Minutes May 13, 2010

Global Health Interest Group

Meeting minutes

Thursday May 13, 2010

In attendance: Tyler Brown, Jonathan Dyal, Mariam Fofana, Vikash Gupta, Lakshmi Krishnan, Caitlin Martin, Elisabet Pujadas, Ani Ramesh, Megan Rybarczyk, Roger Samuels, Martha Tesfalul, Sarah Wallace, Jessica Yang.

Summary of Discussion

Opening discussion: Essential access to medicines
Martha gave a presentation on the history of the Universities Allied for Essential Medicines movement and their efforts to push universities to adopt licensing policies that promote global access to therapeutics (e.g. by allowing for generic production) and increase research for neglected diseases like river blindness. Tyler followed with a presentation of the situation at Hopkins and current efforts to get the University to sign on to a Statement of Principles and Strategies for the Equitable Dissemination of Medical Technologies. Both made the point that as students we hold more power than we might think when it comes to changing some university policies.
Updates

• The blog is up and going! Check it out, post something, comment, ask questions, this is really meant to be an open forum.
• We are working to add our international colleagues whom we met during the intersession as contributors to the blog so that we can keep the intercontinental conversation going…
• Committee chairs are meeting with faculty and administrators to discuss some ways to integrate longitudinal global health education into our curriculum to provide for more in-depth exploration than is provided by the intersession. We will be sending out a survey soon to gauge student interest.
• We have added the prospective students to the email list and will plan events at the beginning of next year to introduce them to GHIG and global health opportunities at Hopkins. Must have food!
• The Urban Med-Peds Interest Group is on board for a co-sponsored World AIDS day event/fundraiser. This would happen in December so we have plenty of time to plan, but it’s never too early to share ideas.

Action Items:

• Everyone: Send feedback and ideas on what you want GHIG to do!
• Everyone: Check out the blog!
• Committee chairs: Send out survey on global health curriculum

Minutes 4.22.2010

Global Health Interest Group

Organizational meeting minutes

Thursday April 22, 2010

In attendance: Megan Buresh, Jonathan Dyal, Mariam Fofana, Lakshmi Krishnan, Caitlin Martin, Elisabet Pujadas, Ani Ramesh, Megan Rybarczyk, Kerry Schnell, Sarah Wallace, Jessica Yang.

Summary of Discussion

Opening discussion: Maternal mortality

We discussed a recent study reporting global declines in maternal mortality. Some of the issues brought up included the fact that the global decline was due in large part to trends in large rapidly developing countries like India and China, while maternal mortality has been increasing in other countries. This is especially true of eastern and southern Africa, where HIV contributes to maternal mortality. We also discussed the importance of health metrics, health system strengthening and the burden of chronic disease in developing countries. Ani and John contributed some insight from their experiences in Bolivia.

Potential events for next year

• Photo exhibit/contest from summer experiences. We would have to solicit prizes and funding for food. This could be a great opportunity for recruitment of incoming 1^st-years.

• World AIDS day fundraiser; we could do this in collaboration with the Urban Med-Peds interest group and split the proceeds between organizations in Baltimore and abroad.

• Generally speaking, we will try to focus on 1 or 2 big events per year that we can plan well ahead of time.