The conference kicked off with opening remarks by the co-chairs Gina Ogilvie and Mark Ansermino, who welcomed participants and emphasized how imperative it is to look at the vast inequities in child health that have surfaced during the pandemic.
The first keynote speaker,
Linda Nyondo-Mipando (Deputy Dean of School of Public Health and Family Medicine in Malawi), presented on health system perspective and building blocks post pandemic. She very eloquently broke down the primary health care system and service delivery in Malawi, proposing that part of the solution is to enhance existing surveillance and strengthen risk communication and community engagement. She ended her talk by referring to the gaps in Malawi’s health system and insisting that changes at a higher level should be backed by evidence, emphasizing the need for quality improvement techniques to guide those changes.
The second keynote speaker,
Agnes Binagwaho (Vice Chancellor - University of Global Health Equity in Rwanda), presented on Reimagining Global Health Education to Support Children. During her talk, she pointed out that the pandemic has not ‘created’ but ‘exacerbated’ many detrimental impacts in children’s mental health, education and economic wellbeing. To prepare for future pandemics, she insisted that we need a healthcare workforce that can tackle various dimensions of health. Agnes shared inspiring insight of how students at the University for Global Health (UGHE) in rural northern Rwanda learn first-hand about disparities by living and working in rural communities. The dual-degree program offered at UGHE enables future physicians to substantially improve the quality of training and competency of their practice to strengthen patient care and improve national and global collaborations.
The keynote presentations were followed by a panel discussion on health system perspectives along the continuum of global child health, moderated by
Gina Ogilvie and featuring
Linda Nyondo-Mipdando,
Jeffrey Goldhagen and
Steven Hoffman. The key takeaway was the need to improve metrics and indicators to measure positive health outcomes for children globally. Panelists also emphasized that we need to come up with strategies to promote health for youth, and recognize that major changes will be needed in order to recover from the pandemic.
At the conference, students also took part in a poster competition highlighting their global health research and initiatives. This year, students were asked to submit
Better Poster presentations, showcasing their work in under 2 minutes, with 3 minutes of Q&A.
The poster session was followed by a second panel on clinical perspectives in the context of global child health during the pandemic, moderated by
Mark Ansermino and featuring
Tanya Rogo,
Srinivas Murthy and
David Goldfarb. Panelists agreed that there needs to be more infrastructure devoted to testing in resource limited settings to identify and diagnose severe infectious diseases. They also highlighted the need to strive for diversity and equity in the global health field.
The event ended with closing remarks from Gina Ogilvie and Mark Ansermino. Overall, the conference provided an excellent platform for passionate global health researchers, trainees, and practitioners to be exposed to multifaceted discussions on strengthening global child health.
To learn more about the work at UBC and CICH, follow
@ubcspph and
@cichinfo on Twitter. See Tweets from the conference using
#GHC2021.
