Global Health Newsletter - April 2017 

Sunlight Report

from Dr. Robert Kalyesubula, Founder of the African Community Center for Social Sustainability (ACCESS)

Fifty-one solar torches, donated by UVM alumnus Dr. Fred Mandell, ‘64, have made a significant impact on the community in Nakaseke, Uganda where ACCESS hosts one of our Global Health Program elective sites. The first beneficiaries of these lights are the ACCESS-supported orphans and vulnerable children who are of school-going age. Excitement has sparked in this electricity-scarce area as these children can now study and read beyond the hours of natural daylight.

UVM medical students completing rotations in Nakaseke will be involved in a study measuring the benefits, challenges, and impact of the solar flashlights through conduction of interviews with flashlight recipients and data collection. Read about Dr. Fred Mandell, ACCESS, and the gift of light here >>

Global Health Day: April 24

The third annual Global Health Day will take place at University of Vermont in Burlington from April 23rd-25th. The honored international guests include Dr. Julio Amado Cataños Guzman, Rector of UNIBE, who will deliver the Dean's Distinguished Lecture, and Dr. Dilyara Nurkhametova, the Russian Site Coordinator. A full agenda of activities will be released soon by the global health office at UVM.

Information about submitting your posters, photography, and reflections to showcase on Global Health Day >>

Member Highlights

Robyn Scatena

I am very happy to be part of the WCHN Global Health faculty at Norwalk Hospital. While I love global health for many reasons, the most powerful of them is to be reminded of why I chose medicine: to touch people, to stand by them and their families during sickness, to translate the science of medicine to their realities, and to serve. The opportunity to exchange medical and educational skills with health workers in different countries, to be welcomed by patients and doctors, and to contribute something, no matter how small, is incredibly humbling. Global health reminds me of why I am proud to be a doctor and a teacher of medicine.

Alumni Highlights

Imelda Muller

My experiences volunteering for a local clinic for uninsured patients, mostly immigrants, and traveling to Kenya during my undergraduate career piqued my interest in how healthcare workers in the U.S. can help promote sustainable practice both at home and abroad. I had an opportunity to further investigate this question through a global health elective in Uganda where I was humbled by the resiliency and resourcefulness of the people, and the strong advocacy of families for the care of their loved ones, while learning about a different healthcare system. I continue to learn as I reflect on my time in Uganda.

In June, I will start my residency at the Naval Medical Center in San Diego, Calif. The Navy plays a pivotal role in providing care in the communities we work with abroad. Global health advocates have an obligation to empower communities to sustainably achieve their goals for health. I hope to use my global health experiences to achieve that goal.

Read a blog post by Imelda on the Global Health Diaries Blog >> 

Current Rotations

Several participants are currently abroad for their global health electives. This includes six medical students (see photo right) from American University of the Caribbean: Rory Panzarello, Courtney Janowski, Lauryn Josephs, and Cameron Lancarte who are in Vietnam, and Marcus Powers who is in Uganda; and UVM senior medical student Jessica Huang in the Dominican Republic.

Sacred Heart University: Delegates of Sacred Heart University’s Nursing, Physician Assistant, and Global Health programs visited Makerere University and ACCESS in Uganda from March 5th-12th. The purpose of the administrative visit was to establish a partnership towards making the program more interdisciplinary in nature.  Photo left: Members of Sacred Heart University visit Sanyu Babies Home in Kampala, Uganda. 

Consortium of Universities for Global Health

The 8th Annual Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH) Conference will be held April 7-9, in Washington, DC. This year’s panels will be centered on the theme “Healthy People, Healthy Ecosystems: Implementation, Leadership & Sustainability in Global Health.” Register here >>

Three members of our program will participate in the conference. UVM medical student Janel Martir, ‘17, will be reading her essay that was awarded an honorable mention for the CUGH Essay Contest; Mitra Sadigh, postbaccalaureate student at UVM and editor of the Global Health Diaries Blog will be giving a poster presentation about the manuscript entitled “Creating a Bidirectional Culture of Safety in Global Health Electives Via Comprehensive Safety Protocols;” and the Director of the Global Health Program will be a speaker on the panel “Building Ethical and Effective Partnerships Between Institutions in Low- and Middle- Income Countries (LICs) and High-Income Countries (HMICs).”

Global Health Program News

Dr. Charles Musoke returned to his home in Kampala, Uganda on March 2nd after completing one year of cardiology training at Danbury Hospital under the leadership of Dr. Robert Jarrett. The program extends special thanks to Dr. Musoke for his many contributions to the program in capacity building and the future energy he will dedicate towards training elective participants at Mulago Hospital.

We send a special thank you and sad farewell to Leah Moody who has been our Global Health Coordinator since November 2014. She has made countless contributions to our program as editor of the newsletter, contributor to the annual report, writer of weekly notes to our global health participants, and coauthor of the recently published manuscript “Creating a Bidirectional Culture of Safety in Global Health Electives Via Comprehensive Safety Protocols.” She also moderated global health evenings and committee meetings, worked on tropical medicine and global health modules and helped compile reflection and photo collections. Her energy, enthusiasm, and cheerful nature will be sorely missed. We wish her the best of luck as she continues her education in neuroscience.