Haile Debas
UCSF Global Health Sciences is forging new partnerships in the Bay Area and abroad, reflecting a growing sense of idealism, says Haile Debas, executive director of Global Health Sciences at UCSF.
In partnership with institutions around the world, Global Health Sciences focuses on the health, biological, social and policy sciences to address diseases and problems that threaten current and future generations. Global Health Sciences was created by Chancellor Mike Bishop to coordinate UCSF's work to improve the care of vulnerable populations at home and throughout the world.
"We are witnessing a great wave of enthusiasm for global health everywhere," said Debas, former UCSF chancellor and former dean of the UCSF School of Medicine. "UCSF and other academic institutions in the US and in other developed countries must catch the crest of the wave and play a significant role in capacity-building in developing countries, the only sure way to ensure sustainable development."
Academic institutions, in partnership with the private sector, Debas explained, are well positioned to assist developing countries in building capacity. Capacity-building, Debas defined, is the "process by which individuals, groups, organizations, institutions and societies increase their ability to perform core functions, solve problems, define and achieve objectives, and understand and deal with their development needs in a broad context and a sustainable manner."
Speaking at the Global Health Sciences seminar series on Nov. 30, Debas provided some background on the economic impact of globalization and outlined current and future initiatives.
Among the latest developments, UCSF Global Health Sciences is:
- • Developing within the next two years a graduate program that will offer
both PhD or MS degrees in global health;
- • Extending a medical student graduate program, with an emphasis in global
health sciences, to students in all professional schools;
- • Planning to develop clinical rotations for residents in developing countries;
- • Offering students from developing countries the opportunity to enroll
in a joint PhD-master's program, which allows them to come to UCSF for the
mid-portion of their training and then return home to complete work for their
degrees; and
- • Collaborating with colleagues at institutions in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania,
and in Uganda to strengthen education and training of health professionals.
Coordinated Approach
Debas also announced that UCSF Global Health Sciences is in the process of merging with the UCSF Institute for Global Health, directed by George Rutherford, and with the Women's Global Health Imperative, directed by Nancy Padian.
"This merger will allow Global Health Sciences to develop new program clusters in global public health and epidemiology, women's global health sciences, global health policy and global health economics," he said.
UCSF Global Health Sciences and the UC Berkeley School of Public Health, School of Business and School of Economics also have developed a close working relationship. These efforts, led by Padian, may be the start of what could become a "UC Bay Area" Global Health Sciences program, he said.
Currently, universities have no coordinated approach, and their work in developing countries tends to be duplicative and often competitive, said Debas, who cited a need for a University Consortium of Public Health. Initial discussions of a consortium have already begun at a meeting attended by 16 leading American and Canadian universities at Boston University in April 2004, he said. Such a consortium could take advantage of the momentum for global health, provide the means to coordinate and prioritize activities, and coordinate the creation of centers of excellence in science, technology and health in developing countries.
Thanks to funding from the Gates Foundation, the National Academy of Sciences is in the process of developing three centers of excellence in Africa. A similar movement, Debas said, has started through the efforts of the Mandela Foundation, which also plans to develop several centers of excellence in science and technology in Africa.
Wave of Idealism
Debas compared the growing sense of idealism to one that emerged in the 1960s. "The time represented the birth of a new national program - the Peace Corps - one of the most enlightened American efforts to help, understand and create goodwill with poor people in developing countries," he said.
"In the past several years, I have visited many universities throughout the United States, Canada and Europe," he said. "The sense of idealism and the urge to help the less fortunate that we witnessed with the Peace Corps movement have reemerged this decade in the form of passion for global health. The driving energy is coming from students, residents, postdocs and young faculty. Their vision and enthusiasm have been the reason that many of the leading American universities, including UCSF, have established programs in global health."
Indeed, it is the passion and enthusiasm of the young members of the UCSF family that has given UCSF Global Health Sciences the head of steam to "plan a comprehensive program that harnesses the great expertise of UCSF in basic, clinical, public health, and social and behavioral sciences to create the distinctive program in which all UCSF schools participate."
The lecture series itself is an idea of young UCSF scholars who wanted to create a community of global health activists and advocates at UCSF.
Effect of Globalization
In giving an overview on the economic impact of globalization, Debas said that while major corporations have been the big winners in the global economy, as have countries such as India and China, the situation is much different in most countries in Africa, where the "dark side of globalization is more obvious than the bright side.
"Africa's position in the global economy is worsening as its share of world trade dwindles and as foreign direct investment remains low," Debas said. "Globalization has widened the income gap between rich and poor in the developed and developing world. The widening income gap is particularly severe in the poor countries, where more than 300 million people subsist on less than $1 per day."
The woes in Sub-Saharan Africa, for example, can be attributed to many factors, including inept political leadership, unfair trade practices and agricultural subsidies for developed countries that make it difficult for African farmers to compete. In the health arena, health professionals of all kinds are in short supply, and half of those who are available have poor or no training at all, Debas noted.
"The causes of this human resource crisis are many. Inadequate production, increasing burden of disease and brain drain are among the chief causes. But a whole host of other reasons also contribute, including attrition due to retirements or HIV/AIDS."
For its part, UCSF Global Health Sciences is embarking on a training program for mid-level health care workers in HIV/AIDS care in Tanzania in collaboration with the Tanzania National Institute of Medical Research and Ministry of Health, and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It has also sent two teachers of biochemistry to Muhimbili University College of Health Sciences in Dar es Salaam for the winter semester.
Source: Lisa Cisneros
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