The annual Medsin (UK branch of the IFMSA)  Global Health Conference took place this weekend at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford. I was there and was seriously impressed and inspired by everyone’s enthusiasm for all things global health. Gerard Millen, a medical student from Queen’s University, Belfast, was there too and gives an account of the first day of the conference below. His report on the second day is coming soon!-Rhona

Oxford
The annual Medsin Global Health Conference took place this weekend in the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford The conference was a massive success with over 450 students and 50 speakers, many of them world experts. The organising committee were able to use the “Oxford Pull” to encourage many huge names in the field of global health to attend the conference.

Over the course of two days there were two keynote speakers, four plenaries and over 50 workshops. In this first blog I will discuss some of Saturday’s key events and I will do another blog to discuss Sunday’s main points.

The keynote speaker on Saturday was the world renowned Professor Hans Rosling. Prof Rosling delivered a very interactive talk with the help of the website Gapmider (1) which he co-founded. Through a series of moving graphics he described some of the key determinants of health and the links between poverty and health. He described the three most important health determinants as the “bedroom, bathroom and kitchen”. That is, the bedroom is a link to a countries fertility rate, the kitchen is a reference to the amount and quality of food available to eat and the bathroom is a reference to the importance of clean water and sanitation. He also suggested that the commonly used terms of developed and developing world are misleading. Singapore is still classified as a developing country yet it has the lowest child mortality in the world. (more…)

Photo courtesy of Oxfam
Lots to tell you about today. Richard Lane and I catch up with all the latest in this week’s Lancet Student podcast which is now up in our Audio section. And we have just published five peer-reviewed articles which you can see in the list on the left hand side but just to briefly mention them here: Paul Park gives the second installment of his experiences in the post-election violence in Kenya- a very powerful account not to be missed. Jonathan Santiago discusses the health situation in the Dominican Republic, Karl Pang takes a global look at MRSA, Florence Hogg profiles surgeon John Petrie, and Sophie North and Sunil Bhopal profile Rory O’ Connor, the doctor behind PharmAware. Phew! That’s a lot of reading but well worth the effort!

Finally, I just want to tell you about an editorial in this week’s Lancet (which is also featured in this week’s Lancet Digest,  Lancet Student Podcast, and Lancet Podcast) that I have copied it in full for you below. Why are doctors and medical students- and other health professionals, or those interested in global health-not doing more to campaign and advocate for access to clean water and improved sanitation? As the editorial says,  ”Sanitation has languished at the bottom of the international agenda for far too long and the global health community has been complicit in letting it stay there. This unacceptable situation must change now.” So let’s all do something about it. I feel a campaign coming on! Watch this space! Rhona (more…)

Rhona MacDonald and Richard Lane catch up on the latest Lancet Student articles, campaigns, and events. They chat about medical student Paul Park’s experiences in Kenya (Part 1 and Part 2), Medical Peace Work (a free online course on violence prevention and peace building for health professionals), and why medical students should campaign for access to clean water and improved sanitation for the billions of people in the world who are without these fundamental human rights which are so crucial to health

 

 Chat with Richard & Rhona: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

I have just received the text below as an email circular so thought I would pass it along in case any of you want to sign up too! Rhona 

I  just signed an urgent petition calling on the Chinese government to respect human rights in Tibet and dialogue with the Dalai Lama. This is really important, and I thought you might want to take action: http://www.avaaz.org/en/tibet_end_the_violence/98.php/?cl_tf_sign=1

After nearly 50 years of Chinese rule, the Tibetans are sending out a global cry for change. Violence is spreading across Tibet and neighbouring regions, and the Chinese regime is right now making a crucial choice between tougher crackdown or dialogue.

President Hu Jintao needs to hear that “Made in China” exports and the upcoming Olympics in Beijing will have the support of the world’s people only if he chooses dialogue. But it will take an avalanche of global people power to get his attention. Click below to sign the petition–in just 7 days, the campaign is over half way to the goal of 2 million signatures! http://www.avaaz.org/en/tibet_end_the_violence/98.php/?cl_tf_sign=1

I want to hand straight over to my good friend Mike Rowson, former Director of Medact, and now an academic tutor on the international BSc course at University College London, to tell you about this FANTASTIC  new e-learning course on violence prevention and peace-building for doctors and medical students which is FREE and open to all. I strongly encourage you all  to sign up now-Rhona

Ole Danbolt Mjøs, Chair of the Nobel Peace Prize Committee, hands over the first Medical Peace Work CD-ROM to physician and potential MPW student Morten Skandfer

The University of Tromso, Norway and UCL’s Centre for International Health and Development have collaborated with partners in three other European countries to produce a new online interactive course in Medical Peace Work. The course will enable physicians, medical students and health workers around the world to improve their skills in violence prevention and peace-building. The course is the world’s first of its kind and it applies the latest e-learning technology in offering seven separate but interlinked modules. It is available free of charge and is also available on CD-ROM.  The course’s 79 lessons and 21 interactive case studies reflect its broad definition of the role of health workers in conflict and peace work and range across subjects as diverse as chemical warfare, refugees, domestic violence and the underlying causes of violent conflict. For more information visit http://www.medicalpeacework.org/?q=node/230- Mike Rowson

This just in from our regular correspondent Rachel Pope, a medical student at the Medical School for International Health-Rhona

Photo from the African Refugee Development Center
This weekend, I saw another facet of the world that I knew existed, but had not yet really seen for myself. This morning I took a train with a few other classmates to Tel Aviv to volunteer with the African Refugee Development Center  in conjunction with Physicians for Human Rights at a refugee shelter. In the last year alone, Israel has seen a tremendous influx of refugees and asylum seekers; on the order of several thousand individuals not necessarily intending to make their way here, but people fleeing their homes because of civil strife, persecution, and war (see here for more information). Thousands have made their way towards the middle east from the Ivory Coast, Sudan, and Eritrea, only to be harshly unwelcomed in Egypt, and finally granted some sort of temporary existence in the Holy Land. The Israeli government has recently granted refuge to approximately 500 refugees from Sudan, a country that does not even recognize the existence of the state of Israel, but fears that granting more people residency, will only encourage thousands of more to pour in-a substantiated worry. The United Nations High Commission for Refugees also seems unable to quickly ameliorate the situation. These men, women, and children, therefore, are caught in limbo, unable to work, unable to settle, and unable to predict what challenges they may have to face next. (more…)

 More from Heather Finlay-Morreale from Ohio-RhonaGreetings all! Last month I skipped a few days of school and went to Tahoe for the Western Trauma Association Annual Meeting. Tahoe is 8,000 feet up in the Sierra Nevada mountains between Nevada and California and there was serious snow there. The night I arrived the main highway from the Reno airport was closed due to raging winds that could topple over a semi-truck and severe snowstorms.  The cars parked outside the hotel were nothing but little lumps under heaps and heaps of snow and this was just a typical winter day.

I was there to give an oral presentation of my research on firearm injury and homicide in women. There were several other medical student and scientist trainees there as well presenting research. In the photo, starting from the left is Travis Piester a medical student from the University of Iowa, Keir Warner a researcher from the University of Washington who will be starting medical school this fall, and myself. (more…)

Yesterday was World TB day as decided by an international group of about 500 orgainisations including the WHO. Many thanks to our regular correspondent, Heather Finlay-Morreale, a medical student at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Ohio, for drawing attention to the following useful sites below- Rhona

1. Stop TB partnership World TB day website at http://www.stoptb.org/

2. You can read resources and guidelines from the WHO and others on TB, TB and HIV, and  multi-drug resistant TB (In English and Spanish)  at
http://www.stoptb.org/resource_center/documents.asp

3. The WHO : A world free of TB partnership website is at  http://www.who.int/tb/en/ where you can download the Global TB Control Report 2008, The Stop TB Strategy, and The Global Plan to Stop TB 2006-2015.

4. The Families USA website also has an  online game styled after a popular arcade game called “Whack TB” where you can “whack” TB globally and then email leaders to support increased funding for research on TB. The game has a link so you can email friends and help spread awareness of TB. http://www.familiesusa.org/issues/global-health/whack-tb/

Photo from International Medical Corps
Whatever else you do this weekend, you MUST read the article we have just published from medical student Paul Park, from Indiana, who was in Kenya when the election violence started. In addition to sharing his experiences, he explores some of the ethical considerations including his evacuation to Uganda while his Kenyan colleagues were left behind. It is a very powerful and moving account- Rhona

The recent IFMSA and AMSA Conferences called for the right of migrants to receive access to healthcare. But what happens when people fail their claim to asylum? Jienchi Dorward, a medical student from Bristol, UK, and Jack Piachaud, a UK psychiatrist from Medact give some advice on how you can advocate on their behalf. Rhona

As the current legal system in the UK denies refused asylum seekers so much, it is important that they have strong advocates if they are to get the healthcare and support they need. This document is meant to help medical students to advocate for ‘failed’ asylum seekers who they may meet in clinical settings.

What is a ‘failed’ asylum seeker?
A ‘failed’ asylum seeker is someone whose application for asylum in the UK has been refused and who has exhausted all forms of appeal. There are thought to be between 155,000-400,000 refused asylum seekers in the UK (1-3). They are not allowed to work and are ineligible for all state support. Some access Section 4 support, in the form of vouchers, if they cannot return home for no fault of their own (e.g. conflict, illness), but agree to return once they are able. However, many are very fearful of returning home, there may still be conflict preventing their return or there may be no agreement that their home country will take them. (more…)