The Latest News from VIGH

The Vanderbilt Institute of Global Health (VIGH) will join Yale University and the University of Liberia College of Health Sciences (ULCHS) to establish a public-private-academic hub for research utilization in the Liberian health sector and an academic network to strengthen Liberia’s education and health sectors as part of a five-year, $15 million federal project announced this week.

In collaboration with the University of Liberia College of Health Sciences (ULCHS), the Vanderbilt Institute for Global Health (VIGH) will develop a one-year research ethics education program for members of four institutional review boards (IRBs) in Monrovia, Liberia.

At the end of March, the Vanderbilt Institute for Global Health received a long-awaited message from Liberia – the 40-foot shipping container of medical books and other laboratory equipment donated by the Vanderbilt School of Medicine had survived it’s journey across the ocean and arrived at its final destination, the University of Liberia. The letter signaled the end of a nearly year-long donation effort at Vanderbilt and the beginning of new opportunities for current and future medical students in Liberia.

Vanderbilt welcomed Dr. Bernice Dahn, Vice President for Health Sciences at the University of Liberia and former Minister of Health for Liberia, to campus on April 17. Dr. Dahn delivered a guest lecture entitled, "Building Health Systems: Lessons From Crisis." Drawing on her experience leading a country through and after an Ebola epidemic, she shared powerful lessons on the re-establishment of the Ministry of Health and the rebuilding of Liberia’s health care delivery system.  

Guest Speaker Event Bernice T. Dahn, M.D., MPH Vice President for Health Sciences, University of Liberia Former Minister of Health for the Republic of Liberia “Building Health Systems: Lessons From Crisis” Wednesday, April 17, 2019 | noon to 1 p.m. Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt Wadlington Conference Room Lunch will be provided to the first 75 attendees.

This month, VIGH faculty members and anesthesiologists from Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) traveled to Liberia to evaluate medical education and training initiatives. 

​To help the countries most affected by the recent Ebola epidemic, Fogarty has launched a new program to strengthen research training in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. In the first round of funding, four U.S. institutions received grants to partner with academic centers in two of the West African countries. The support will enable them to design training programs to increase expertise in Ebola, Lassa fever and other emerging viral diseases.

In the 2016 Global Health Case Competition, teams proposed solutions to strengthen the health system in Liberia after the Ebola outbreak. The Vanderbilt Institute for Global Health’s Student Advisory Council hosted its sixth annual Global Health Case Competition from February 7-13, 2016. This year, the Student Advisory Council organized several experts from the field to give presentations on health systems strengthening (HSS) and act as judges for the competition.