triangle global health 2017 annual conference
Breakout Sessions
MORNING
11:00 am-12:00 pm
Panel: Food and Nutrition Security in a Climate-Changed World: Health, Socioeconomic, and Environmental Inputs and Impacts
The goal of this panel is to explore the various angles of the relationship between what we eat and the world we live in and will leave for future generations in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly Goals 2 (Zero Hunger), 3 (Good Health and Well-Being), 5 (Gender Equality), 12 (Responsible Production and Consumption), and 13 (Climate Action). Aspects to be discussed include the role of food systems in human, animal, and planetary health; sustainable agriculture and diets; and the need for intersectoral and interdisciplinary collaboration. The intent is to present a range of perspectives and leave the audience with a few good cross-cutting questions and insights worthy of further exploration and action.
Panel: Building Multi-Sectoral Coalitions
Global health challenges by definition require cross-sector, inter-disciplinary solutions. No one organization can solve these problems alone and we know our community is at its most effective when we speak together with one voice. This panel will explore lessons learned in creating and mobilizing diverse partners toward collective action. Panelists will discuss the challenges and opportunities of mobilizing locally to advance global health. The different stages of coalition development along with important milestones and key activities will also be explored.
Workshop: Creating and Managing Specialized and Remote Health Worker Training using Referenceable Replays
Join us to learn how to avoid one or more of these issues with your health worker training materials:
• Your health care training documentation viewed once or perhaps never viewed
• Network outages derail plans for online remote health worker training sessions
• Quiz results need to be captured to demonstrate health care learner competence
• No budget for professional post-production and/or hosting of training materials
• Need to update materials more quickly than a post-production partner can accommodate.
This workshop will enable you to create more engaging “Referenceable Replay” content applicable to supporting remote health workers in locales that may lack reliable, high speed Internet access. The Referenceable Replay technique supports creation of specialized, frequently updated training materials.
Workshop: Open Innovation: A Challenge within a Challenge
The Open Innovation Challenge will be a uniquely interactive workshop that engages participants though collaborative and open ideation, and friendly and fun competition between groups of participants. Groups of participants will compete to design the best Digital Health Challenge within a challenge format – a challenge within a challenge. Participants will be introduced to the principles of Open Innovation, and best practices in challenge design, after which they will be instructed to apply these principles and best practices in a rapid design session. Each group will develop their own Digital Health Challenge focused on the application of digital technologies to achieving a specific health outcome within a specific context. A panel of judges will assess each group’s final design challenge according to pre-determined criteria, allowing participants to go beyond applying what they have learned, receiving feedback and a small prize for the winner.
AFTERNOON
1:30-2:30 PM
Panel: Impacts of Global Environmental Health Efforts: Perspectives from
Federal Agencies
Today, perhaps as never before, global health organizations are being called on to demonstrate the positive impacts (or in some cases, the avoidance of negative impacts) that result from their work. This is particularly true for federal environmental science, public health, and global development agencies facing regular pressures to justify funding decisions. As federal agencies entrusted with the public’s resources, such accountability is reasonable and to be expected. Increasingly, however, agencies are also realizing the value of being able to convey the benefits of their work to audiences beyond legislators and across a range of metrics, including social, economic, and political. Federal agencies are investing in multidisciplinary partnerships and the development of tools to expand their capacities in this area. In this session, panelists from a range of federal agencies will provide brief examples of such partnerships, program, and tools to highlight national efforts to determine, define, and demonstrate global impacts.
Panel: The global pandemic of substandard and falsified medicines
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that approximately 10-30% of pharmaceuticals in the world are of poor quality. Falsified and substandard drugs are being sold as genuine medicines worldwide, contributing to prolonged illness, disability and even death, followed by economic consequences. In low- and middle-income countries, antimalarials and antibiotics have been found to be most at risk, threatening gains made in combatting infectious diseases and contributing to drug resistance. In high-income countries such as the U.S., prevalent illicit online pharmacies have become a source of substandard and falsified medicines. Poor quality medicines pose a major threat to global health by undermining people’s overall trust in the health system, its legitimate providers and in global health programs. This panel will discuss the threat and challenge of poor quality medications from different perspectives – academic, U.S. pharmacopeia, industry and government. We will discuss the latest evidence of the problem, current efforts to improve medicine quality and ongoing challenges. The panel will present the danger posed by poor supply chains and illicit Internet pharmacies, as well as how industry and regulatory agencies are addressing the problem. Our panel is very timely and local – it comes at a time when North Carolina has established the first State advisory council to combat counterfeit medications. Please join us to learn about the global pandemic of poor quality medicines and discuss strategies to counter the threats on a local and global scale.
Panel: Can we translate the multilateral strategies for cervical cancer prevention to address other global health disparities?
Cervical cancer is an example of a glaring health disparity between wealthy and poor countries, and remains an immediate health threat to many women in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Evidence-based, cost-effective protocols recommended by the World Health Organization have not been widely implemented due to limited health care infrastructure augmented by a lack of funding and political will. Although there are some unique factors contributing to the disparity in cervical cancer outcomes between high and LMICs, there are some common root causes shared across health systems: poor health care infrastructure, lack of awareness of early signs or symptoms, lack of funding prioritization within local governments, and limited operationalization of proven technologies used in high-income countries. These root causes must be addressed through both innovation and adaptation of successful interventions to fit the target community and the priorities of local governments (i.e. be both low-cost and cost-effective). To achieve this, clinicians and researchers need to partner with policy experts and implementers to ensure that effective interventions reach the target communities in a way that is both sustainable and has high impact. We propose a panel of experts to discuss the challenge of identifying novel technologies, programs and health policy changes that can address disparities in the health impact from cervical cancer. Adapting programs and solutions to fit individual communities is not a unique challenge to cervical cancer prevention. Panelists will discuss how the strategies they have employed to impact cervical cancer can be translated to address other global health disparities.
Workshop: Story-Gathering for Social Impact
“Storytelling”—it’s an inescapable buzzword these days. From big corporations to smaller nonprofits, everyone wants to reach wider audiences by putting a human face to the work they do. But in the context of global health, storytelling is complicated by ethics considerations and hard-to-reach locations. And storytelling is impossible without story-listening. What does it take to collect authentic, powerful stories about global health work “in the field”? How do we gather and share them in ethical ways for more effective advocacy and greater social impact? During this interactive session, participants will explore:
• Planning. What can be done ahead of time to make the most of any story-gathering opportunity, and how to work with local journalists to amplify your stories’ potential for social justice and political impact.
• Interviewing. How to prepare for conversations with the people who benefit from a global health organization’s work, what types of questions lead to the most compelling answers, and how to keep conversations on track while also building trust and rapport.
• Photography. When to invest in and how to find a professional photographer without breaking your budget, how to ensure images complement your stories (and fit your formats), and a few creative ways to use amateur photos.
Presenters will offer examples from their own story-gathering initiatives within challenging, resource-constrained circumstances. Discussion will include best practices, worst practices, and leave plenty of time for audience participation.
