Globetrotting Students Show Results

Nearly 30 Global Health Certificate students at the Mailman School presented their research on March 10 in a poster showcase that highlighted research findings from their six-month international practicum work. The posters shed light on issues from mental health in Mexico City to the possibility of an Uber-like mobile app for emergency obstetric care Uganda.

For the first time, a faculty panel singled out two posters for special merit. Winning "Best Research, Evaluation, or Surveillance" was Anna Marie Larsen for her poster titled "Maternal and Household Characteristics as Determinants of Maternal Health Seeking Along the Continuum of Care in Rural Tanzania." Top honors in the catetory "Best Policy or Prorammatic Poster" was taken by Chimwemwe Joy Jestina Msiska for her poster, "Assessing U.S. Government Investment in Family Planning in Francophone West Africa."

As part of the poster session, students explained their research to fellow students and faculty:

Part of an international team working on the 11th revision of WHO’s International Classification of Diseases, Say-Hee Min described her field study to Wafaa El-Sadr, director of ICAP. At Mexico City’s Instituto Nacional de Psiquiatría Ramón de la Fuente, Min analyzed categorization of mental and behavioral health disorders—the first time this has been done since 1990.

Sharifa Merali spent six months in the Republic of Georgia conducting a qualitative and quantitative evaluation of a disease-reporting tool designed by the U.S. Department of Defense.

Lily Wendle told Dean Linda P. Fried about a mobile app designed to improve pregnant women’s access to emergency obstetric care in Kasese, Urganda, by simplifying payments to drivers—health-oriented version of Uber. 

In other Uganda-based work, Praneetha Vissaapragada examined three different nutritional supplements to prevalent stunting. Beyond assessing the quality of the supplements, as she explained to Stephen S. Morse, professor of Epidemiology, both rainy and dry seasons interfered with supplement preparation.

Though Ryan Napper traveled to Senegal for a field project in Environmental Health, the outbreak of Ebola in West Africa required a quick change of plans. Napper quickly involved himself in a study of a mobile telemedicine platform designed to reduce maternal mortality—a study in which the enterprising student has been offered a full-time position after graduation.