SUNY Downstate’s School of Public Health Students Have Strong Presence at Fifth Annual Global Health Conference
Jun 2, 2014
Brooklyn NY – SUNY Downstate’s School of Public Health was strongly represented at the fifth annual meeting of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH), held recently in Washington, DC, with both students and faculty presenting posters.
CUGH, formed in 2008 with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation, is the leading academic venue on global health. The Consortium now includes 120 academic institutions, with growing representation from low-and middle-income countries.
The theme of this year’s conference was “Advancing Global Health in the Post-Millennium Development Goals Era.” These eight goals include such diverse issues as eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, improving maternal health, promoting gender equality and empowering women, and ensuring environmental sustainability. Downstate poster presentations addressed goals not yet met, and several showcased the School of Public Health’s practical field work conducted in Brooklyn.
“With its focus on urban and immigrant health, the School of Public Health’s motto is ‘Public Health for a Global Community,’” said School of Public Health Dean Pascal James Imperato, MD, MPH&TM. “The school addresses global health issues locally among Brooklyn’s culturally and ethnically diverse populations, and overseas through its various international educational and service programs.”
This intimate connection between the health issues of immigrants in Brooklyn and those of the countries from which they come was in strong evidence in some of the student posters, said Dr. Imperato.
Seven students and three faculty members represented Downstate. Poster presentations included:
Erin M. Andrews: “Acculturation and Obesity in Caribbean Immigrants in the United States.”
Nidhi Shree Karingula: “Cultural and Behavioral Attitudes of Hyderabadis on Diabetes” and “Evidence-Based Review of Diabetes Prevention and Management in the Developing World.”
Imran Khan: “Effectiveness of Mobile Technology Health Behavior and Chronic Disease Management Interventions: A Meta-Analysis.”
Anila Thomas, Shuntelle Stephen, Erika S. Usui: “Acting Locally to Address Global Sex Trafficking.” (Karen Benker, MD, MPH, associate dean for community health affairs, was a co-author of this poster.)
Jinu Thomas: “Maternal Exposure to Environmental Disrupting Chemicals from Consumer Products: Comparison of Levels in a Caribbean Immigrant Population in the U.S. to National and Global Levels.” (This poster was co-authored by Laura A. Geer, PhD, assistant professor of environmental and occupational health sciences, and faculty from the College of Medicine, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology.)
Janet E. Rosenbaum, PhD, assistant professor of epidemiology, presented a poster titled “Graduating into Lower Risk: Chlamydia and Trichomonas among Community College Students and Community College Graduates.”
###
About SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University
Downstate Health Sciences University in Brooklyn is one of four academic health centers (AMCs) in The State University of New York (SUNY) 64-campus system and the only SUNY AMC in New York City dedicated to health education, research, and patient care for the borough’s 2.7 million residents. Its flagship hospital, University Hospital at Downstate (UHD), is a teaching hospital and benefits from the expertise of Downstate’s exceptional medical school and world-class academic center research facilities. With a staff of over 800 physicians representing 53 specialties and subspecialties, Downstate offers comprehensive healthcare services to the community.
UHD provides high-risk neonatal and infant services, pediatric nephrology, and dialysis for kidney diseases and is the only kidney transplantation program in Brooklyn. Beyond its clinical expertise, Downstate houses a range of esteemed educational institutions, including its College of Medicine, College of Nursing, School of Health Professions, School of Graduate Studies, and School of Public Health. Downstate fosters innovation through its multifaceted biotechnology initiative, the Biotechnology Incubator and BioBAT, which support early-stage and more mature biotech companies.