A symposium to celebrate the official launch of
UCSF Global Health Sciences will feature several speakers of international prominence who will discuss ways to meet the critical challenges posed to resource-poor counties burdened by chronic and infectious diseases on Friday, Feb. 11, 1 to 5 p.m., in Cole Hall on the Parnassus campus.
The symposium, titled "Defining Global Health for the 21st Century," is free and open to the public. It will also be videocast to the UCSF Mission Bay campus, Genentech Hall, room S-271.
The following are the speakers:
• Welcome by J. Michael Bishop, MD, UCSF Chancellor
• "Building Strong Institutions for Science and Technology in Every Nation: The Role of the National Academies," Bruce M. Alberts, PhD, President, National Academy of Sciences; Professor, Biochemistry and Biophysics, UCSF.
• "Mobilizing an Effective Response to Global Health Crises: National versus International Action," Richard G.A. Feachem, DSc (Med), PhD, CBE, Executive Director, The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; Professor, Epidemiology and Biostatistics, UCSF; Founding Director, Institute for Global Health, UCSF.
• "Health and Global Security," Julio Frenk, MD, PhD, Minister of Health, Mexico.
• "Health and Development in Africa - The Partnerships Needed," Pascoal Manuel Mocumbi, MD, High Representative, European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership; immediate past Prime Minister, Mozambique.
• "The UCSF Promise," Haile T. Debas, MD, Executive Director, UCSF Global Health Sciences; Maurice Galante Distinguished Professor of Surgery; Dean (Medicine), Vice Chancellor (Medical Affairs), and Chancellor Emeritus, UCSF.
UCSF Global Health Sciences was established to create a vision and provide institutional leadership for global health at UCSF. Under the direction of Haile T. Debas and reporting directly to Chancellor J. Michael Bishop, its creation underscores UCSF's commitment to global health and to the care of vulnerable populations at home and throughout the world. Working in partnership with institutions around the world, it focuses its expertise in the health, biological, social, and policy sciences on a range of diseases that threaten current and future generations.
"Diseases have no respect for national boundaries: communicable diseases such as SARS and avian influenza rapidly spread to our shores from developing countries; noncommunicable diseases such as diabetes, obesity, and tobacco-related illnesses are exported from the industrialized to the developing world," said Debas. "Resource-poor nations have special barriers to overcome: Decimation of their intellectual resources through brain drain and premature death due to HIV/AIDS and other endemic diseases has made it impossible to deliver healthcare effectively or to build scientific and clinical capacity.
"To effectively address these critical problems, the 20th century public health paradigm must be transformed into a 21st century global health model of partnership created on principles of equality, transparency, mutual interest, and respect.
"UCSF Global Health Sciences is leading the way to develop international collaborations in research and training reflecting this new model. Our top priorities include developing graduate training programs to define a new academic discipline of global health sciences and creating an interdisciplinary community of scholars. These programs will produce the intellectual foundation supporting a 21st century model of global health."
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UCSF Global Health Sciences
Defining Global Health for the 21st Century
