August 22, 2014
Our SCOPE Scholars in Action – Emily Robinson
Categories: students
One of the truly incredible things about our scholars is that they’re able to get out into the world to experience the joy of helping others while positively contributing to the field of Global Health. Emily Robinson (UW Doctorate of Nursing Practice student), and Kate Pfizenmaier (UW Master of Public Administration student) have been doing just that in Gondar, Ethiopia. They are our 2014 SCOPE fellows, and have been in Gondar for 3 months.
SCOPE (Strengthening Core Opportunities Through Partnership in Ethiopia) helps link medical and religious communities in order to better prevent HIV infection and deliver comprehensive care to those in need, particularly pregnant women and new mothers and babies. “One of the most important things I will take away from this experience is the importance of listening,” says Emily, “not just with my ears, but also with my heart. I have so much to learn from those I have been privileged enough to partner with here in Ethiopia. Inspiring people with inspirational stories will follow me home and will undoubtedly inform the way I practice as a healthcare provider in the future.”
Emily’s experience with SCOPE has inspired a fantastic personal blog called ‘Spilling Emily’ where she shares her experiences and those inspirational stories of the women and children for whom she has come to care a great deal.
You can learn more about our SCOPE program, and the work that we do here.
August 13, 2014
Global WACh & Coulter Foundation 2014 Pilot Award
Categories: Research, students
Tags: bioengineering, pilot grants, tuberculosis
We are pleased to announce that the Global WACh/W.H. Coulter Foundation Seed Grant for 2014 has just been awarded to Drs. James Lai, Barry Lutz, and David Horne for their excellent proposal focused on point-of-care tuberculosis testing. The doctors were first approached with the idea by two students attending Global WACh’s course on Bioengineering Solutions to Improve the Health of Women, Adolescents and Children (WINTER | GH590). Nuttada Panpradist (Bio Engineering) and Diana Marangu (Global Health) were very excited, and had this to say about their involvement:
We are delighted to be the part of the team that has received the 2014 Coulter Seed Grant Award. Who could imagine that this all started from participating in the Bioengineering-Global WACh Seminar? We both have been very passionate about tackling the diagnostic dilemma in tuberculosis and were fortunately paired together to develop a solution to one of the many challenges in Global Health. Our mentors were very supportive and drove us to think critically about this challenge when we shared our idea with them. This experience has been a wonderful learning opportunity, from the process of grant writing and now seeing this idea being potentially translated into reality. The world needs a low-cost, accurate diagnostic tool for active TB that uses a non-invasive sample like urine. Hopefully, this technology can be truly implemented at all levels of healthcare and benefit patients with TB who need it the most.
Tuberculosis affects 9 million people with 1.7 million dying every year. Because most TB testing requires 6-8 weeks and a culture of sputum, it’s been difficult to implement methods of detection in limited resource settings. Many of the methods currently in use are not widely available, and delays in diagnosis can mean easier transmission of the disease. Being able to diagnose the disease using efficient, same day methods that use urine samples instead of sputum would be a great step in the right direction. That’s what Drs. Lai, Lutz, and Horne hope to do, so please join us in congratulating these great researchers and students who are helping to improve the health of women, children, and adolescents everywhere!
August 6, 2014
Dr. Tahmeed Ahmed Speaks at Global WACh on Acute Malnutrition
Categories: Children, globalwach, Nutrition
Tags: icddrb, malnutrition, nutrition, Tahmeed Ahmed
Last week, over 25 students and faculty gathered to hear UW Affiliate Professor Dr. Tahmeed Ahmed speak on the subject of acute malnutrition in children, from basics to delivery. Dr. Ahmed is the head of the Nutrition and Food Security program at International Centre for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh. Under his leadership over the last 25 years, there has been a 50 percent reduction in the fatalities of children admitted with severe acute malnutrition to the icddr,b facilities in Dhaka. Global WACh has recently established a partnership with icddr,b to research new ways to prevent stunted growth in children. You can learn more about Dr. Ahmed and the great team at icddr,b here.