A Talk with Umar Ndiwalana

On Friday, 12 April 2013, our class was lucky enough to have a guest speaker, Umar Ndiwalana. Umar is traditional healer, a role he received as a birthright, from Uganda. He is here in the States furthering his education for the eventual purpose of better serving his home community.

Please read on...

Global Health on NPR

NPR's Global Health page is a fantastic resources for anyone seeking news and information on global health. Check it out!

10th Annual Western Regional Health Conference

I recently attended this Health Conference event that pinpointed major changes in health that are coinciding with changing environments on a global scale.   They had several tracks that you could follow during this weekend event, I mostly followed the policy, ethics and and human rights tracks, which are topics that I found interesting, they had other tracks which included Sharing the Worlds Resources; Human Rights and Health; Migrant, Refugee and Displacement Health; Policy, Law, Health and Wellbeing; Ethics in Global Health; Changing Patterns of Disease; and Technology Revolution and Health. I recommend it for anyone, next year they will be in Seattle.

First of all there was way to much interesting information to put into one little blog page so i choose, instead to talk about one of the lectures that I found particularly interesting and very applicable to Dawn's global health class. It was a lecture by Abraham Flaxman. Abraham is the Assistant Professor of Global Health at the Institute for Health Metrics And Evaluation (IHME), his lecture was on the Big Data Revolution in Global Burden Of Disease Measurement.He spoke about the amazing new innovations in how we are using DALYs to measure the burden of disease and how we can use this technology to better allocate foreign aid monies to higher priority global issues.

One thing that I found particularly fascinating was when Flaxman displayed a recent GBD comparison map that compares the different diseases and causes of death. I spent about 2 hours messing with the different details of this map. I recommend anyone interested in how the global burden of disease is distributed to check it out and share some of your findings. Beware this is a weapon of mass distraction! There is also a massive amount of research data on GBDs on the IHME website that is fascinating and filled with great new measuring tools and some of the most recent research that is being done to improve on DALYs worldwide.

Flaxmen also discussed how they are now using a cellphone app to collect data on deaths in areas that have no data collection! They are calling a verbal autopsy. The interviewers asks close family questions about events lending to the death of their loved one and the app provides probable cause of death instantaneously! This is improving accuracy of vital registration immensely!

Finally, Flaxmen talked about how it is up to us as students and future global health advocates to turn this data revolution into information and eventually, into knowledge and evidence!

Thanks for letting me nerd out :)

An Evening with Tim Wise at PSU

If anyone is interested Tim Wise is speaking at PSU's Stott Center this Wednesday, 4/10 at 6:00PM. From PSU's website:

Wise was recently named by Utne Reader as one of “25 Visionaries Who are Changing Your World.”  He is the author of six books, including his newest “Dear White America: Letter to a New Minority.” He has appeared on hundreds of radio and television programs, is a regular contributor to discussions about race on CNN, and has been featured on ABC’s “20/20.”

Tickets are required for all attendees, and can be obtained at the PSU Box Office inside the Broadway entrance of Smith Memorial Student Union.  The event is free to PSU students, faculty and staff.  

The cost for the general public is $5. 

The event is presented by the Associated Students of Portland State University,  DMSS Cultural Centers, SBA Diversity Programs, Food Action Collective, Cesar Chavez Committee and the Office of Global Diversity and Inclusion. For additional information click here.

Potential Changes to US Food Aid Programs

And the controversy over US food aid programs continues! NPR reports that the Obama administration will be announcing details of its food aid proposal next week, and with anticipated change comes much debate. US food aid endeavors have variously been described as generous, strategic, self-serving, and tragic, of course depending on who is offering the description. It should be interesting to keep an eye on this debate over the next few weeks.

Nicholas Kristof: Reed College Lecture. (Audio Recording Available)

First of all, thank you Professor Richardson for being thoughtful enough to e-mail your past students about the Kristof lecture at Reed, I would not have known about it otherwise.  It was an amazing experience seeing someone you admire only a couple feet away and later speaking with at the book signing!

Kristof gave a great lecture that basically summarized key points and issues from his book, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide.  Kristof spoke about these issues by presenting real stories that connected to each issue, whether it was maternal health (he spoke about obstetric fistulas) or sex trafficking/slavery (brothels).  My favorite part of the event was during the end of the lecture when the audiences had a chance to ask Kristof questions that things got interesting.  Kristof was asked about his controversial stance on Female Genital Mutilations (FGM) in terms of it being a cultural practice.  Kristof gave a great answer, one that changed my mind on the topic, about how there should always be a line in terms of human behavior even when it is related to culture.  Cultural relativism is important just as boundaries are important when it comes to cultural practices that are gruesome and impinge on an individuals human rights.  And we all are aware that FGM violates human rights in multiple ways.  A great example Kristof brought up was on the practice of feet bounding in China and how western influences led China to discard this unhealthy, gender discriminating practice.  Kristof believes that FGM should follow suit as well.
Lastly Kristof wanted to spread the message to college students to get out of their comfort zone.  He urged students to seize opportunities to travel abroad or even help out locally in places that you may never have thought of because by doing this you learn things on a whole new level.  I couldn't agree more!

P.S
And yes, I most definitely got my book signed!  (I had Kristof sign it for my younger sister - it is for her when she is ready to read it)  :]

I recorded the lecture and it is available for listening below.

Nicholas D. Kristof at Reed College 4/1 7:00PM

A very exciting opportunity for Portlanders interested in global health equity and women's empowerment! Nicholas D. Kristof will present "Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide" tonight (4/1) at 7:00PM in Reed College's Kaul Auditorium. This will be a fantastic change to hear Kristof discuss his work in person! Additional details here.

During previous terms, this book and the film have come up often in class discussions and on the blog, so I especially encourage new Global Health students to attend and post about your experience!

National Public Health Week & Careers in Global Health

As you may be aware, the first full week of April is National Public Health Week, and this year's theme is: "Public Health is ROI: Saves Lives, Saves Money." As part of efforts to focus attention on public health, there will be a webinar today (4/1) on Careers in Global Health.

This is a great opportunity to take advantage of this week's momentum to be a global health advocate and to learn about careers in public and global health!

In India, Continued Access to Best Meds for the Poor

As the New York Times reports today, India's Supreme Court rejected the patent application submitted by Novartis, which means that generic drug makers in India can legally continue producing and selling versions of Novartis meds at a much lower cost. This means that poor patients will have continued access to the generic version of Gleevec, a highly effective leukemia treatment, since Indian versions run approximately $2,500 annually, compared with the brand name version at $70,000/year.