Inaugural Symposium
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Inaugural Symposium Delivering Health Globally Examining the Challenges and Opportunities in the 21st Century Mohammed Bin Rashid Academic Medical Center Dubai Healthcare City Dubai, United Arab Emirates ghd-dubai.hms.harvard.edu The Center’s Region The Center addresses some of the most pressing health challenges in the region by focusing on research, medical education and training that promises to improve healthcare delivery systems and patient outcomes for diseases prevalent in the United Arab Emirates, Middle East, North Africa and neighboring regions. The Center also provides opportunities for faculty and students to pursue research related to the delivery of existing or new interventions that can cure or prevent disease, specifically in the following priority areas: diabetes and obesity, infectious disease, mental health, and surgery. Dear Colleagues, Welcome to the inaugural symposium of the Harvard Medical School Center for Global Health Delivery–Dubai. We are extremely honored to have you join us for this event, which is being held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE, and Ruler of Dubai. Delivering Health Globally: Examining the Challenges in the 21st Century is the launching point for exchange of ideas focused on some of the most pressing issues we confront as scientists, educators, and practitioners committed to improving global health delivery. We have convened global experts on diabetes and obesity, surgical care, infectious disease, and mental health. Today’s symposium will focus on the challenges we face in health care delivery, including building local capacity for research and strengthening health system capacity to deliver comprehensive care. Participants in this symposium are known for their outstanding vision and service in the field of global health. I encourage each of you to use this symposium as an opportunity for discussion—with our speakers and each other—about how best to advance our collective global health agenda. Thank you for joining us for this symposium. I look forward to engaging in conversation with you over the years to come. Sincerely, Salmaan Keshavjee Director Agenda Welcome, Salmaan Keshavjee Greetings from . Harvard Medical School, Jeffrey Flier and David Golan . Dubai Healthcare City, Amer Sharif . World Bank Group, Jim Yong Kim The work of the Center, Salmaan Keshavjee The role of universities building capacity in the region, Richard Mills Harvard Medical School’s role in building capacity globally, Ajay Singh Break The Center’s areas of focus and introduction of speakers, Salmaan Keshavjee . Diabetes, Merri Pendergrass . Infectious disease, Zarir Udwadia . Mental health, Anne Becker . Surgery, Lubna Samad Global health in the 21st century, Paul Farmer Discussion, Salmaan Keshavjee Closing remarks, Salmaan Keshavjee Dinner and photo exhibit Director of the Center Salmaan Keshavjee, MD, PhD, ScM Dr. Keshavjee is the Director of Harvard Medical School’s Center for Global Health Delivery–Dubai. He is also Associate Professor of Global Health and Social Medicine at the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Dr. Keshavjee has been leading the Harvard Medical School Center for Global Health Delivery–Dubai since 2014. Dr. Keshavjee is a physician and social anthropologist, and a leading expert on the treatment of drug-resistant TB and the anthropology of health policy. He is the author of Blind spot: How neoliberalism infiltrated global health, which is based on his PhD research in Central Asia (Tajikistan). He has worked extensively with the Boston- based non-profit Partners In Health on the treatment of drug-resistant tuberculosis. Since 2000, Dr. Keshavjee has conducted clinical and implementation research in Russia with Partners In Health, leading the research component since 2005. In 2006-2008, he was also the Deputy Director for Partners In Health Lesotho, launching the first community-based treatment program for multi-drug resistant TB/HIV co-infection in sub-Saharan Africa. His research has resulted in a number of manuscripts of global clinical and policy significance. Dr. Keshavjee has been engaged in transforming global policy discussions around the treatment of drug-resistant TB. In 2005, he became a member of the World Health Organization/Stop TB Partnership’s Green Light Committee for MDR-TB Treatment, serving as Chair from 2007 to 2010. He has worked to develop alternate mechanisms for drug procurement, technical assistance delivery, and program implementation. Dr. Keshavjee is leading an initiative at Harvard Medical School that convenes scholars and practitioners to deploy proven strategies to achieve zero deaths from TB. In addition to his research and policy work, Dr. Keshavjee is also an active member of Harvard’s teaching faculty. When on service as an attending physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Dr. Keshavjee teaches residents, interns, and medical students. He also co-teaches (along with Drs. Paul Farmer, Arthur Kleinman, and Anne Becker) a general education course for undergraduates at Harvard College, and is a guest lecturer on TB and health systems for several courses at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health. Speaker Biographies Anne E. Becker, MD, PhD, SM Dr. Becker is the Maude and Lillian Presley Professor of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, where she also serves as Vice Chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine and member of the Leadership Council of the Harvard/MIT MD-PhD Program. An anthropologist and psychiatrist, Dr. Becker has been lead investigator on a series of studies demonstrating the relationship between media exposure and eating pathology in the indigenous population of Fiji. With research funding from the US National Institutes of Health, Dr. Becker has investigated the impact of rapid economic and social transition on eating pathology, suicide, and other youth health risk behaviors in Fiji, as well as the impact of a school-based youth mental health intervention in central Haiti. Dr. Becker is founding and past Director of the Eating Disorders Clinical and Research Program at Massachusetts General Hospital, an associate editor of the International Journal of Eating Disorders, past president of the Academy for Eating Disorders, and served as vice chairperson of the American Psychiatry Association’s Council on International Psychiatry. Dr. Becker is also past co-editor-in-chief of the journal, Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry and serves on the editorial boards of Anthropology & Medicine and the Harvard Review of Psychiatry. She received the 2013 Price Family Award for Research Excellence from the National Eating Disorders Association and in 2014 received the Mentorship Award in recognition of “Exceptional Mentorship of Women Faculty” at Massachusetts General Hospital. Paul E. Farmer, MD, PhD Dr. Farmer is Kolokotrones University Professor and Chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Chief of the Division of Global Health Equity at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, and co-founder of Partners In Health. He also serves as UN Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Community Based Medicine and Lessons from Haiti. Dr. Farmer and his colleagues have pioneered novel, community-based treatment strategies that demonstrate the delivery of high-quality health care in resource-poor settings. He has written extensively on health, human rights, and the consequences of social inequality. Dr. Farmer is the recipient of numerous honors, including the Margaret Mead Award from the American Anthropological Association, the Outstanding International Physician (Nathan Davis) Award from the American Medical Association, a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, and— with his PIH colleagues— the Hilton Humanitarian Prize. His most recent books are In the Company of the Poor: Conversations with Dr. Paul Farmer and Fr. Gustavo Gutierrez; Reimagining Global Health: An Introduction; and To Repair the World: Paul Farmer Speaks to the Next Generation. Jeffrey S. Flier, MD Dean Flier became the 21st Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Harvard University in 2007. He is also the Caroline Shields Walker Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dean Flier is an endocrinologist and a leading authority on the molecular causes of obesity and diabetes. His research has produced major insights into the molecular mechanism of insulin action, the molecular mechanisms of insulin resistance in human disease, and the molecular pathophysiology of obesity. Dean Flier has authored more than 200 scholarly papers and reviews. An elected member of the Institute of Medicine and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, his honors also include the Eli Lilly Award of the American Diabetes Association, the Berson Lecture of the American Physiological Society, and honorary doctorates from the University of Athens and the University of Edinburgh. He was the recipient of the 2003 Edwin B. Astwood Lecture Award from the Endocrine Society and, in 2005, he received the Banting Medal from the American Diabetes Association, its highest scientific honor. David E. Golan, MD, PhD Dean Golan became Dean for Basic Science and Graduate Education at Harvard Medical School (HMS) in 2014, after serving as Dean for