> Conference tackles global health challenges
Conference tackles global health challenges
Contact:
Jocelyn Tomkinson, jocelynlt@gmail.com (Note: Tomkinson, a New Westminster resident, is originally from Quebec)
Tim Takaro, 778.782.7186, ttakaro@sfu.ca
Carol Thorbes, PAMR, 778.782.3035, cthorbes@sfu.ca
Jocelyn Tomkinson, jocelynlt@gmail.com (Note: Tomkinson, a New Westminster resident, is originally from Quebec)
Tim Takaro, 778.782.7186, ttakaro@sfu.ca
Carol Thorbes, PAMR, 778.782.3035, cthorbes@sfu.ca
May 1, 2008
For the first time, an international conference that grapples with resolving global health threats and features speakers who are impacting health outcomes globally is coming to Canada. The Department of Global Health at the University of Washington is a key financial supporter of the Western Regional International Health Conference (WRIHC). This year’s theme is Meeting the Challenge: the Millennium Development Goals and Beyond.
Graduate students in the Faculty of Health Sciences’ Global Health Program at Simon Fraser University are hosting the sixth annual WRIHC at the Burnaby campus May 23-25.
This will be the first conference in Blusson Hall, SFU’s new health sciences building.
SFU global health masters student Jocelyn Tomkinson is the conference’s lead organizer. She anticipates that the event’s timely evaluation of pressing global health challenges and keynote speakers, Samantha Nutt and Julio Montaner, will be big draws.
Nutt, executive director and founder of War Child Canada, will talk about the role of global health professionals in achieving change. Time Magazine has noted Nutt as one of Canada’s top five activists. Trained as a family doctor, Nutt works in some of the world’s worst war zones to alleviate the suffering of children.
Montaner, clinical director of the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, will share his experiences in combating HIV. The UBC professor of medicine has helped pioneer the development of new therapies to combat multi-drug-resistant strains of HIV worldwide.
SFU graduate students’ work will feature prominently in the conference’s evaluation of major challenges to the world’s efforts to achieve eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015. Developed by the United Nations (UN) and the World Health Organization (WHO), the goals include combating diseases such as HIV/AIDS and malaria, reducing child mortality and ensuring environmental sustainability.
In achieving these goals, the UN and WHO hope to reduce, if not eliminate, the major causes of disease in the developing world.
“A shortage of healthcare workers, climate change, our failure to address the health problems of invisible populations, such as First Nations, and the impact of globalization on developing countries are among the challenges impeding the achievement of the MDGs,” notes Tomkinson.
Speakers from seven countries are presenting research on these and other challenges. They will evaluate the extent to which trends, such as rising human rights abuses and mental illness, are undermining MDGs.
Graduate students in the Faculty of Health Sciences’ Global Health Program at Simon Fraser University are hosting the sixth annual WRIHC at the Burnaby campus May 23-25.
This will be the first conference in Blusson Hall, SFU’s new health sciences building.
SFU global health masters student Jocelyn Tomkinson is the conference’s lead organizer. She anticipates that the event’s timely evaluation of pressing global health challenges and keynote speakers, Samantha Nutt and Julio Montaner, will be big draws.
Nutt, executive director and founder of War Child Canada, will talk about the role of global health professionals in achieving change. Time Magazine has noted Nutt as one of Canada’s top five activists. Trained as a family doctor, Nutt works in some of the world’s worst war zones to alleviate the suffering of children.
Montaner, clinical director of the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, will share his experiences in combating HIV. The UBC professor of medicine has helped pioneer the development of new therapies to combat multi-drug-resistant strains of HIV worldwide.
SFU graduate students’ work will feature prominently in the conference’s evaluation of major challenges to the world’s efforts to achieve eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015. Developed by the United Nations (UN) and the World Health Organization (WHO), the goals include combating diseases such as HIV/AIDS and malaria, reducing child mortality and ensuring environmental sustainability.
In achieving these goals, the UN and WHO hope to reduce, if not eliminate, the major causes of disease in the developing world.
“A shortage of healthcare workers, climate change, our failure to address the health problems of invisible populations, such as First Nations, and the impact of globalization on developing countries are among the challenges impeding the achievement of the MDGs,” notes Tomkinson.
Speakers from seven countries are presenting research on these and other challenges. They will evaluate the extent to which trends, such as rising human rights abuses and mental illness, are undermining MDGs.
Backgrounder: Conference tackles world of health challenges
A team of nine SFU students, in collaboration with peers at UBC, is organizing the sixth annual Western Regional International Health Conference (WRIHC). American universities in the Pacific Northwest traditionally host this conference. It is expected to draw hundreds of researchers, community members and professionals in part because of the Lower Mainland’s growing profile as a research base for major players in international health.
SFU global health master’s candidate Jocelyn Tomkinson cites the B.C. Centre for Disease Control, which helped isolate the SARS virus, and the Centre for International Child Health at BC Children’s Hospital as examples.
The following is some of the SFU research being presented at the conference:
Viviane Josewski, a master’s student in SFU’s Population and Public Health Program, will present preliminary results from a qualitative study looking at the impact of mental health reform on First Nations communities in B.C.’s interior. Josewski's initial findings indicate that restructuring has led to cuts to some programs and increased competition among aboriginal mental health service providers off- and on-reserve. Josewski is one of several researchers at the conference evaluating the fate of so-called invisible populations, such as aboriginals, refugees and immigrants, in developed countries.
Viviane Josewski, 604.730.2550, viviane.josewski@gmail.com
Alexis Palmer, an SFU Global Health Program grad, is presenting a case study that she undertook in Malawi to test the efficacy of task-shifting. It is a strategy to retain health workers and provide greater care to more people affected with HIV/AIDS in Africa. Palmer studied the use of expert patients in anti-retroviral therapy clinics to help provide information and medicine to people living with HIV/AIDS. Palmer’s work exemplifies another key theme at the conference — training agents of change. These are health care-related researchers and professionals whose projects help instigate global change at the grassroots level.
Alexis Palmer, 604.828.4903, alexisp@sfu.ca
Hasanat Alamgir, an SFU adjunct professor in the Global Health Program, is looking at how globalization is creating complex economic processes that exploit the developing world’s environment and lead to health inequities. Alamgir’s research reveals how the beaching of spent freighters in developing countries with poor environmental regulations is undermining the health of workers who are dismantling the ships. Such global garbage dumping, known as ship-breaking, exposes largely poor, uneducated and unprotected workers to asbestos, cyanide, pesticides and other toxic materials.
Hasanat Alamgir, 778.328.8013 (o), 604.616.7018 (cell), hasanat@ohsah.bc.ca, halamgir@sfu.ca
A team of nine SFU students, in collaboration with peers at UBC, is organizing the sixth annual Western Regional International Health Conference (WRIHC). American universities in the Pacific Northwest traditionally host this conference. It is expected to draw hundreds of researchers, community members and professionals in part because of the Lower Mainland’s growing profile as a research base for major players in international health.
SFU global health master’s candidate Jocelyn Tomkinson cites the B.C. Centre for Disease Control, which helped isolate the SARS virus, and the Centre for International Child Health at BC Children’s Hospital as examples.
The following is some of the SFU research being presented at the conference:
Viviane Josewski, a master’s student in SFU’s Population and Public Health Program, will present preliminary results from a qualitative study looking at the impact of mental health reform on First Nations communities in B.C.’s interior. Josewski's initial findings indicate that restructuring has led to cuts to some programs and increased competition among aboriginal mental health service providers off- and on-reserve. Josewski is one of several researchers at the conference evaluating the fate of so-called invisible populations, such as aboriginals, refugees and immigrants, in developed countries.
Viviane Josewski, 604.730.2550, viviane.josewski@gmail.com
Alexis Palmer, an SFU Global Health Program grad, is presenting a case study that she undertook in Malawi to test the efficacy of task-shifting. It is a strategy to retain health workers and provide greater care to more people affected with HIV/AIDS in Africa. Palmer studied the use of expert patients in anti-retroviral therapy clinics to help provide information and medicine to people living with HIV/AIDS. Palmer’s work exemplifies another key theme at the conference — training agents of change. These are health care-related researchers and professionals whose projects help instigate global change at the grassroots level.
Alexis Palmer, 604.828.4903, alexisp@sfu.ca
Hasanat Alamgir, an SFU adjunct professor in the Global Health Program, is looking at how globalization is creating complex economic processes that exploit the developing world’s environment and lead to health inequities. Alamgir’s research reveals how the beaching of spent freighters in developing countries with poor environmental regulations is undermining the health of workers who are dismantling the ships. Such global garbage dumping, known as ship-breaking, exposes largely poor, uneducated and unprotected workers to asbestos, cyanide, pesticides and other toxic materials.
Hasanat Alamgir, 778.328.8013 (o), 604.616.7018 (cell), hasanat@ohsah.bc.ca, halamgir@sfu.ca