Sabbatical Summary (July 2008-June 2009) and Global Health in the DFM

Dr. Lynda Redwood-CampbellDFM

McMaster UniversityDFM meeting Sept 23 09

What I learned

• Time flies!• You can do a lot in a year• Plan your time on and time off, plan well• Plan well ahead of your time• Plan your vacation time in it- easy to get

lost in the shuffle• Don’t feel guilty!• Smell the roses

Projects……

• World Health Organization• Aceh Indonesia project-curriculum development,

capacity building.• CIHR research proposal-ethics of humanitarian work- a

narrative account.• Immigrant cervical cancer screening project-analysis and

paper submissions.• Red Cross-primary care/public health interface during

disasters• CFPC work-expanding role of IH committee and liaison

with the AFMC groups.• Conferences…..papers…….

Aceh project

• To support capacity building of the faculty members at Syiah Kuala University medical school in the areas of:

• Faculty development

• Curriculum development; disaster preparedness and response, “Family Medicine”/ primary health care and community outreach projects

Funded by Rotary Club of Dundas, accepted by the Rotary International

Where is the project now?

• Aceh is 4 years post peace accord stable!• I.T.• Now have computers for students to search internet and

download attachments, adding more every year• Health centre almost complete• Disaster curriculum- first group of students finished block• 2 faculty in Aceh are now doing Masters in Education in

Holland-1 has come to McMaster • Next up- development of the Family Medicine

curriculum-

What did I do? (ie: what can an academic person do with the WHO?)

• Project evaluation- did it make a difference?

• Policy papers for public health- reviewing the literature, pulling together different actors to ‘agree’ on a policy about that topic.

• Learned the ‘culture’ of the WHO

• Meetings!

What does the WHO want to know?

• Who is doing innovative work in their areas

• Get your organization/department/ project name out- marketing- become excellent and then let them know what you are doing.

• They are not the academic ones- we are! WHO needs to know what the questions are.

• We can be leaders in our areas of expertise

• We can do it as well as anyone else

• UN/WHO is a very complicated web of organizations

• Collaborating centres a possibility for us for our areas of expertise

New initiatives now for DFM

• GH coordinator role (admin assistant Kelly Barry)

• GH (FM) IG residents• 2 scholarships for GH in FM• Pre-departure training• Vision and mission for global health in DFM• Curriculum development for residents• Strategic planning brainstorming meeting/ future

possible strategic planning retreat• Develop the GH website on the DFM site

GH and the DFM

• We need to be very mindful of what GH activities we engage in as a DFM. Vision and mission.

• Academic focus. We are an educational institution- build partnerships along those lines

• Research and education in global health• Do your homework before starting

global/international projects or going abroad• Support and nurture peers and residents in

global health- at the same time need to be sensitive to intricacies of doing global health work- many good intentions go bad

Pre-departure training guidelines(AFMC)

• Personal health

• Travel Safety

• Cultural competency

• Language competency

• Ethical considerations

FYI…..upcoming

• International Women and Children’s Health Symposium Fri Oct 2 09 RBG www.iwch.org

• Canadian Society for International Health- Oct 24-28 09 Ottawa

• WONCA May 2010 Mexico –world conference- theme is the Millennium Development Goals and Family Medicine

• AAFP global health annual meeting

Exhausted or energized???This is the question….