The Latest News from VIGH

Vanderbilt Institute in Research Development and Ethics (VIRDE), is a one-month course on grant writing and research ethics at VIGH.



A recent addition to interdisciplinary electives illustrates how Vanderbilt educators are working to bring future health care providers together to prepare for work in an increasingly global and multicultural world.

Vanderbilt University’s expanded commitment to research and sustainable development in Guatemala is reflected in this spring’s opening of a Guatemala City field station that is home to 13 projects. 

The Vanderbilt Vaccine Center and Fundación INFANT are partnering to offer an international field experience involving clinical research training and thorough insight on the healthcare system in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The Vanderbilt Institute for Global Health has launched the Global Health Nurse in Residence Program, a 12-week funded program in Kenya for Vanderbilt nurses.


 
 Brian Heiniger, VMS II student, with friends outside the soccer stadium in Ndola, Zambia, during Zambia’s 2014 World Cup Qualifier victory over Ghana on June 9, 2012

Each year the Lumbreras Tropical Medicine Course is offered by the Instituto de Medicina Tropical Alexander von Humboldt - Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia (Lima-Peru). This 4-week course targets third- and fourth-year medical student from around the world. Participants will learn about tropical medicine and infectious diseases through lectures, case-conferences, clinical and laboratory sessions, and a two-day rotation in La Merced, a city in the high jungle of Peru. A maximum of 24 participants will be accepted and all activities are in English.

Join us for lunch, and learn about medical students’ recent work in global health as well as future opportunities for Vanderbilt students with partner institutions in Haiti, Guyana, and Kenya.
 

La Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia (UPCH), named after Cayetano Heredia, one of the most eminent Peruvian physicians of the 19th Century, is located in Lima Peru. The UPCH is offering a four-week course in tropical medicine geared toward third and fourth-year medical students.

Dr. Sten Vermund, VIGH Director, began involvement in Zambia after attending a research needs assessment conference in 1998. Dr. Vermund co-chaired the HIV Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission Working Group with Dr. Chewe Luo and in 2000 he co-founded the Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia (CIDRZ) located in Lusaka.

Brian Heiniger, a second-year student at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, recently returned from a two-month stay in Lusaka, Zambia where he conducted research at the University of Zambia (UNZA) teaching hospital.
 
 As part of the Global Health area of the Emphasis Program, Heiniger collected data for his project "Improving Sepsis Diagnosis and Treatment in Zambia: Simplified Severe Sepsis Protocol." Heiniger also worked on the Budget Impact Analysis and turnaround time components of research led by Vanderbilt Global Health Fellow Ben Andrews, M.D.

The Vanderbilt-Emory-Cornell-Duke Global Health Fellowship Consortium (VECD) is pleased to announce the selection of the 2012 VECD Fellows. Funded by the Fogarty International Center at the National Institutes of Health this fellowship program, which is in its first year, provides year-long global health mentored research traineeships for 8-14 fellows annually.  The first cohort of fellows includes two U.S. medical students, 9 U.S. post-doctoral fellows and 3 post-doctoral fellows from Haiti, Zambia, and Vietnam.

Brian Barnett, a fourth year student at Vanderbilt School of Medicine, discusses the valuable experience he has earned through his Fulbright-Fogarty fellowship, from overseeing a research project, to eventually analyzing data and disseminating his interpretation. Because of his time in Malawi, Barnett says there will always be a global component to his work.