News

Dr. Anne Becker receives Barbara J. McNeil Faculty Award for Exceptional Service

Anne Becker, MD, PhD, Maude and Lillian Presley Professor of Global Health and Social Medicine, was presented with the, Barbara J. McNeil Faculty Award for Exceptional Service at the December 17, 2015 meeting of the HMS Faculty of Medicine. She was one of two inaugural recipients of this award which recognizes HMS and HSDM faculty members for their commitment and dedication to their schools through their service. Read more here.

NCDI Poverty Lancet Commission
The NCDI Poverty Lancet Commission held its first meeting in London, UK from January 20-22, 2016. The meeting brought together 21 of the 23 commissioners and launched the working groups for the global commission. The commission is based on the principle of complementarity. It aims to mend a great disparity in health and to broaden the current noncommunicable disease agenda in the interest of equity. Gene Bukhman, MD, PhD, and Ana Mocumbi, MD, PhD co-chair the commission.

HMS Cooperative Research Awards, Request for Proposals – Spring 2016

The Harvard Medical School Center for Global Health Delivery–Dubai is pleased to announce a Request for Proposals for cooperative research awards in global health delivery.

The mission of the Center is to promote research that optimizes the “last phase” of health care delivery and to build local and regional capacity for high-quality health delivery research. To this end, the Center welcomes proposals for cooperative research that will advance knowledge and/or best practices related to the delivery of existing or new interventions that can cure or prevent disease. The priority topics for this round include diabetes and obesity (and conditions resulting from them); optimization of surgical care delivery; the health of women and children, including gynecological surgery; infectious diseases, with particular focus on tuberculosis and hepatitis C; and mental health.

Whereas a typical award usually involves full stewardship by the recipient/awardee, the cooperative agreement mechanism involves substantial grantor involvement (in this case, the grantor is the Harvard Medical School Center for Global Health Delivery–Dubai). For each cooperative research award, each applicant will collaborate with a faculty member from the Harvard Medical School Department of Global Health and Social Medicine or from another department of Harvard University. The Center will provide biostatistical, epidemiological, data programming, and other methodological and analytical support as needed, and will assist awardees in the preparation of publications.

We are looking forward to receiving Letters of Intent no later than April 18, 2016 . The full packet of materials is available on our website .

MASTERS OF MEDICAL SCIENCES IN GLOBAL HEALTH DELIVERY NEWS

MD/MMSc-GHD program information session: Thursday May 3, 2016 12:00pm TMEC 447
Please help spread the word about this information session to any HMS MD students you know. The MD/MMSc-GHD program is a 14-month version of the MMSc-GHD open only to HMS MD students.

We request that students register for the event so we may order enough pizza. Click here for the registration link. Feel free to forward this information to HMS MD students, or have them email Christina Lively .

Mark your calendars for the MMSc-GHD thesis defense presentations
We welcome faculty and staff to attend the public thesis defenses for the MMSc-GHD class of 2016. These will be held on Wednesday, May 11, 2016, 12-5pm and Thursday, May 12, 2016, 9am-5pm. Details that are more specific will follow.

If you would like to be reminded of details on the thesis defenses, please email Christina Lively .

Congratulations to MMSc-GHD students:
We congratulate the following MMSc-GHD students on these accomplishments:

Phenide Beaussejour, MD, candidate for MMSc in 2016, was selected to be featured in the 2015-2016 HMS Dean’s Report . (see page 7). You may also read a longer interview with her here .

Reginald Fils-Aime, MD, candidate for MMSc in 2016, has been invited to speak at a global mental health workshop at the American Psychiatric Association Conference to be held in May 2016. He will speak on his research into recovery from psychosis in rural Haiti.

Evrard Nahimana, MD, candidate for MMSc in 2017, had an article accepted to BMC Pediatrics in September of 2015. The article “Bubble CPAP to support preterm infants in rural Rwanda: a retrospective cohort study,” included GHSM faculty member Bethany Hedt-Gauthier as the corresponding author.

Martha Vega, MD, candidate for MMSc in 2016, presented as part of the 11th Annual Academic Surgical Congress held February 2-4, 2016 in Jacksonville, FL. Her talk was titled, "Comparing access to surgical care between Sweden and Zambia using geospatial mapping tools." This talk was based on a paper written by Dr. Vega and others noted below who are affiliated with the Program In Global Surgery and Social Change, at the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School. Authors: MP Vega, AN Bowder, NP Raykar, F Oher, JG Meara, and E Makasa.

Recommend candidates for the MMSc-GHD program
We welcome faculty and staff to recommend candidates for the Master of Medical sciences in Global Health Delivery (MMSc-GHD) program. The MMSc-GHD program seeks to educate the next generation of leaders in global health. Students complete one year of courses at Harvard University, and then complete an eight-month on-site thesis project.

Please send names and emails for any recommended candidates to Christina Lively .

Many international students can receive funding through the Fulbright program, but must apply for that program in the spring before they apply for the MMSc-GHD. Therefore, we will reach out to prospective applicants now to remind them to apply for a Fulbright award.

SEMINARS, LECTURES, WORKSHOPS, and ABSTRACTS

UPCOMING

Charting the Future of Primary Care: A Case-Based Program
This first of its kind program will introduce primary care practice and health system leaders to cutting-edge approaches to primary care from leading practices around the world. Using Harvard Medical School's Center for Primary Care Case Series participants will engage in case-based discussions led by world-class faculty from Harvard Medical School, MIT's Sloan School of Management, and Copenhagen Business School. Through these cases, participants will step into the shoes of renowned leaders in primary care, analyzing and evaluating their decisions, challenges, and outcomes.

Attendees will engage and network with leaders from the high performing organizations profiled in the cases including:

• Alaska's Southcentral Foundation
• Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers
• Martin's Point Health Care-Bangor
• Gezondheidscentrum de Roerdomp from the Netherlands.

Importantly, the learning won't end in the classroom. When participants return to their organizations and tackle the challenges facing their teams, they will continue to be supported by their new colleagues and resources.Those who complete the program gain access to an alumni network of respected leaders and ongoing learning through webinars and other offerings. Request Info or learn more here .

RECENT

Carole Mitnick, ScD , was an invited speaker at the North American Regional Meeting of the International Union Against TB and Lung Disease in Denver on February 27, 2016. Dr. Mitnick's presentation was titled, "Impact of Number of Drugs, Treatment Duration and PZA on MDR TB Treatment Outcomes.”

Chunling Lu, PhD , presented " Association between Community-Based Health Financing Approach and Child Stunting in Rural Rwanda: An observational study ," at the Population Studies Center, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA on November 9, 2015

Chunling Lu, PhD , presented a combined public lecture on the global burden of poor child development and identifying and evaluating the impact of policies to support families. The title of the lecture, " Global Perspectives on Young Children's Health and Wellbeing: the Burden of Poor Development and Policy Levers for Change ," was held on September 9, 2015, hosted by DST-NRF Centre of Excellence on Human Development, Wits University, Johannesburg, South Africa.

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• Becker AE, Thomas JJ. Eating Pathology in Fiji: Phenomenologic Diversity, Visibility, and Vulnerability. IN: Kirmayer, Laurence J., Robert Lemelson, and Constance A. Cummings, eds. Re-Visioning Psychiatry: Cultural Phenomenology, Critical Neuroscience, and Global Mental Health. Cambridge University Press , 2015. Pp. 515-543.
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• Longacre M, Beinfeld S, Glantz L, Hildebrandt S, Grodin M.: Public Health in the Vilna Ghetto as a form of Jewish Resistance. American Journal of Public Health 105(2):293-301, 2015.
• Lu C (corresponding author), Mejía-Guevara I, Hill K, Farmer PE, Subramanian SV, Binagwaho A. Association between community-based health financing approach and child stunting in rural Rwanda: an observational study. American Journal of Public Health 2016;Vol.106, No 1, pp.49-55.
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