An Academic Meeting to Transform Global Health

“Health Disparities: A Time for Action”. This was the topic of the 9th annual meeting of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH), which comprises more than 165 academic institutions, including ISGlobal, with the aim of supporting their training and research capacities. Between March 15 and 18, more than 1,700 professionals from academia, NGOs, think tanks, private sector and representatives from different governments have come together in New York to explore and debate how to address pressing health challenges.

The appointment of ISGlobal’s Training Director, Núria Casamitjana, as member of the CUGH Board, was also made effective during the event. With this, ISGlobal becomes the second European institution to join the CUGH Board, after the University of Edinburgh.

Nuria Casamitjana chaired one of the meeting’s sessions, entitled “Against the Current: Updates on the Migration Crisis in the Mediterranean”, which included presentations by ISGlobal researchers Ana Requena and Vicky Fumadó and by Nathan Bertelsen, Professor at NYU and teacher in ISGlobal’s Master of Global Health and Omar Ahmed Abenza, MSF head of mission for northwestern Syria. The speakers shared experiences in Syria, Turkey, Greece, Italy and Spain in order to identify and evaluate the health needs of migrant populations in the Mediterranean region, including infectious and chronic diseases and mental health.

About the CUGH

In 2016, ISGlobal became an institutional member of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH) and has participated in CUGH meetings since 2012. The Consortium views universities as a transforming force in global health and seeks to promote their capacities in training, research and service to better address the current challenges in the field.  It does so by facilitating knowledge sharing, partnership development and the scaling up of evidence-based solutions to bring new solutions to these challenges.