world outreach GLOBAL HEALTH AND SOCIAL MEDICINE
Providing Innovative Solutions Researchers and clinicians in the HMS Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, led by Paul Farmer, the Kolokotrones University Professor of Global Health and Social Medicine and co-founder of Partners In Health, continue to advance worldwide health research by studying some of the globe’s leading infectious killers, such as AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. Programmatic initiatives designed to train the next generation of global health leaders involve the entire HMS community—mentored medical students, teaching hospitals, residents, graduate students and fellows—and produce a vibrant research corps that supports faculty and the School’s humanitarian effort. Infectious diseases HMS faculty and researchers have assisted world communities in combating Ebola (Liberia and Sierra Leone), tuberculosis (Peru), cholera (Haiti) and HIV/AIDS (Haiti, Lesotho, Malawi, Peru, Rwanda and Uganda), which put millions of children and adults at risk. Rwanda HMS is entering the fifth year of the Rwanda Human Resources for Health program, which is designed to help build the education infrastructure and workforce necessary to create a highquality, sustainable health care system that addresses the country’s most challenging health care obstacles, including a limited number of skilled workers, substandard facilities and equipment, and inadequate facilities management. Middle East A partnership between HMS and Dubai authorities resulted in the HMS Center for Global Health Delivery–Dubai, which offers new ways to address the most pressing health care delivery challenges in Dubai and the region. The center’s main areas of focus are surgical care, mental health, infectious diseases, obesity and diabetes. Surgery access In response to the HMS-authored recommendations of The Lancet Commission on Global Surgery to improve access to safe, timely and affordable surgery for 5 billion people worldwide, representatives from 17 countries met in Dubai in 2016 for implementation discussions guided by HMS faculty. Master of Medical Sciences in Global Health Delivery The most recent group of 12 health professionals entering the two-year MMSc program included 10 international students, many of whom were from resource-poor settings, including two physicians supported by the Liberian government. In addition to completing HMS coursework, the students are developing models designed to create better health care systems in their home countries. In the past five years, 36 students have enrolled in the program.
HMS, together with Partners In Health and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, is part of a multiorganizational effort working to improve treatment strategies for multidrugresistant tuberculosis in Peru. Assistant Professor of Medicine Michael L. Rich and Kwonjune Seung, HMS instructor in medicine, are part of the endTB project. Pictured, right: Field technician Yecela Rodríguez works with Francisco, a patient. Opposite page: Thailand’s Kohn Kaen University has renewed and expanded its participation in HMX Fundamentals, an online curriculum for prehealth career students, created by the HMS Office for External Education.