Partnerships, training key to global health
Organizational partnerships, the training of local medical personnel, and increased engagement by academic medical centers to deliver care where it’s needed are all important if the present push to improve global health is to have lasting results, according to speakers at a Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) symposium. The all-day event, “Broadening the Response: The Role of Academic Medical Centers in Global Health,” was held on Friday (Nov. 12) at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center and attracted prominent speakers such as U.S. Sen. John Kerry; Paul Farmer, Maude and Lillian Presley Professor of Global Health and Social Medicine and co-founder of the nonprofit Partners In Health; and Bruce Walker, professor of immunology and infectious diseases and head of the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard. Speakers also included health care officials and researchers from several developing nations, including Liberia, Uganda, and South Africa. Though progress has been made in improving global...