Experts Talk Global Health

Harvard affiliates and other members of the global health community in New England gathered at Boston University yesterday to discuss the future of global health.

The symposium, co-sponsored by Boston University, Harvard, and the Center for Strategic and International Studies, discussed the strategies outlined in a CSIS commission report entitled "Smart Global Health Policy: A Healthier, Safer, and More Prosperous World."

The report—released last Thursday, one year after 25 commissioners joined together to brainstorm a long-term plan for the United States’s role in global health—outlines steps to be taken over the next 15 years in a five-part plan. These strategies include maintaining the commitment to the fight against HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis; prioritizing women and children in U.S. global health efforts; strengthening prevention and health emergency response capabilities; ensuring that the U.S. has the capacity to match global health ambitions; and making smart investments in multilateral institutions.

Yesterday’s conference was the first of a nation-wide series aiming to discuss both the ideas presented in the report and the United States’ role in global health.

Peter R. Lamptey, a commissioner of the report and the president of Public Health Programs at Family Health International, said during the symposium that the value of this report lies in its commitment to a longer period of responsibility. In addition to addressing health from an international perspective, the plan seeks to keep developing countries in the conversation to address mortality, Lamptey said.

As for the future of global health, the symposium recognized that the next generation already has the necessary foundation to sustain efforts in the long term.

"Your generation understands the global world that we are in and, more importantly, the need for global health," said Jeanne Shaheen, the current New Hampshire senator who once served as director of the Institute of Politics at the Harvard Kennedy School.

The same idea was extended when five students from Boston University, Brown, Harvard, Yale, and Dartmouth presented their current research in global health-related topics.

Among the students was Amy K. Bei ’03, a doctorate candidate at the School of Public Health who spent a year in Tanzania, where she developed a method for conducting reverse genetics in the human erythrocyte.

The symposium was also attended by other Harvard affiliates, including University Provost Steven E. Hyman and School of Public Health Dean for Academic Affairs David L. Hunter.

Robert A. Brown, president of Boston University and Michael E. Capuano, representative in Congress for Massachusetts’ eighth district, were also in attendance.

—Staff writer Xi Yu can be reached at xyu@college.harvard.edu.