Category: Information and Social Media

Global Health Channel Videos: Canadian Public Health Programs

by ihsection, posted in Information and Social Media

I thought this was kinda neat: Global Health Channel has posted a collection of videos on various public health initiatives and research institutions in Canada. We tend to focus almost exclusively on the developing world in international health, so it’s nice to be reminded that there is a lot being done that we can learn from in industrialized nations. After all, they are part of the world, too.


IPHRC is a collaborative network working to improve and strengthen the quality of Indigenous health research and the health of Indigenous people. In partnership with Indigenous communities, IPHRC is committed to transformative research that applies Indigenous knowledge and practices. Excellence in knowledge translation guides distinguishes IPHRC’s work.


Alberta Innovates Health Solutions researchers are integrating public health research in Alberta schools, homes, hospitals and doctors’ offices to:

1. Prevent visits to emergencies, re-admission to hospitals
2. Boost the healthy lifestyles of disadvantaged children to prevent obesity.

APPLE schools, introduced in 10 Edmonton schools by Paul Veugelers, PhD, AIHS Health Scholar, has increased consumption of fruit/veggies, increased exercise and reduced obesity in Grade 5 children when compared with a random sample of 3400 Alberta students.


The Institute for Circumpolar Health Research grew out of the Arctic Health Research Network, founded in 2005 by Northern community members, doctors, academics, and scientists who believed that advancing the health and wellness of Northern people and communities as an important area of scientific inquiry and public policy. ICHR focuses on specifically on bringing people, facilities, and resources to bear on health-related research in the Northwest Territories, as well as on raising health and wellness issues throughout the region’s communities and the broader circumpolar world.


The City of Edmonton’s “Way We Live” program is aimed at actively nurturing an arts, culture and athletic community. As part of that goal, the City is developing new recreation centres and modernizing existing ones. The centres fulfill Edmontonians’ social, physical and cultural needs. Another major initiative, Aging in Place, is part of the City of Edmonton’s commitment to be an age-friendly city. Both programs are part of Edmonton’s 10-year plan to make it one of the most liveable in the country.

Partnership for Growth: A New Model for USG Engagement on Development? (CGDev Video)

by ihsection, posted in Information and Social Media


Partnership for Growth (PFG) is a new model for the United States to engage with a select group of countries to accelerate and sustain broad-based economic growth. It involves rigorous joint analysis of constraints to growth, the development of joint action plans to address these constraints, and high-level mutual accountability for implementation. One of PFG’s objectives is to engage not just aid but also a range of available tools to unlock new investment. CGD was pleased to host Gayle Smith who presented on PFG. Todd Moss moderated a conversation with representatives from the U.S. agencies involved in the partnership as well as representatives from the first set of PFG countries, El Salvador, Ghana, Philippines, and Tanzania.

CSIS Video: The Future of U.S. Navy Humanitarian Assistance

by ihsection, posted in Information and Social Media


As we enter a period of budgetary contraction and debate over military spending, and consider the remarkable humanitarian contributions of the U.S. Navy in the Pacific, the Americas, Africa, and elsewhere, the time is ripe for a thoughtful, analytic, and nonpartisan study of American naval medical diplomacy, with strategic and realistic recommendations for its future.

On June 4, CSIS launched an independent task force of experts, chaired by former Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Gary Roughead, to study the value of the U.S. Navy’s proactive humanitarian assistance; to examine the Navy’s capacity for such missions in the future; to review the history and evolution of policy and programs in this area; to forecast the demands on military medicine and humanitarian missions in an age of new technologies and evolving threats to global health; and to inform a sensible, long-term strategy for naval medical diplomacy going forward.

The June 4 event provided a brief explanation of the genesis, purpose, work plan, and expected products of this CSIS task force. We then turned to a lively roundtable discussion, led by Dr. John Hamre, that will put a spotlight on the U.S. Navy’s soft power tools and the evolving importance of its humanitarian missions as U.S. foreign policy pivots toward Asia and the Pacific.

WHO Video: Countries stand shoulder to shoulder fighting “Big Tobacco”

by ihsection, posted in Information and Social Media


Four national health leaders describe how their countries are fighting tobacco industry interference that has moved out of the shadows and into courts of law. Professor Jane Halton, Secretary of the Department of Health of Australia, Doctor Richard Nchabi Kamwi, Minister of Health and Social Services of Namibia, Mrs Anne-Grete Strøm-Erichsen, Minister of Health and Care Services of Norway and Dr Jorge Venegas, Minister of Public Health of Uraguay describe the situation in their countries.

Stop Tobacco Industry Interference (WHO Video)

by ihsection, posted in Information and Social Media

So I understand what they’re getting at here (deaths due to tobacco, marketing tobacco to minors, etc.), but personally I find this video to be somewhat scattered and not very focused. Normally I really like the WHO videos, but I find this one less than impressive.


Tobacco is public health enemy number one. It kills six million people every year. The tobacco industry does everything it can to undermine anti-tobacco work. WHO has chosen “Stop tobacco industry interference” as the theme for the 2012 World No Tobacco Day – on 31 May. Discover the subversive methods of the tobacco industry by watching the campaign video. Find out what WHO, governments and civil society are doing, and how you can help stop the tobacco industry in its tracks, by joining the conversation on Twitter @WHO – #NoTobacco. (http://twitter.com/#!/who)