|
|
Greetings!
It's finals week and students and faculty are anxiously counting down the days until graduation. Last week, we told you about the Capstone project poster presentations by our global health seniors. Check out photos from the event, and read more about their work below.
Also, read about DGHI-supported research to combat fluorosis in Ethiopia, and a profile of Nathan Thielman, Duke's Blue Devil of the Week.
Until next week,
Geelea Seaford and Everyone at DGHI
|
|
|
|
|
Global Health Students Share Final Projects at Poster Session
Thirty-eight seniors proudly shared the results of their semester-long projects at the Global Health Certificate Capstone Poster Session last Tuesday. With topics ranging from epilepsy in Laos and smoking cessation in the US, and helping  children of sex workers break the cycle in India, teams of students selected and researched a topic of interest to them. At the session, they spoke passionately about their global health project and the problem at hand, the research, their approach and proposed solutions. Students worked in small teams to research a global health problem, consult with experts in the field and design and develop a practical solution for that problem. They say the exercise helped them understand the value of teamwork and the intricacies of global health, realizing that there are many players and factors to be considered. Many of them also found a new appreciation for the process of getting work done in global health. The student showcase, part of the Global Health Capstone course taught by DGHI faculty members David Boyd and Dennis Clements, commemorated a semester of hard work and completion of the global health certificate. Boyd and Clements say this year's group of students produced top quality projects that find innovative solutions to important global health issues and disparities. At least one of the team projects will be implemented as part of a statewide effort to vaccinate boys against HPV.  |
|
|
Water Treatments Alone Not Enough to Combat Fluorosis in Ethiopia
Increased intake of dietary calcium may be key to addressing widespread dental health problems faced by millions of rural residents in Ethiopia's remote, poverty-stricken Main Rift Valley, according to a new Duke
-led study.
As many as 8 million people living in the valley are estimated to be at risk of dental and skeletal fluorosis as a result of their long-term exposure to high levels of naturally occurring fluoride in the region's groundwater. Fluoride is essential for healthy tooth enamel development, but consuming too much of it can damage enamel and bones, particularly in children between the ages of 3 months and 8 years. Mild to moderate fluorosis typically results in permanent discoloring and disfiguration of tooth enamel. Severe fluorosis can cause chronic pain and lead to tooth and bone loss.
Most efforts to combat fluorosis in the region have focused primarily on treating drinking water to reduce its fluoride content. The new Duke-led study, published online in the journal Environment International, finds that these efforts "may not be sufficient on their own, because of the region's geology and the low threshold of exposure at which we found fluorosis was likely to occur," said Avner Vengosh, professor of geochemistry and water quality at Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment. He is also an affiliate member of the Duke Global Health Institute. |
|
|
Blue Devil of the Week:
Nathan Thielman
From Duke Today
Name: Nathan Thielman
 Position: Associate Professor of Medicine, Global Health and Pathology
Years at Duke: 11
What I do at Duke: I treat patients with infectious diseases, I conduct HIV/AIDS research and I direct training activities for residents and fellows engaged in global health research.
To start a conversation with me, ask about: AIDS, Africa, or Anglicanism. My wife says you can reduce my passions to those three As. I'm drawn to researching the fascinating psychosocial and cultural issues that affect the epidemiology of HIV/AIDS and individual patient outcomes. I fell in love with Africa when I worked in a hospital in Kenya after my second year of college. I went back to Africa as a medical resident, and my research and training activities at Duke keep me going back. My passion for Anglicanism is simply that I take my faith seriously. My wife and I are very involved in the life of a local Anglican church.
What I love about Duke: Being surrounded by intelligent people who stimulate me to think in new and different ways. Each Friday I join an interdisciplinary research meeting where we often have a health economist, an epidemiologist, a psychologist, a health policy expert and several clinicians, all focused on understanding and responding to health disparities. I also love that the Duke Global Health Institute has given me a home in which I can nurture two of my passions: Africa and AIDS.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Duke Initiative Aims to Support Innovators in Health Care Delivery Worldwide 
Fresh ideas, creative solutions and new approaches to delivering health care are critical for improving health. Nowhere is that more true than in low resource areas like Africa, India and South America. Duke University is home to a new initiative, The International Partnership for Innovative Healthcare Delivery (IPIHD), which promotes this kind of health care innovation by building promising partnerships.
Linking together health care innovators with investors for potential scale-up of programs that work, IPIHD held its inaugural
conference earlier this month in Washington DC, which attracted more than 70 participants from all over the world, including organizations such as Narayana Hrudayalaya in India, MedicallHome in Mexico, and Changamka in Kenya. The one-day event included lightening round pitches, interactive panels, success stories on attracting funding and networking opportunities.
"We are very happy with the outcome of the first conference," said DGHI faculty member Krishna Udayakumar,
head of global innovation for Duke Medicine and executive director of IPIHD. "Attendees learned about exciting global innovations that have the potential for transformative impact, and it was wonderful to see collaborations take place as a result. Going forward, we will continue to build on this success."
Five Reasons Deficit Hawks Should Lay Off Global Health Initiatives
Senator Bill Frist, also a member of DGHI's Board of Advisors, published this article last week in The Week on the importance of global health.
Government spending is about to get chopped - no matter who wins the next presidential election. President Obama and his GOP challenger Mitt Romney have both prioritized deficit reduction, which, of course, is a worthy goal. However, not all cuts are created equal. And many surveys put global health at the top of the list of things to slash. That's a mistake, and here's why.
1. Global health initiatives save lives abroad
Investments in global health pay off a lot more quickly and dramatically that you might think. PEPFAR, initiated by President George W. Bush and strongly embraced and expanded by Obama, was the largest direct investment any country has made in defeating a single virus (HIV) or disease. Our taxpayers' leadership has provided 7.2 million people with access to lifesaving, anti-retroviral therapy for HIV/AIDS, 8.6 million with treatment for tuberculosis, and more than 260 million - mostly kids - with anti-malarial resources. This U.S.-led historic initiative to prevent and fight disease has directly saved millions of lives, put kids back in school, and helped rescue entire societies from collapse over the past eight years.
|
|
|
| Received this as a forward? Sign up for future issues. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
