Post on 26-May-2020
Inaugural Symposium
Delivering Health Globally Examining the Challenges and
Opportunities in the 21st Century
Mohammed Bin Rashid Academic Medical Center
Dubai Healthcare City
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
ghd-dubai.hms.harvard.edu
The Center addresses some of the most pressing health challenges in the region by focusing
on research, medical education and training that promises to improve healthcare delivery
systems and patient outcomes for diseases prevalent in the United Arab Emirates, Middle
East, North Africa and neighboring regions. The Center also provides opportunities for
faculty and students to pursue research related to the delivery of existing or new interventions
that can cure or prevent disease, specifically in the following priority areas: diabetes and
obesity, infectious disease, mental health, and surgery.
The Center’s Region
Dear Colleagues,
Welcome to the inaugural symposium of the Harvard Medical School Center for Global
Health Delivery–Dubai. We are extremely honored to have you join us for this event, which
is being held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al
Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE, and Ruler of Dubai.
Delivering Health Globally: Examining the Challenges in the 21st Century is the launching
point for exchange of ideas focused on some of the most pressing issues we confront as
scientists, educators, and practitioners committed to improving global health delivery. We
have convened global experts on diabetes and obesity, surgical care, infectious disease, and
mental health. Today’s symposium will focus on the challenges we face in health care
delivery, including building local capacity for research and strengthening health system
capacity to deliver comprehensive care.
Participants in this symposium are known for their outstanding vision and service in the field
of global health. I encourage each of you to use this symposium as an opportunity for
discussion—with our speakers and each other—about how best to advance our collective
global health agenda.
Thank you for joining us for this symposium. I look forward to engaging in conversation with
you over the years to come.
Sincerely,
Salmaan Keshavjee
Director
Agenda
Welcome, Salmaan Keshavjee
Greetings from
Harvard Medical School, Jeffrey Flier and David Golan
Dubai Healthcare City, Amer Sharif
World Bank Group, Jim Yong Kim
The work of the Center, Salmaan Keshavjee
The role of universities building capacity in the region, Richard Mills
Harvard Medical School’s role in building capacity globally, Ajay Singh
Break
The Center’s areas of focus and introduction of speakers, Salmaan Keshavjee
Diabetes, Merri Pendergrass
Infectious disease, Zarir Udwadia
Mental health, Anne Becker
Surgery, Lubna Samad
Global health in the 21st century, Paul Farmer
Discussion, Salmaan Keshavjee
Closing remarks, Salmaan Keshavjee
Dinner and photo exhibit
Director of the Center
Salmaan Keshavjee, MD, PhD, ScM
Dr. Keshavjee is the Director of Harvard Medical School’s Center for
Global Health Delivery–Dubai. He is also Associate Professor of
Global Health and Social Medicine at the Department of Global Health
and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Associate
Professor of Medicine in the Division of Global Health Equity at
Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
Dr. Keshavjee has been leading the Harvard Medical School Center for Global Health
Delivery–Dubai since 2014. Dr. Keshavjee is a physician and social anthropologist, and a
leading expert on the treatment of drug-resistant TB and the anthropology of health policy.
He is the author of Blind spot: How neoliberalism infiltrated global health, which is based on
his PhD research in Central Asia (Tajikistan). He has worked extensively with the Boston-
based non-profit Partners In Health on the treatment of drug-resistant tuberculosis. Since
2000, Dr. Keshavjee has conducted clinical and implementation research in Russia with
Partners In Health, leading the research component since 2005. In 2006-2008, he was also
the Deputy Director for Partners In Health Lesotho, launching the first community-based
treatment program for multi-drug resistant TB/HIV co-infection in sub-Saharan Africa. His
research has resulted in a number of manuscripts of global clinical and policy significance.
Dr. Keshavjee has been engaged in transforming global policy discussions around the
treatment of drug-resistant TB. In 2005, he became a member of the World Health
Organization/Stop TB Partnership’s Green Light Committee for MDR-TB Treatment, serving
as Chair from 2007 to 2010. He has worked to develop alternate mechanisms for drug
procurement, technical assistance delivery, and program implementation. Dr. Keshavjee is
leading an initiative at Harvard Medical School that convenes scholars and practitioners to
deploy proven strategies to achieve zero deaths from TB.
In addition to his research and policy work, Dr. Keshavjee is also an active member of
Harvard’s teaching faculty. When on service as an attending physician at Brigham and
Women’s Hospital, Dr. Keshavjee teaches residents, interns, and medical students. He also
co-teaches (along with Drs. Paul Farmer, Arthur Kleinman, and Anne Becker) a general
education course for undergraduates at Harvard College, and is a guest lecturer on TB and
health systems for several courses at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of
Public Health.
Speaker Biographies
Anne E. Becker, MD, PhD, SM
Dr. Becker is the Maude and Lillian Presley Professor of Global Health
and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, where she also serves as
Vice Chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine and
member of the Leadership Council of the Harvard/MIT MD-PhD
Program. An anthropologist and psychiatrist, Dr. Becker has been lead
investigator on a series of studies demonstrating the relationship between
media exposure and eating pathology in the indigenous population of Fiji.
With research funding from the US National Institutes of Health, Dr. Becker has investigated
the impact of rapid economic and social transition on eating pathology, suicide, and other
youth health risk behaviors in Fiji, as well as the impact of a school-based youth mental
health intervention in central Haiti. Dr. Becker is founding and past Director of the Eating
Disorders Clinical and Research Program at Massachusetts General Hospital, an associate
editor of the International Journal of Eating Disorders, past president of the Academy for
Eating Disorders, and served as vice chairperson of the American Psychiatry Association’s
Council on International Psychiatry. Dr. Becker is also past co-editor-in-chief of the journal,
Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry and serves on the editorial boards of Anthropology &
Medicine and the Harvard Review of Psychiatry. She received the 2013 Price Family Award
for Research Excellence from the National Eating Disorders Association and in 2014 received
the Mentorship Award in recognition of “Exceptional Mentorship of Women Faculty” at
Massachusetts General Hospital.
Paul E. Farmer, MD, PhD
Dr. Farmer is Kolokotrones University Professor and Chair of the
Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical
School, Chief of the Division of Global Health Equity at the Brigham
and Women’s Hospital in Boston, and co-founder of Partners In Health.
He also serves as UN Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on
Community Based Medicine and Lessons from Haiti. Dr. Farmer and his
colleagues have pioneered novel, community-based treatment strategies
that demonstrate the delivery of high-quality health care in resource-poor settings. He has
written extensively on health, human rights, and the consequences of social inequality. Dr.
Farmer is the recipient of numerous honors, including the Margaret Mead Award from the
American Anthropological Association, the Outstanding International Physician (Nathan
Davis) Award from the American Medical Association, a John D. and Catherine T.
MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, and— with his PIH colleagues— the Hilton
Humanitarian Prize. His most recent books are In the Company of the Poor: Conversations
with Dr. Paul Farmer and Fr. Gustavo Gutierrez; Reimagining Global Health: An
Introduction; and To Repair the World: Paul Farmer Speaks to the Next Generation.
Jeffrey S. Flier, MD
Dean Flier became the 21st Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Harvard
University in 2007. He is also the Caroline Shields Walker Professor of
Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dean Flier is an endocrinologist
and a leading authority on the molecular causes of obesity and diabetes.
His research has produced major insights into the molecular mechanism
of insulin action, the molecular mechanisms of insulin resistance in
human disease, and the molecular pathophysiology of obesity.
Dean Flier has authored more than 200 scholarly papers and reviews. An elected member of
the Institute of Medicine and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, his
honors also include the Eli Lilly Award of the American Diabetes Association, the Berson
Lecture of the American Physiological Society, and honorary doctorates from the University
of Athens and the University of Edinburgh. He was the recipient of the 2003 Edwin B.
Astwood Lecture Award from the Endocrine Society and, in 2005, he received the Banting
Medal from the American Diabetes Association, its highest scientific honor.
David E. Golan, MD, PhD
Dean Golan became Dean for Basic Science and Graduate Education at
Harvard Medical School (HMS) in 2014, after serving as Dean for
Graduate Education since 2008. He is a professor in the HMS
Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology,
where his laboratory applies biophysical and cell-imaging methods to the
study of membrane proteins in blood cells. He is also the George R.
Minot Professor of Medicine at HMS and Senior Physician in the
Department of Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Dana-Farber Cancer
Institute, where he sees patients as a practicing hematologist and clinician-teacher. Dr. Golan
founded and directed the core course in pharmacology in the New Pathway curriculum at
HMS from 1989 to 2006. He currently co-directs a translational pharmacology course in the
Therapeutics Graduate Program, the Leder Human Biology and Translational Medicine
Graduate Program, and the Master’s Program in Clinical and Translational Investigation at
HMS. These courses’ guiding principle is that drug mechanisms are best understood in the
context of the physiological, biochemical, and pathophysiological pathways on which the
drugs act. By translating this principle into his course design, Dr. Golan has provided
thousands of Harvard students with a foundation for lifelong learning in pharmacology and
therapeutics. Dr. Golan is Editor-in-Chief of Principles of Pharmacology: The
Pathophysiologic Basis of Drug Therapy, 1st Edition (2005), 2nd Edition (2008), and 3rd
Edition (2011), and co-editor of the Principles of Pharmacology Workbook (2008). The 3rd
Edition of Principles of Pharmacology won First Prize in Pharmacology in the 2012 British
Medical Association Medical Book Award competition. In his role as Dean for Basic Science
and Graduate Education, Dr. Golan advises and assists the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine
on the articulation, design, and implementation of a strategic vision for HMS’s basic and
social science enterprise, including cross-departmental, cross-school, and cross-institutional
initiatives and collaborations. He also oversees the PhD and MMSc programs at HMS and he
works closely with the Dean for Medical Education to oversee the MD-PhD and Health
Sciences & Technology programs. He directs the Program in Graduate Education, which
brings together leaders of graduate education at HMS, the Harvard School of Public Health,
and the Harvard School of Dental Medicine. He also chairs the HMS Division of Medical
Sciences, directs the Harvard Therapeutics Graduate Program, and coordinates the design,
development, implementation, and oversight of the master's degree programs at HMS. Dean
Golan also serves as Special Advisor to the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine on HMS’ global
programs. In this role, he works with HMS and Harvard University in strategizing and
designing HMS’ global education programs and research collaborations.
Jim Yong Kim, MD, PhD
Dr. Kim is the 12th
President of the World Bank Group. Soon after he
assumed his position in July 2012, the organization established goals to
end extreme poverty by 2030 and to boost shared prosperity for the
bottom 40 percent of the population in developing countries. Dr. Kim is
a physician and anthropologist. Before joining the World Bank Group,
he served as President of Dartmouth College and held professorships at
Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health. From
2003-2005, as Director of the World Health Organization’s HIV/AIDS Department, he led
the “3 by 5” initiative, which set out to reach the first-ever global goal for AIDS treatment. In
1987, Dr. Kim co-founded Partners In Health, a non-profit medical organization now working
in poor communities on four continents. He received a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship and
has been recognized as one of America’s “25 Best Leaders” by U.S. News & World Report.
Richard Mills, JD
Mr. Mills became the Executive Vice President at Dartmouth College in
September 2013. He is responsible for the management and coordination
of the administrative operations of Dartmouth College, including
financial, facility, human resources, and other administrative operations.
In this capacity, Mr. Mills ensures Dartmouth’s administrative resources
are allocated appropriately throughout the institution and administrative
services are delivered in an efficient and effective manner. He reports
directly to the College President and works closely with the Provost and Deans to plan and
manage Dartmouth's strategic initiatives in a number of areas. As such, he has responsibility
for the coordination of all administrative and business matters with the academic, research,
and administrative missions and programs of Dartmouth and for promoting communication
between and among administrative and academic units in support of Dartmouth priorities and
initiatives.
Prior to joining Dartmouth, Mr. Mills held the position of Executive Dean at Harvard Medical
School where he was the senior administrative officer with oversight of finance, facilities,
human resources, information technology, communications and external affairs, and other
business operations. Before joining Harvard Medical School, Mr. Mills was the principal of a
strategic consulting firm, served as a department director and as senior staff Counsel at the
Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, and was a litigation attorney at the Boston firm of
Posternak, Blankstein & Lund.
Merri Pendergrass, MD, PhD
Dr. Pendergrass is Professor of Medicine at the University of Arizona
and Diabetes Program Director for the University of Arizona College of
Medicine. She is an endocrinologist with a long-standing interest in
determining better diabetes management strategies and applying these
strategies to improve diabetes outcomes and enhance patients’
experiences. Her research focuses on practice change and how to assess
and improve the quality of diabetes healthcare delivery. Her role at the
University of Arizona is to foster innovation within the institution and disseminate these
approaches regionally, nationally, and internationally.
Dr. Pendergrass joined the University of Arizona after serving since 2008 as vice president
and national practice leader for the Diabetes Therapeutic Resource Center® of Medco Health
Solutions, Inc. (a pharmacy benefits management company in Fort Worth, Texas, ranked
36th on the 2012 Fortune 500 list, recently acquired by Express Scripts, Inc.). Her
responsibilities included developing, implementing and evaluating the diabetes care strategy
delivered by Medco’s diabetes specialist pharmacists. During this time she also maintained a
clinical practice in diabetes and endocrinology at Parkland Memorial Hospital and was on the
faculty of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas.
Prior to joining Medco, Dr. Pendergrass was associate professor of medicine at Harvard
Medical School in Boston, and was director of the diabetes program at Brigham and Women's
Hospital, Boston, where she also was interim chief of the Section of Diabetes and Metabolism
and associate clinical chief, Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Hypertension.
Dr. Pendergrass has also served as director of the Diabetes Program at Medical Center of
Louisiana in New Orleans, where she was on the faculty of Tulane School of Medicine and
worked as a physician with Tulane University Medical Center and New Orleans Veteran’s
Administration Medical Center.
Dr. Pendergrass was principal investigator on multiple diabetes-related studies funded by the
U.S. National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and
the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation. She is the author of numerous scientific journal articles and
is a reviewer for several professional journals, including Primary Care
Diabetes; Metabolism; the Journal of Diabetes and Its Complications; Diabetes, Obesity and
Metabolism; and Diabetes Care. Dr. Pendergrass serves on the advisory board of Nature
Reviews Endocrinology. She has been an invited speaker at numerous national and
international meetings and conferences.
Lubna Samad, FCPS, MRCS
Dr. Lubna Samad is a consultant pediatric surgeon dedicated to
improving access to quality surgical care for those that need it the most.
She trained in medicine at the Aga Khan University, and in pediatric
surgery at the National Institute of Child Health in Pakistan and the
Leicester Royal Infirmary in the UK. Her work in public sector hospitals
in Pakistan has informed her understanding of the many individual,
social and institutional barriers that result in poor access to quality
surgical care.
Dr. Samad joined Indus Hospital at its inception in 2007 and has served as Chair of the Indus
Hospital Research Center since 2010. She represents the Indus Hospital Center for Global
Surgery on the Executive Committee of the G4 Alliance. She is currently leading the design
and implementation of several surgical care delivery and patient safety initiatives at the Indus
Hospital, and working to establish new initiatives in South Africa and Ethiopia. Dr. Samad is
a Lecturer at the Harvard Medical School Center for Global Health Delivery–Dubai.
Amer Sharif, MBBS, MSc
Dr. Amer Ahmad Sharif drives medical education at Dubai Healthcare
City (DHCC), the world’s largest free zone dedicated to healthcare. He is
responsible for the development, implementation and evaluation of
Education and Research, one of DHCC’s four core areas of operation
along with Healthcare, Investment and Regulatory. In his capacity, he
manages entities under the Mohammed Bin Rashid Academic Medical Center, DHCC’s
dedicated academic complex, which is home to Al Maktoum Medical Library, and the Khalaf
Ahmad Al Habtoor Medical Simulation Center. The Mohammed Bin Rashid University also
has within it the Hamdan Bin Mohammed College of Dental Medicine which offers masters’
programmes in collaboration with the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.
Dr. Sharif also advises on medical education events and conferences at the Mohammed Bin
Rashid Academic Medical Center, and played an integral part in launching in 2014 the UAE
Clinical Simulation Conference to introduce simulation training in medical education in the
region in collaboration with the Society in Europe for Simulation Applied to Medicine.
Prior to joining DHCC in March 2013, Dr. Sharif was the Director of Healthcare
Operations— Hospital Services Sector, Dubai Health Authority. He dedicated a substantial
portion of his 10-year tenure to medical education and research projects in workforce
development, serving in various roles including Health Systems Advisor, Director of Human
Resources, and Director of the Department of Continuing Education.
Dr. Sharif is the project lead for the upcoming Mohammed Bin Rashid University of
Medicine and Health Sciences commencing September 2016, an institution that will offer
undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in various disciplines. Dr. Sharif has authored
and published several papers with a focus on the challenges of the UAE’s health system and
health policy.
Ajay K. Singh, MBBS, MBA, FRCP
Dr. Ajay Singh is Associate Dean of Global and Continuing Education
and Executive Director of the Dubai Harvard Foundation for Medical
Research, both at Harvard Medical School. He is also Director of the
Master’s in Medical Science in Clinical Investigation at Harvard
Medical School.
Dr. Singh completed his undergraduate and medical training in England
at University College School of Medicine. He moved to Boston in 1987 for his clinical and
research renal fellowship at Tufts-New England Medical Center in 1992 and joined the
faculty at Tufts. In 1998, he joined the Brigham and Women’s Hospital as Clinical Director
of the Renal Division and Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He is
also Director of Postgraduate Medical Education in the Department of Medicine at the
Brigham and Women's Hospital.
Dr. Singh’s interests are in clinical research— with a particular focus on the anemia of
chronic kidney disease— and in education. He is the author of over 150 original contributions
and review articles, as well as author/editor of 11 books in nephrology. Dr. Singh is a Fellow
of the Royal College of Physicians in London UK and has an MBA from Boston University.
Zarir F. Udwadia, MD, DNB, FRCP (London), FCCP
(USA)
Dr. Udwadia is a consultant chest physician at the Hinduja Hospital,
Breach Candy Hospital, and Parsee General Hospitals in Mumbai, India.
A post-graduate of the Grant Medical College, Bombay, he spent five
years training in various centers of excellence in the UK including Sir
John Crofton's former TB unit in Edinburgh and the prestigious
Brompton Hospital, London. He has a special interest and expertise in
drug-resistant TB. About 7,000 patients pass through his busy clinic annually, a number of
whom are MDR-TB patients referred by colleagues from all over India.
TB remains Dr. Udwadia’s overriding passion. He has lectured widely on TB including guest
orations before the British Thoracic Society, the European Respiratory Society, the
International Union Against TB, the American College Chest Physicians, the Harvard School
of Public Health, and the Royal Society of Medicine, London. Dr. Udwadia has over 100
peer-reviewed publications and is co-author of Principles of Respiratory Medicine published
in 2011 by Oxford International Publishers. He was the TB section editor for the journal
Thorax. Dr. Udwadia’s 2011 report of the first patients in India with Totally Drug-Resistant
TB attracted intense media and medical interest from across the globe. Drug-resistant TB
became a national issue, and the Indian health authorities responded by declaring TB a
notifiable disease and increasing the budget and staffing for TB care in Mumbai.
Life, Challenges and Hopes …a photo exhibit focusing on issues faced by many communities in Asia, the Middle East,
and Africa— including climate change, the aging population, conflicts, refugee crises,
urbanization, rapid globalization, structural violence— and on the efforts toward the solutions.
Bangladesh-born Shehzad Noorani is a documentary
photographer with a deep interest in social issues. He grew up
poor in Pakistan and later immigrated to Canada. Noorani has
covered major stories resulting from man-made and natural
disasters in Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Sri Lanka, and
Bangladesh. Other assignments for agencies like UNICEF have
taken him to over 30 countries. Noorani received the Mother
Jones International Award for Documentary Photographer for
his film ‘Daughters of Darkness’; he also received an
honorable mention by the National Geographic Magazine for his project ‘The Children of
Black Dust,’ where he documented children inhaling millions of fine carbon dust particles
from breaking batteries throughout the day.