The Latest News from VIGH

On Monday, January 21, M.P.H. candidate Sonya Reid-Lawrence, M.D. received the annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Award. This award is given to a faculty or staff member in the School of Medicine, School of Nursing, or Vanderbilt University Medical Center who emulates the principles of King through his or her work. The award was presented to Dr. Reid-Lawrence at the Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Lecture during the annual MLK celebration by Jana Lauderdale, Ph.D., R.N.

Last month, the Vanderbilt Institute for Global Health (VIGH) hosted a global health education and training symposium for faculty representatives from faculties of medicine of Portuguese-speaking African (PALOP) countries. Faculty from universities located in three of the six PALOP countries attended as well as an affiliated faculty member from University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.  

Although mentoring is an important part of academic research, it is not common practice in many countries. In particular, many mentoring guidelines and strategies are tailored for high-income countries and lack appropriate approaches for mentoring in low and middle-income countries (LMICs). 

Research led by Vanderbilt investigators found nearly 40% of HIV-exposed infants in low‐ and middle‐income countries (LMIC) were not in care at 18 months of age or had died. Despite the availability and progress of HIV prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) programs which includes postpartum follow-up of HIV-positive mothers and their HIV-exposed infants, many infants do not remain engaged in early infant diagnosis (EID) services that are essential to optimal health outcomes.

Intensive Monitoring of Provider-Initiated Counseling & Testing (PICT) Performance Improves the Identification of People Living with HIV in Namacurra​
 
 
 

Mark Newton, M.D., FAAP, Professor of Clinical Anesthesiology, Director of Vanderbilt International Anesthesia, recently co-wrote an opinion piece for Devex, a media website for the global development community. The opinion piece focuses on the growing need of anesthesia providers across the world. In particular, low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) have the fewest number of anesthesia providers.

In 2017, according to UNAIDS, more than 90% of HIV-positive pregnant women accessed antiretroviral (ART) medicines to prevent mother-to child transmission of HIV in Southern Africa, and recent research suggests access and adherence to ART remains high during pregnancy due in part to the scale up of national antenatal (ANC) and ART care clinics.  Engagement in HIV care after delivery, however, can be challenging.

Vanderbilt Medicine MD/MPH dual-degree candidate, Justin Banerdt, completed his fellowship year as a VECD Fogarty Global Health Fellow in July 2018. He spent his year conducting research focused on the prevalence and outcomes of delirium in a critically ill patient population with a high burden of HIV/AIDS at the University Teaching Hospital (UTH) in Lusaka, Zambia. UTH is the teaching hospital affiliated with the University of Zambia School of Medicine (UNZA).

Our friend and colleague, Fastone Goma, M.D., Ph.D., was recently appointed to professorship of Physiology and Cardiovascular Health at the University of Zambia (UNZA) in Lusaka.

VIGH affiliated faculty member Brian L. Heuser, Ed.D., M.T.S., recently received the Thomas Jefferson Award "for distinguished service to Vanderbilt through extraordinary contributions as a member of the faculty in the councils and government of the university" at the Vanderbilt Fall Faculty Assembly on August 23. Dr.

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

The Vanderbilt Institute for Global Health’s Education and Training team was fortunate to have four exceptional interns this summer. Interns Sharo Costa and Hope Wiggs, M.Ed. candidates in the International Education Policy and Management program, shared their experiences this summer. Their work focused on collaborating to create curricular materials, including lesson plans, presentations, and activities, as well as monitoring and evaluation tools for a mentorship program with VIGH’s partner faculty at the University of Zambia.


 
 
 
 Carolyn Audet, Ph.D.

  In partnership with the University Eduardo Mondlane (UEM), faculty and staff from the Vanderbilt Institute for Global Health (VIGH) led a 10-day grant writing workshop in Maputo, Mozambique to train Mozambican health professionals on techniques to strengthen and improve their grant proposals.

Sarah Heerboth, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine Class of 2019 (expected), recently wrote an article reflecting on her experience working with Lwala Community Alliance in Kenya. Sarah worked at Lwala for her Integrated Science Course (ISC): Global Health, a research immersion course for third- and fourth-year medical students.