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April 15, 2011 - Weinberg College News

Weinberg College Contributes to Global Health Summit's Success

Northwestern University Global Health Week 2011, which was held April 5-8 at Northwestern's Feinberg School of Medicine in downtown Chicago, featured more than 60 presentations by leaders in global health, nearly half of them international participants. The summit – the first of its kind at the university -- was convened to foster research and collaboration between Northwestern and partners from over a dozen countries, including Burkina Faso, Chile, China, France, India, Mali, Mexico, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda.

Presentations throughout the week showcased global health initiatives, provided insight into research and public health issues faced around the world, and highlighted educational opportunities and potential for further collaboration with Northwestern University participants, including students, faculty, and researchers.

Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences was one of four Northwestern schools that actively organized and supported Global Health Week 2011. Faculty from Weinberg departments and programs, including Anthropology, Religious Studies, Political Science and African Studies, gave presentations on the interdisciplinary nature and multi-faceted dynamics of global health studies. Dévora Grynspan, director of the Office of International Program Development, who presented on the Global Health Studies Minor, said: "The combination of our successful Global Health study abroad programs and our interdisciplinary curriculum on campus makes [Weinberg's] Global Health Studies Minor unique in the U.S. and explains our ability to attract federal grant support for the program."

In the course of the summit, Northwestern President Morton Schapiro, Provost Daniel Linzer and Vice President for Research Jay Walsh outlined a vision for Northwestern to offer research and training opportunities that reflect a global approach to complex, shared health needs.

Additional information is available on the Global Health Week 2011 website.

Source: Weinberg College News

April 12, 2011 - Feinberg News

Northwestern Highlights International Programs, Collaborations
at Global Health Week

Northwestern University held its first-ever Global Health Week April 5-8 on the Evanston and Chicago campuses. The event welcomed almost 40 institutional partners from across the globe — physicians and researchers from more than a dozen countries, including Chile, France, India, and Nigeria. Through a series of talks and networking events, the University introduced foreign and domestic guests to its global health efforts and to countless opportunities for expanding collaborations.

“Global Health Week is a celebration of many years of collaboration with leading institutions worldwide,” said Robert Murphy, MD, John Philip Phair Professor of Infectious Diseases and director of the Center for Global Health at the Feinberg School of Medicine. “We all know that highly multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary partnerships are necessary to curb inequities in healthcare.”

Murphy and others outlined the breadth of global health classes and programs at Northwestern. These resources span a multitude of schools, from the business school to arts and sciences to the medical school, and include clinical affiliates Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Children’s Memorial Hospital, and The Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago.

“With the increased development of sustainably-fundable programs, the future of global health here is bright,” said Murphy. 

Feinberg Interim Dean Jeff Glassroth, MD, and Rex Chisholm, PhD, vice dean for scientific affairs and graduate studies at Feinberg, provided an overview of the medical school’s areas of strength, particularly in research fields like genomics, transplantation biology, and medical simulation.

Raymond Curry, MD, vice dean for education at Feinberg, focused on the medical school’s educational assets and outlined three domains that he hopes students excel in as a result of global health experiences: understanding the burden of global diseases, traveler’s medicine, and immigrant health.

“Regardless of where they ultimately practice medicine, our students must be able to care for a patient population that either travels abroad or has migrated to this country from abroad,” Curry said.

During the week’s programs, experts from teaching hospital and universities abroad were invited to provide insights into the research and public health issues facing their country and to draw attention to educational and research opportunities there. Talks centered on a variety of topics, including global medical education, maternal and child health, HIV/AIDS research, clinical and laboratory research, and operations research in global health delivery programs.

Joia Mukherjee, MD, MPH, chief medical officer of Partners in Health, an international medical non-profit, presented the keynote address. In her speech, Mukherjee focused on the human rights aspect of HIV treatment and on the implementation of complex health interventions in resource-poor settings.

Global Health Week 2011 organizers include the Center for Global Health, the International Program Development Office, the Center for Innovation in Global Health Technologies at the Robert R. McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science, and the Global Health Initiative at the Kellogg School of Management.

Source: Feinberg News

April 11, 2011 - Global Health Week 2011 Press Release

Northwestern Fosters New Collaborations around Global Health 

Northwestern University Global Health Week 2011 was a tremendous success with over 60 presentations by leaders in global health, nearly half of them international participants.  NU Global Health Week: Northwestern in the World was held on April 5-8, 2011 and aimed to foster research and collaboration between Northwestern University and international partners from over a dozen countries, including Burkina Faso, Chile, China, France, India, Mali, Mexico, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda.  Presentations throughout the week showcased exciting global health initiatives, provided insight into research and public health issues faced around the world, and highlighted educational opportunities and potential for further collaboration with NU participants, including students, faculty, and researchers.

Northwestern’s leadership, including President Morton Schapiro; Provost Daniel Linzer; Jay Walsh, vice president for research; Jeffrey Glassroth, M.D., interim dean of the Feinberg School of Medicine; Rex Chisholm, vice dean of scientific affairs and graduate education and Raymond Curry, vice dean for education at Feinberg, outlined their vision of how Northwestern will offer international research and training opportunities that reflect a global approach to complex and shared health needs.  The message was clear: Northwestern is dedicated to improving global health. NU Global Health Week 2011 is the first summit of its kind at the university and is hoped to be the impetus for productive collaborations between NU and leading institutions worldwide.

Dr. Robert Murphy, chair of the Global Health Week committee and director of the Center for Global Health at Feinberg explained: “We envisioned a forum that brought together researchers and academics from all over the world to discuss their global health activities – from medicine to engineering to business to education.  This was an interdisciplinary effort that we are hoping will spur new partnerships – not just between NU and participating institutions, but also between those institutions themselves.  South-South collaborations have proven to be very productive and if we can help spark those collaborations, then we have made a giant step forward.” Other members of the committee inlcude Dévora Grynspan, director of Northwestern’s Office of International Program Development, Matt Glucksberg, professor and chair of biomedical engineering at McCormick School of Engineering, and Kara Palamountain, president, of Northwestern’s Global Health Foundation and research assistant professor, at the Kellogg School of Management.

Global Health Week 2011 culminated with two truly inspiring presentations.  The first, by Dr. Christine Katlama, Head of the AIDS Clinical Research Unit at Hopital Pitié-Salpêtrière in France, discussed an exciting study that is investigating the eradication of HIV.  The final keynote lecture presented by Dr. Joia Mukherjee, Chief Medical Officer at Partners in Health, was entitled “Bedside to Social Change: A new look at translational research.”  Dr. Mukherjee discussed a new paradigm to affect social change that fits in an academic framework that includes a new definition of translational research such as feasibility studies, protocol development, advocacy, and strategic planning for scaling up successful interventions.  These two final presentations gave participants an inspiring and thought-provoking peek at the future of global health.

March 31, 2011 - Northwestern NewsCenter

Northwestern Global Health Week

Leaders from a dozen countries to discuss health issues, research opportunities

By Marla Paul

EVANSTON, Ill. --- Northwestern University Global Health Week 2011 will celebrate the University’s years of partnership with institutions worldwide and explore future opportunities for research and collaboration.

The week’s activities, to be held on the Evanston and Chicago campuses from April 5 to 8, will showcase the many global health initiatives at Northwestern and its international partners’ institutions.

Global health leaders from more than a dozen countries will provide insight into research and public health issues facing their countries. They also will highlight educational opportunities and potential for further research and collaboration on global medical education, maternal and child health, HIV/AIDS research, global health delivery programs and other topics.

Participants will include international academic leaders, physicians and research collaborators from Burkina Faso, Chile, China, France, India, Mali, Mexico, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda.

Attendees from Northwestern will include President Morton Schapiro; Provost Daniel Linzer; Jay Walsh, vice president for research; Jeffrey Glassroth, M.D., interim dean of the Feinberg School of Medicine, professor of medicine, a physician at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and tuberculosis expert who has long participated in international tuberculosis control efforts; Rex Chisholm, vice dean of scientific affairs and graduate education at Feinberg and the Adam and Richard T. Lind Professor of Medical Genetics; and Raymond Curry, M.D., vice dean for education at Feinberg, professor of medicine and president of McGaw Center for Graduate Medical Education.

Robert Murphy, M.D., is chair of the Global Health Week committee, director of the Center for Global Health at Feinberg, the John Philip Phair Professor of Infecti