PRESENTATIONS:
• CIMIT MAP Initiative: Opportunity and Vision
• Challenges in Global Health

SPEAKERS:
• Kristian Olson, MD, MPH; Massachusetts General Hospital
• Thomas Burke, MD, FACEP; Massachusetts General Hospital

(No Video Available)

FORUM REPORT:

Medical professionals, aided by CIMIT, are reaching beyond U.S. borders to provide boots-on-the-ground help in “low-resource” international settings.

At its regular Tuesday Forum series at Simches Research Center at Massachusetts General Hospital recently, CIMIT hosted a discussion titled “Medical Technology and the Global Health Challenge.”

Kristian Olson, M.D., M.P.H., spoke about increased efforts to improve health services in developing countries from Africa to Indonesia.

And Thomas Burke, M.D., FACEP, discussed ways that larger institutions, including Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, are entering the “new world” of Third World medicine.

Olson said MAP is forming collaborative teams of students, faculty, for-profit and non-profit corporations, to seek global health solutions through new medical technology systems. “There are many problems overseas but one great concern is that mortality rates of birthing mothers and infants are extremely high,” said Olson, whose team has recently launched maternity programs in Zambia. “But by training midwives with new techniques and low-tech devices, we are making a difference with mothers and newborns.”

He said that a simple device that practitioners use to breathe down a vulnerable newborn’s throat to enable him to start breathing is saving many lives.

Olson said that opportunities to improve medical conditions in Third World companies have increased dramatically since contributions by Microsoft founder Bill Gates ($27 billion) and investor Warren Buffett ($34 billion) have stimulated greater efforts. “These men and others have changed the landscape of health-care potential,” said Olson. “Now local medical institutions are getting active as well.”

Dr. Burke echoed the remarks of Dr. Olson in saying that many new opportunities exist to help those in under-served areas. He said that in the ‘80s and ‘90s, “trillions” of dollars were wasted by institutions and foundations that built medical centers in impoverished regions that could not be sustained by impoverished local residents. Dr. Burke said money now should be directed at helping local people help themselves. "If we help midwives and medical assistants acquire useful skills and better technology, even low-tech tools, we will be encouraging them to stay in their villages and make an ongoing contribution,” Dr. Burke said.

He said that local medical institutions such as Mass General are helping promote better health overseas by encouraging the exporting expertise relating to its core strengths, such as infant care.

Dr. Olson is CIMIT Global Health Scholar and Director of the Medical Access Program (MAP) developed by CIMIT. He is also a leader of the Clinical Education Service, Department of Medicine, at Mass General, and an instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School. And he is the first recipient of the Dr. Thomas S. Durant Fellowship in Refugee Medicine, an award associated with MGH.

Dr. Burke directs the Center for Global Health and Disaster Response at Mass General. He is also the associate clinical director of the emergency department at the Brigham and Women's Hospital. He is a practicing emergency physician on the faculty at Children's Hospital Boston, and Harvard Medical School.