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Advocating for Global Health through Evidence, Insight and Action

Student Voices: Advocating for Global Health through Evidence, Insight and Action

Steven J. Hoffman, Instructor, Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University Fellow, Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto

McMaster Health Forum, August 2010. Hamilton, Ontario, Canada - ISBN 978-1-894088-21-3
Available online [74p.] at: http://bit.ly/bvAjeU
“……Global health efforts must be informed by the best available evidence and most creative insights. Today’s students have an important role to play in this enterprise for both their innovative ideas and future leadership of the global health sphere. This edited volume offers a student perspective on five pressing global health issues, namely internal displacement, disaster relief, water systems, gender-based violence and maternal health. Each chapter examines the global political context in which decisions on the particular health topic of focus are made, explores prevailing trends in the issue area, and considers advocacy strategies that concerned stakeholders can adopt to catalyze action. The authors are all undergraduate students at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Through this publication, it is hoped that the student voice can help shape some of today’s leading debates in global health as they prepare themselves to confront tomorrow’s greatest challenges…..”
Content

Chapter 1: Displacement and Health

Chapter 2: Disaster Relief Coordination

Chapter 3: Economics of the World Water Crisis

Chapter 4: Eliminating Gender-based Violence

Chapter 5: Advocating for Maternal Health

Open medicine is approved for medline indexing View more documents from Dean Giustini.

Open medicine is approved for medline indexing

What's new at Open Medicine? August 2010

RESEARCH
Cardiovascular risk factors in ethnic populations within Canada: results from national cross-sectional surveys. Richard Liu, Lawrence So, Sailesh Mohan, Nadia Khan, Kathryn King http://www.openmedicine.ca/article/view/372/343
CAST YOUR VOTE FOR OPEN MEDICINE

The legendary music festival South by Southwest has added a Health track to the Interactive portion of the fest in 2011. We've submitted a panel proposal called “Breaking Out of the Straitjacket” on the future of biomedical publishing. Your vote can help send Open Medicine to Austin.

To vote, visit: http://bit.ly/dbtiRD
BLOG Female doctors and students from “Across the World Unite”. A guest post from the 28th International Congress of the Medical Women
International Association in Munster, Germany http://blog.openmedicine.ca/node/276
OM IN THE NEWS

Claire Kendall, one of the founding editors of Open Medicine, is featured in a story on open-access pioneers at the University of Ottawa. Take a minute to get to know Claire. http://www.uottawa.ca/articles/open-access

Female doctors & students from "Across the World Unite"

Kristin DeGirolamo and Pamela Verma reporting
"Globalization is not only out there, it is both here and there”. These remarks from keynote Speaker Dr. lona Kickbusch, Graduate Institute Geneva, set the tone for this year's formidable congress of women doctors and trainees regarding the scope of global medicine for developed and developing countries alike.
The 28th International Congress of the Medical Women International Association (MWIA) was hosted in Munster, Germany, from July 27th-31st. The quaint town attracted ~600 delegates to the conference from more than 15 countries with strong representation from Europe and Africa. Founded in 1919, MWIA is one of the oldest international medical bodies that remains active today. Its mandate is to provide a forum for the issues of women’s health and the existence of women in the profession.
The triennial meeting was themed Globalization in Medicine-Challenges and Opportunities and featured plenaries on Gender Strategies and Violence, Addiction, Epidemic Plagues, Health Care, and Nutrition. A highlight was the special program for students and young doctors which included a poster session, lectures and discussion meetings. Young women discussed issues such as work life balance, medical education, and current networks for dialogue in the profession.
With a rigorous scientific program of posters, lectures, and workshops the MWIA General Assembly discussed future activities for the society and the campaigns on Female Genital Mutilation and Cervical Cancer Screening and Prevention. “This meeting is not only an opportunity for great scientific information, but also for medical women from around the world to discuss common problems such as gender discrimination in the medical profession”, Secretary General Dr Shelley Ross said. Ross is a family practitioners who has been involved in Association since her days as a medical student.
For more information about MWIA (http://mwia.webtop.de/) and the Congress (http://www.mwia2010.net).
Kristin DeGirolamo and Pamela Verma
Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia

Open Medicine supports 'The Vienna Declaration'

Open Medicine supports The Vienna Declaration, an official declaration of AIDS 2010, currently underway in Vienna. The statement supports the incorporation of scientific evidence into illicit drug policy, with the aim to improve community health. Canadian researchers, particularly those at the British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS (www.cfenet.ubc.ca) and the International Centre for Science in Drug Policy (www.icsdp.org), were instrumental in developing this landmark statement.

Find out more—and join us in endorsing The Vienna Declaration at: http://www.viennadeclaration.com

Follow The Declaration onTwitter: http://twitter.com/vdecl

Follow The Declaration on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Vienna-Declaration/108611532515232?ref=ts

End of life 'quality' index

The Quality of Death: Ranking end-of-life care across the world
2010 The Economist Intelligence Unit

Available online PDF [39p.] at: http://bit.ly/9ToVuw
“…………..“Quality of life” is a common phrase. The majority of human endeavours are ostensibly aimed at improving quality of life, whether for the individual or the community, and the concept ultimately informs most aspects of public policy and private enterprise.
Advancements in healthcare have been responsible for the most significant quality-of-life gains in the recent past: that humans are (on average) living longer, and more healthily than ever, is well established. But “quality of death” is another matter. Death, although inevitable, is distressing to contemplate and in many cultures is taboo.
Even where the issue can be openly discussed, the obligations implied by the Hippocratic oath—rightly the starting point for all curative medicine—do not fit easily with the demands of end-of-life palliative care, where the patient’s recovery is unlikely and instead the task falls to the physician (or, more often, caregiver) to minimise suffering as death approaches. Too often such care is simply not available: according to the Worldwide Palliative Care Alliance, while more than 100m people annually would benefit from hospice and palliative care (including family and carers who need help and assistance in caring), less than 8% of those in need access it.
Few nations, including rich ones with cutting-edge healthcare systems, incorporate palliative care strategies into their overall healthcare policy—despite the fact that in many of these countries, increasing longevity and ageing populations mean demand for end-of-life care is likely to rise sharply. Globally, training for palliative care is rarely included in healthcare education curricula. Institutions that specialise in giving palliative and end-of-life care are often not part of national healthcare systems, and many rely on volunteer or charitable status.
Added to this, the availability of painkilling drugs—the most basic issue in the minimisation of suffering—is woefully inadequate across much of the world, often because of concerns about illicit use and trafficking. The result of this state of affairs is an incalculable surfeit of suffering, not just for those about to die, but also for their loved ones. Clearly, the deeper inclusion of palliative care into broader health policy, and the improvement of standards of end-of-life care—raising the “quality of death”—will also yield significant gains for humanity’s quality of life……….”
Contents
Executive summary
Note on definitions
Introduction: new challenges in managing the end of life
1. The Quality of Death Index
Index methodology
A high quality of death
A low quality of death
2. Cultural issues in end-of-life care
Attitudes to death and dying
Levels of debate across the globe
The law and the decision to die
Three contrasting attitudes to death
3. The economics of end-of-life care
A variety of funding models
Romania: from last to leader
Kerala: the community model
Long-stay patients shift the balance
4. Policy issues in end-of-life care
Government recognition
The availability and use of opioids
Integration of care into mainstream services
Uganda: a beacon in Africa
Building capacity for home-based care
The importance of training
5. Conclusions
Appendix: Index methodology

This report and more information on the Quality of Death Index can be found at: www.eiu.com/sponsor/lienfoundation/qualityofdeath
More information on the Quality of Death Index is also available at the website created by the Lien Foundation, the sponsor of the research: www.qualityofdeath.org

Men's Health - Canadian Consumer Information Portal

See also Men's Health Pathfinders and Women's Health (General guide) (also Canadian consumer health information (CHI) portal )
The purpose of these pathfinders is to point consumers and health professionals to leading men’s health initiatives (and digital sources of information) around the world. They are listed alphabetically (let me know if you want something added):
A to Z pathfinders

luni, 21 martie 2011