IH Section Communication Survey Results

by ihsection, posted in APHA IH Section, Section Announcements

The results of the IH Communications Surveys are in!  The section’s Communications Committee asked you, the section members, to complete a Survey Monkey questionnaire and provide their thoughts on how the section communicates with you.  The survey was divided into two parts.  Forty-six people responded to the first part, which covered the section’s traditional
communications platforms (the newsletter, the monthly e-mail and the website);
28 responded to the second part, which focused on the section’s use of new social media (Facebook, LinkedIn, and the IH Blog).

Generally speaking, the respondents read the newsletter (69.6%) and e-mails (80.4%), and they check the website at least occasionally (73.9%).  There were a handful of respondents that did not know that we published these communications, so the section has some work to do to make sure that its members know that these are available.

Unfortunately, use of social media was not as popular as we had hoped.  Of the 28 respondents to this part of the survey, nearly half (42.9%) rarely or never read the blog, and 25% did not know we even had one.  Similarly, very few respondents subscribed to the Facebook page (10.7%) or the LinkedIn group(14.3%).  However, our blog averages 30-40 hits per day (currently around 1,000 visits per month), our Facebook page has 60 subscribers, and our LinkedIn group has 439 members.  Considering these numbers, it seems that there are a lot of non-members plugging into our social media, which is not necessarily a bad thing – but our members should be encouraged to take advantage of them as well!

Considering that our social media platforms are very popular among the online global health community, these should be advertised to the section in general at the Annual Meeting, particularly during the first business meeting when attendance is highest.

We also need to encourage members to contribute to the blog and newsletter.  Several survey respondents mentioned that they would like to read about other members’ programs and want an emphasis on practice, rather than research.
Obviously, people have to WRITE about their programs so that we can read
about them.  This should start with the section leadership, who should be setting the example for the rest of the section.  Another resource could be asking students to write about their practica or recent graduates to summarize
their fellowships.  This is easy enough to do in interview format for the blog (see
https://aphaih.wordpress.com/category/stories-from-the-field/), but those students need to be referred to the blog manager to be interviewed.

Fellowship: Jacaranda Health Maternal Health Fellowship (Nairobi)

by ihsection, posted in Information and Social Media, Internships and Fellowships

Jacaranda Health: Maternal Health Fellowship

Background
Jacaranda Health is a start up social enterprise that aims to set a new a new standard for maternity care in East Africa. We are combining business and clinical innovations to create a self-sustaining and scalable chain of clinics that provide reproductive health services to poor urban women. Our model is a combination of two tightly-integrated services (a) Jacaranda Maternities near the slums where women can go for respectful obstetric care, safe delivery, and postnatal care; and (b) mobile vans that create a direct link with our patients, generate demand and healthy outcomes through antenatal care and birth preparedness. Jacaranda has received awards for its model, and we are also planning to work as an “innovation laboratory” for new approaches in improving maternal health, from outreach and marketing, to low-cost mobile technologies

We are piloting the model in Nairobi with a Jacaranda Maternity and mobile unit. We have just launched our first mobile clinic and are providing services to women in peri-urban Nairobi. We are working quickly to prepare to launch a fixed clinic for deliveries and basic emergency obstetric care.

Job Summary
Jacaranda Health is looking for a medical student or MPH with experience and interest in maternal health to help us develop evidence-based protocols for our new maternity clinic. This is an opportunity for an ambitious student or recent graduate to spend three to six months working with some of the most exciting innovations in maternal health. We have a great team in Nairobi, and good advisors internationally, and would like to have some help from someone who has a combination of a clinical and public health research background

Responsibilities
The Maternal Health Fellow would work with our international clinical advisors, our front-line clinical staff, and our operations manager to help develop a set of clinical protocols that are truly world-class and evidence based. This will require research, compiling protocols from our library of protocols and academic research in maternal health, and vetting them with our clinical staff in the field. We want to take the best practices from maternal health globally and translate it into a set of protocols that provide clear checklists and decision support for our frontline nursing staff. There will also be an opportunity to get involved in other clinical activities, such as systematizing our clinic processes, working with our partners at Harvard School of Public Health on our impact evaluation, and some of the new technologies that Jacaranda is piloting.

Timing
This is a full-time three to six month position, preferably based in Nairobi. Start date as soon as possible: August or September through November. The position is a volunteer fellowship, but Jacaranda can offer a stipend for expenses and housing.

Qualifications

  • MPH or medical resident, with experience working in maternal health, ideally from both a clinical and a research perspective
  • Highly resourceful, independent, and self-starting
  • Demonstrated professional experience and an interest in maternal health
  • Flexible and easy-going enough to work in a fluid, cross-cultural startup environment in Nairobi
  • Ability to communicate findings compellingly to colleagues and advisors
  • Desired: experience working in East Africa

Benefits

  • Opportunity to work with our advisors and partners from obstetricians at Harvard and internationally, to experienced nurses and midwives in Kenya
  • Exposure to all facets of building innovative maternal health organization. You will have a chance to see first hand the clinical, operations, marketing, technology, and business elements that go into building a successful social enterprise
  • Learn about maternity experience and clinical challenges faced by low-income mothers in peri-urban areas
  • Significant responsibility and independence

Additional Comments
Interested candidates may apply by email with an up to date CV and cover letter to jobs@jacarandahealth.org. Please put “Maternal Health Fellowship” in the subject line.

Global Health News Last Week

by ihsection, posted in News

The Supercourse team at the University of Pittsburgh has taken the initiative to spread the WHO’s definition of health, “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”  They have translated the definition into over 60 different languages using Google translate and have asked health professionals to review them to make sure they are correct.  This global health knowledge campaign is being developed by the Supercourse team, WHO Collaborating Centre, University of Pittsburgh.  Please contact Dr. Ronald LaPorte, Director, Professor of Epidemiology, University of Pittsburgh, for more information.

July 28 was the first-ever World Hepatitis Day.

POLITICS AND POLICY

  • As the UN gears up for its Summit on Non-Communicable Diseases this September, blogger Michael Hodin argues that by focusing on this issue, the world body has a “new shot at relevance” in an era where its importance is decreasing (and countries contemplate cutting its funding).
  • Former U.S. Ambassador on HIV/AIDS Jack Chow says the CIA’s fake vaccination scheme in Pakistan, aimed at locating Osama Bin Laden, threatens to undermine a broad set of American global health initiatives.
  • The U.S. government and the Gates Foundation were responsible for 85% of the steep increase in malaria funding between 2007 and 2009. Richard Tren argues that we need to diversify funding sources and focus on control efforts.

PROGRAMS

  • The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has teamed up with FC Barcelona to promote the polio eradication campaign.
  • To raise awareness about violence against women in Europe, the UN has opened up a contest to design a newspaper advertisement in support of the UN Secretary-General’s UNiTE to End Violence against Women campaign. View submissions and the winning entries here.
  • Seattle-based development blogger Tom Paulson continues to raise some interesting issues regarding the Gates Foundation’s funding of media coverage for global health issues.  Their latest venture is a weekly program on the BBC.

RESEARCH

  • Researchers have cracked the DNA code of the strain of E. coli that originated in German sprouts and killed over 50 people this summer.
  • A cell phone that doubles as a blood-oxygen tester is one of the 77 mHealth innovation finalists for the Saving Lives at Birth: A Grand Challenge for Development competition.
  • A study conducted by the WHO found that France, the U.S., the Netherlands, and India have the highest rates of depression in the world, while China has the lowest.  Detailed interviews were conducted with over 89,000 individuals in 18 countries.
  • It is becoming more apparent that one of the most effective ways to deal with HIV/AIDS is to address neglected tropical diseases, argues the Public Library of Science in Eureka Alert.
  • A study of the lifespan of HIV patients receiving combination ARV therapy by researchers at University of Ottawa has found that patients can expect to live a near normal lifespan.
  • Researchers at Oklahoma University believe that a protein-based vaccine could prevent many cases of childhood pneumonia.
  • Dutch researchers have found that children who were not breastfed were more likely to develop respiratory problems such as asthma.
  • The first stage of trials for a new malaria vaccine by Swiss researchers in Tanzania have shown promising results.
  • Has announced in a study in Pediatrics that the varicella vaccine for chickenpox has reduced the annual death toll in the United States from 105 to 14. Tests are in progress that could lead to major family planning advances. The New York Times reports on some innovations in male contraceptives that could offer safe and effective contraception.

DISEASES AND DISASTERS

  • The Agbogbloshie slum outside of Accra, Ghana, is a major electronics waste dump.  This site is an example of what happens to “donated” discarded electronics: residents burn them to extract precious metals and simultaneously exposed to a host of hazardous chemicals, as the goods release lead, mercury,
    thallium, hydrogen cyanide, and PVC.
  • A recent article by a global panel uses startling images to call attention to the woeful state of neglect and inadequate treatment of mental illness in developing nations.

Career and Education Resource: Careers in Global Development

by ihsection, posted in Information and Social Media

Global Washington, a membership association that supports the field of global development in Washington state, has launched its Careers in Global Development Center for degree seekers, job candidates, and employers.  Below is a screen grab of its front page.

  As you can see, job seekers can search for open positions, and prospective development students can sift through various degree programs related to development.  On the other side, employers can post vacancies and search for consultants.

While this is great, job search website are a dime a dozen. What makes this resource stand out, in my opinion, is the “Resources” page.  There, you can read career profiles, see a graph on salary ranges for different positions in the field, and find articles and literature about the field. 

It looks like this website is still in a fledgling state.  However, if Global Washington continues to expand it and add material, it could become a valuable resource for students and new professionals who are often lost in the maze of the field of development.

Global Health News Last Week

by ihsection, posted in News

POLITICS AND POLICY

Human Rights Watch has urged the Bahraini authorities to halt what it said was a “systematic campaign” to intimidate doctors and other medical staff suspected of sympathising with recent anti-government protests.

PROGRAMS

  • The GlobalPost has been doing an excellent series of stories examining President Barack Obama’s Global Health Initiative (GHI) is focusing on in Guatemala. Slow in its implementation and hampered by little new money, GHI was supposed to be an example of Obama’s new, innovative commitment to global health.
  • The King of Swaziland has called for all of the men in the South African nation to get circumcised in order to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS.
  • Results from a pilot program in Philippines have shown that deaths from rabies can be dramatically reduced when taking a community driven bottom up approach.
  • A child in Khartoum, Sudan is the first to receive a rotavirus vaccine, kicking off a campaign to vaccinate children in 40 low and middle-income countries.

RESEARCH

  • A recent report from UNAIDS cites data from a recently released South African study that shows the effectiveness of male circumcision reducing HIV prevalence in men.
  • A campaign to encourage African men to get circumcised to prevent infection by HIV gained a powerful boost on Wednesday by three new studies unveiled at an international AIDS forum in Rome.
  • A new study has found that women in conflict areas want to utilize
    contraceptives, but only 4 to 16 percent are able to gain access.
  • At the International AIDS Society, one of the big stories is a CDC study showing the drug Truvada prevented HIV transmissions in more than 60 percent of heterosexuals. The study’s author Dr. Michael Thigpen discusses how much Truvada costs, why HIV is so pervasive among women in Botswana, and how much people must take the drug for it to be effective.
  • Researchers have discovered that chloroquine, often used to treat malaria, may be effective in treating other autoimmune diseases.
  • An antiviral drug to combat HIV/AIDS synthesised by genetically modified plants is being tested on a small number of women in the UK to establish its safety, reports the Guardian.
  • A recent study has shown that stress experienced by a pregnant mother can have a negative impact on the development of the child in the womb.
  • Researchers presenting at the 6th International AIDS Society Conference on HIV Pathogens, Treatment, and Prevention in Rome, say that they have inched closer to a vaccine by leveraging a genetically altered version of SIV.

DISEASES AND DISASTERS

  • The World Health Organization is sounding the alarm on hospital safety and infections acquired while patients are in a health care facility, saying that a hospital  stay is riskier than air travel.
  • Researchers have determined that Hepatitis C can be transmitted sexually, after performing a 5 year study on HIV positive MSM.
  • Famine in parts of southern Somalia has killed tens of thousands of people, mostly children, the UN said Wednesday in an official declaration of what aid officials describe as the worst humanitarian crisis in the troubled country in two decades.
  • A new study warns that Pakistan “risks becoming the last global outpost of [polio], this vicious disease.” The disease has also resurfaced in four other countries.
  • Even in developing countries where child mortality is falling, the poorest under-fives are at high risk of dying from entirely preventable diseases because they do not receive basic immunization and have no treatment for diarrhea.
  • Peter Hotez, president of the Sabin Vaccine Institute, says new studies indicate a parasitic infection, schistosomiasis, may be one of the most important — and least recognized — co-infections increasing the risk of HIV transmission.
  • An All Africa editorial examines how the price of drugs leads to deaths that could be otherwise averted.