health Work in Vietnam, Thailand

 

With a growing interest in global health across campus and the medical center, the Duke Global Health Institute has organized a Vietnam and Thailand Interest Group to bring together faculty, trainees and students who are

interested in or currently working in these countries. The group aims to build further university-wide, multidisciplinary collaborations in Southeast Asia.

 

The first meeting of the interest group is Friday, April 13th 9-10 am in Trent Hall 124.

 

This August, DGHI will launch a two-week global health short course in Bangkok, Thailand in partnership with Mahidol University. In addition to new education programs, a growing number of Duke faculty and physicians have expanded their research to Vietnam and Thailand. For example, DGHI faculty member Anthony So is undertaking tobacco control research in both countries, and physician Walter Lee was awarded DGHI pilot funds to work with Vietnamese partners on building clinical research capacity among health providers.

 


 

 

Provost Funds Six Problem-Focused Research Teams   

Second round of PFIRST grants address environmental health, regulation, mental health, decision biases, and ethical issues around climate change  

 

Since the end of the 1990s, the number of Chinese migrants in African countries has increased dramatically, and more Chinese continue to come to Africa each year. But just how many are there? And what are they doing? In a continent where good health remains a major challenge, how is their health faring in the new country? A team of seven Duke faculty with expertise in sociology, public policy, economics, demography, global health, and medicine hopes to answer those questions with seed funding from the Duke Provost Peter Lange's PFIRST initiative.

 

PFIRST, for Problem-Focused Interdisciplinary Research-Scholarship Teams, was designed to award seed funds to support faculty-led collaborations that address research in areas of contemporary relevance from multiple perspectives. This is the second year for PFIRST funding, which funded five projects last year.  Three of those projects received a second PFIRST award this year, which include a project on climate change, water and health co-led by DGHI affiliate Avner Vengosh  and DGHI faculty member Marc Jeuland, and a mental health project led by Haiti Humanities Lab co-directors Deborah Jenson and Laurent Dubois.

 

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Global Health Opportunities   

  

Job Opportunity

Rwanda Human Resources for Health: Physicians in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics   

  

Upcoming Conferences    

Global Health & Innovation Conference, April 21-22, New Haven, CT 

International Conference on Global Health, July 18-21, Washington, DC

          

Faculty   

Holland-Trice Scholars Award for High Risk/High Impact Discovery Research in Brain and Disease - due May 15    

Building Opportunity Out of Science and Technology (BOOST) Grants - due May 24  

Brain Disorders in the Developing World: Research Across the Lifespan (R21)    

 

 
The Duke Global Health Institute was created in 2006 to address health disparities around the world. It is one of seven university-wide interdisciplinary institutes at Duke. Learn more.
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