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US medical Navy ship - international opportunity for healthcare providers
Posted on July 5, 2010
The DMU global health department has recently begun collaboration with the US Navy medical department to provide support during their annual humanitarian assistance missions in Central and South America. This international medical service opportunity exists for healthcare providers on board a US Navy ship with outreach services provided to local communities.
The dates for this 3 week trip would be October 18 through November 6, 2010. The locations would be one week in Guyana, (October 18 - October 25) then traveling to Suriname for the remainder of the (October 29 - November 6). There would be no financial assistance for those that decide to participate.
Taking a triathlon to a global level - literally
Posted on July 5, 2010
Charlie Wittmack, a Des Moines attorney, the first Iowan to climb Mount Everest and a life-long adventurer, embarked on epic journey July 1 when he jumped into the River Thames to swim to the North Sea and across the English Channel. He'll follow that with a 9,000-mile bike ride across mountains and deserts in Europe, Asia and Nepal. Once he hops off the bike he'll run a 950-mile trail from sea level at the Bay of Bengal through the Himalayas to the summit of Mount Everest. It's roughly 100 times the length of an Ironman triathlon. www.theworldtri.com
Wittmack is not making this crazy-ambitious journey on a whim or to show off superhuman endurance. He's doing it to bring light to issues he considers very serious, health, the environment and education. And DMU is partnering with him on its goal of reducing maternal and infant mortality. Read all about Wittmack's extraordinary undertaking and DMU's role in the summer 2010 edition of DMU Magazine, www.dmu.edu/magazine.
DMU students, faculty help in Haiti
Posted on July 5, 2010
In June, nine DMU students and faculty spent a week treating patients in a makeshift clinic in a church outside Port-au-Prince in Haiti, which was devastated in January by a 7.0 earthquake. More than 250,000 people died, a million more were injured and up to 90 percent of the island country's infrastructure was destroyed in the quake. Thousands still live in tent camps while the slow recovery continues.
Des Moines' ABC-TV affiliate, WOI, featured the DMU medical mission in a broadcast on June 22. You can view the feature on WOI's website: www.myabc5.com/global/category.asp?c=190187&clipId=4886624&autostart=true
Summer exhibit celebrates global health revolution
Posted on July 5, 2010
From July 5 through Aug. 18, the Des Moines University Library will host the exhibit "Against the Odds: Making a Difference in Global Health," a National Library of Medicine exhibit depicting the revolution in global health that is taking place in villages and towns around the world. The exhibit describes successful collaborations of communities with scientists, advocates, governments and international organizations to prevent disease and improve quality of life, often using the simplest means.
Part of the National Institutes of Health, the National Library of Medicine makes its extensive collections available to researchers and the public.
The display is free and open to the public, with viewing hours Monday through Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. The library is located on the second floor of the DMU Student Education Center, 3300 Grand Ave.
The Fogarty Scholars
Posted on July 5, 2010
DMU students now have opportunity to apply for Fogarty International clinical research scholars and fellows to do health research in the developing world.
Go to www.fogartyscholars.org for more details.
Consortium plans second annual global health conference
Posted on July 5, 2010
The Heartland Global Health Consortium (HGHC), created in 2007 by DMU and other Iowa universities and colleges, will host its second annual global health conference Oct. 13 on the DMU campus, with a focus on the influence of agriculture on global health. The conference, which is open to the public, will feature speakers and judged poster presentations by students of the member institutions. For more information about the consortium, visit its website, www.heartlandconsortium.org.
New national consortium includes DMU
Posted on July 5, 2010
The number of students enrolled in global health programs in universities across the United States and Canada has doubled in the past three years. That's led American universities to expand these programs at an unprecedented rate. The surge also led more than 50 North American universities - including Des Moines University - to create the Consortium of Universities for Global Health, to help organize their efforts and set a vision of global health programs.
"The guiding principle of the consortium is to make the university a transforming force in global health," says Yogesh Shah, M.D., DMU's associate dean for global health. "We at DMU want to join that force by collaborating with other universities and organizations as well as by increasing the opportunities we offer our own students."
For more information on CUGH, visit www.cugh.org.
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Posted on April 1, 2010
On Tuesday, March 23rd 2010, the Global Health dept. hosted Dr. France Donnay, Sr. Program Officer, Maternal Health at Gates Foundation for a visit of the campus and the simulation lab. The purpose of her visit was to determine if DMU could offer The Gates Foundation any technical assistance in Obstetrics related simulation, that could be used internationally. (Courtney might have couple of good pictures)
World Triathlon Participant
Posted on April 1, 2010
Charlie Wittmack, a lawyer in Des Moines will be participating in a world triathlon beginning June, 2010. During his time spent in Nepal (Dec./Jan./Feb.) a team organized by DMU, will be adding a maternal health component to promote global health in that area. Thus far, plans include using a hospital in Katmandu for teaching and promoting health with pamphlets and talks. Members of his team will include healthcare providers and students from DMU.
Uganda Students Visiting DMU
Posted on April 1, 2010
Julliet Allen and Gilbert Elijah, two medical students from the University of Makerere in Uganda are in Des Moines for an 8 week rotation. They arrived on March 20 for a 4 week rotation in the DMU Tower Clinic and 4 weeks at Mercy Medical Center and will head back on May 14.
Global Health Service Trip
Posted on April 1, 2010
DMU will be sending students and health care providers to Guatemala and Haiti for the summer medical service trip. Each medical team will spend one week in June at their appointed destination. 12 DMU students and 3 Drake University students will be going.
AOA Presidents Visits DMU
Posted on April 1, 2010
AOA President Wickless DO visited DMU and the Global Health department in March 2010.
Three DMU Alumni Head to Mali, West Africa
Posted on January 13, 2010
Three DMU alumni will travel to Mali, West Africa this January through the DMU Global Health Department and Medicine for Mali. Vincent Scoccia, D.O.'93, Brent Crandall, D.O.'96 and Phillip Tedrick, D.O.'77, will join three DMU faculty, Laura Delaney, PA-C, Sharon Mueller, R.N. and Wendy Ringgenberg, Ph.D., two PA students, four fourth-year D.O. students and one M.P.H. student. The group will also include various medical support staff for a total of 25.
The group will leave January 16 for the two week trip.
They plan to carry all their medical supplies with them as their luggage and take their personal items in what they can carry on the plane.
Dr. Shah visits the World Health Organization
Posted on May 21, 2009
From April 27-29, Dr. Yogesh Shah, associate dean of Global Health at DMU, attended the Preterm Birth International Collaboration (PREBIC) conference in Geneva, Switzerland. He was invited by the World Health Organization (WHO) one of DMU's partners on projects related to women's health.
Dr. Shah at WHO's Executive Board Room
While in Geneva, he visited the WHO headquarters to meet with individuals regarding DMU's collaboration with WHO. Dr. Mario Merialdi of the WHO Reproductive Health and Research division confirmed that about 20 pieces of art commissioned by WHO will be in Iowa in October. The art is designed to increase awareness about and promote action toward improving sexual and reproductive health around the world, especially the health of women and children. The art will be part of the joint program between the World Food Prize (WFP) and Des Moines University. Dr. Merialdi also confirmed WHO support for the next issue of Abaton which will focus on Global Health. Lastly, he will welcome two summer interns from DMU to Geneva to work on research questions at WHO.
Daisy Mafubelu, assistant director
general for family and community
health at WHO, and Dr. Shah
Dr. Shah also met with Daisy Mafubelu, assistant director general for family and community health at WHO, and they agreed to continue to develop these linkages between DMU and WHO. Mafubelu has been invited to be a speaker at 2009 WFP event.
Dr. Shah met Meena Cabral de Mello to discuss a partnership between DMU, WHO and UNICEF called Care for Childhood Development. WHO is interested in working with DMU to develop student-focused modules for this program to be used by DMU and other medical students while on international rotations. There is now an opportunity for summer student internship on this topic.
A meeting with Alma Virginia Camacho focused on WHO programs aimed at reducing adolescent pregnancies. This collaboration is a good fit for the Global Health department's support for the Iowa Initiative whose goal is reducing the number of unintended pregnancies. The Iowa Initiative will conduct an "On the Issues" conference at DMU on July 22, 2009. Keynote speaker will be Melody Barnes, director of the domestic policy council for President Obama.
This brief visit extended the developing partnership between DMU and WHO in several new areas as Dr. Shah had meetings with several senior WHO officials. Substantial new initiatives will soon be coming.
"We want to make you Maasai" - by Dr. Shah
Posted on March 5th, 2009
On a recent trip to Tanzania, I got to experience what few tourists enjoy - an overnight visit to a Maasai village. It was an adventure that involved a motorbike, a couple of flat tires, a goat, wonderful people and invaluable lessons.
The Maasai - also spelled "Masai" - are an ethnic group of people living in northern Tanzania and Kenya. The village I visited was 15 kilometers from the nearest town. My guide and translator was a pastor who offered to take me there by motorbike. I had never been on a motorbike before, and this one had a flat tire to boot. It was a nearly three-hour journey into the bush on dirt paths with no signs to mark our way. However, I didn't want to give up the opportunity. After the tire repair and a few wrong turns, we arrived at our destination.
The Maasai people are polygamous; the men can have as many wives as they have cattle, the chief indicator of wealth. Huts of branches, mud and cow dung, constructed by the women, are arranged in a large circle, with the cattle kept in the center. While a small school recently opened in the vicinity, the children in this village don't receive a formal education. My guide/pastor chose to refer to me as "professor," a title of higher stature to the people than "doctor."
The villagers welcomed me warmly. After the pastor delivered a sermon to approximately 45 mostly women and children in a small church, everyone came outside to perform a local dance consisting largely of jumping. When I joined in, an older woman advised my guide that the guest is supposed to enter the dance last - which didn't bother me, given the stamina such dancing required.
Later, the villagers presented me with a gift, provided by a local member of the country's president-appointed parliament: a goat. The parliamentarian had sent with it a staff member and an inspector to make sure the animal was disease-free. We left the village with a group of men and boys into the bush, where the goat was calmed and killed. Its blood was collected in a bowl, which the boys drank. This is considered to give a person great physical strength, but I was silently grateful the bowl wasn't offered to me.
The goat was then butchered - with the inspector examining it at every step in the process - and cooked over a fire. Pieces of cooked meat were placed on a bed of leaves; we sat in a circle around it. The host cut a piece for each guest, going around the circle; you were supposed to finish your piece by the time he handed you another. I took so long chewing that they gave me a plate to hold my share. The meal lasted past midnight.
The next day, after the women and girls had milked the cows, the villagers and their chief gathered around me. He told me, "We want to make you Maasai." I was presented with a beautiful cloth and an elaborately beaded stick.
I was deeply grateful for these gifts because of the significance and value they represent. Besides their livestock, the Maasai have none of the material wealth we enjoy in the United States. The children play with each other, not with toys or Wiis. The people subsist on rice, beans and occasionally meat; obesity is not an option. Health care consists largely of herbs and, for the young mothers, a diet that keeps their expected babies small to minimize complications in delivery. Until recently, these villagers had to walk 10 kilometers to get water; a new pump now puts water within "just" one kilometer.
Still, the Maasai I met were happy. Older villagers were treated with great respect. The children were excited when I gave them just one TicTac or piece of gum. I'm grateful for all we have in America, but too often our level of satisfaction seems lower the more that we have.
These are among the lessons Des Moines University students and alumni gain in our Global Health Program. While they hone their clinical skills, they learn how people in poorer countries manage with far fewer resources. They gain cultural awareness and appreciation, insights they bring back to their medical practice. They establish deeply human, personal connections with other people.
That appreciation helped me in one more way: I didn't even think about complaining when, upon our intended departure, we discovered our motorbike had yet another flat tire.
