The University of Wisconsin-Madison Center for Global Health (CGH) is pleased to announce five educational and research fellowships awarded to UW faculty and staff members. These grants are awarded to CGH affiliates to support international travel related to educational or research activities, including development of global health courses, initiation of field experiences and field research which pertain to the mission of the CGH. Preference was given to proposals that address important global health issues, have an interdisciplinary focus, have potential for ongoing relationships with the host site and offer tangible educational or research benefits. The review panel selected the following outstanding submissions that characterize interdisciplinary initiatives that the Center seeks to support.
Congratulations to the UW Global Health award recipients! We look forward to presentations of their projects at future CGH seminars.
Ann T. Behrmann, MD
Clinical Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
School of Medicine and Public Health
INDIA
Project: “This award will fund a site visit to the Sambhavna Trust in Bhopal, India, the site of the Union Carbide environmental disaster almost 25 years ago. Sambhavna Clinic was established 15 years ago as a free nonprofit clinic that utilizes both allopathic and ayurvedic medicine with yoga and other complementary/traditional medical treatments to improve the health and lives of 30,000 people who live in ten communities surrounding the closed Union Carbide plant. Dr. Lalita Du Perron, Associate Director of the UW Center for South Asia, and I will meet with Sambhavna staff (with medical practitioners as well as the herbal gardeners, community health organizers, etc.) to discuss a collaborative 3 to 4 week interdisciplinary field experience for UW students in the health professions, graduate students in environmental science and Certificate in Global Health candidates who have completed a proposed semester course, PHS 810-644: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Global Health and Disease: India. This course and field term will focus on the long term impact of environmental pollution on individual and community health, cultural competence/cultural humility, ethics and the use of community organizers and nonallopathic practitioners.”
Cat Nguyen Burkat, MD
Assistant Professor, Oculofacial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences
School of Medicine and Public Health
VIETNAM
Project: “This medical mission trip will be the first to offer the field of oculoplastic and facial reconstructive surgery to the indigent people and economically depressed areas of central Vietnam. As a Vietnamese emigrant, my primary commitment is to provide the best surgical and medical care to children and adults to improve their quality of life, with a secondary goal to ensure enduring medical care in this specialized field by teaching local physicians directly and to promote future international educational and research collaborations.”
Suresh R. Chandra, MD
Professor
Director, Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences
School of Medicine and Public Health
INDIA
Project: “To develop a global partnership between the Division of International Ophthalmology, Department of Ophthalmology, UW School of Medicine and Public Health, and leading eye institutions in India in areas of patient care, education and research. The major goals of the partnership will be international exchange of faculty, residents, and medical students; tele-education and collaborative research.”
Heidi Schalch, PA-C
Department of Family Medicine
School of Medicine and Public Health, Physician Assistant Program
GUATEMALA
Project: ASSESSMENT OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SMOKE INHALATION AND LUNG DISEASE IN THE SAN LUCAS, GUATEMALA, CATCHMENT AREA, AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A PROGRAM TO PROVIDE EFFICIENT COOKING STOVES.
Phase I: To establish the prevalence of lung diseases in San Lucas and the surrounding area relative to exposure to smoke inhalation and to assess whether there is willingness to use a virtually smoke-free stove for cooking, rather than an open fire, were one available and affordable.
Phase II: To determine whether efficient, modular wood-burning stoves could be made in the town of San Lucas and assembled on-site in the homes of people interested in obtaining them.
Sabrina Wagner, MD
Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics
School of Medicine and Public Health
TANZANIA
Project: “The goal of the project is to establish a foundation for the development of medical simulation training programs for use in resources-limited settings. It will involve a multi-disciplinary team in Tanzania including representatives from the host site’s Departments of Pediatrics, Surgery, Medicine, Obstetrics & Gynecology, Nursing and Pharmacy who will work to create a framework for the development of training programs that would assist in the management of acutely ill patients in resource-limited settings.”
The CGH Steering Committee extends a special thank you to everyone who submitted proposals, and encourages you to continue your global health activities. We appreciate support from the Division of International Studies and the Morgridge Center that enable us to grant these awards.
For more information on the UW-Madison Center for Global Health, visit www.pophealth.wisc.edu/gh.