Greetings from Geneva!

Sorry I didn’t post yesterday - the week caught up with me and I just couldn’t keep my eyes open!  This has been quite the experience and the amount of information we’ve been receiving each day is amazing. 

Inside the World Health Organization

Yesterday, our day began with a trip to the World Health Organization. Other than seeing the outside during our scavenger hunt, we hadn’t had the opportunity to go inside until Wednesday. Our other days this week have been held strictly at the UN, where the World Health Assembly meets. At the WHO, we had appointments to meet with Susan Wilburn, a Kent State University nursing graduate who has worked for the WHO for the past 10 years, in addition to two other members of the WHO staff whom she works with on environmental health projects. We also had the opportunity to hear form Dr. Vinayak Prassad, director of the WHO’s global tobacco free initiative. 

It was extremely interesting to hear from each of these four speakers about the work they do for global health. Through the course of our time there, we learned about “greening” the hospital system (evaluating healthcare practices to reduce their environmental impact), the impact of climate change on health, research on the radiation threats posed by Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant following the March 2011 tsunami, as well as the WHO’s work to combat global tobacco use. We also learned more about the growing burden of non-communicable diseases (chronic diseases) worldwide. Being inside the WHO was a public health dream! There is so much work to be done and the WHO often works at the front line to address global health challenges.

In addition to our time at the WHO, we had the opportunity to go back to the UN to attend more sessions of the World Health Assembly. (Geographically, both are located within walking distance to each other.) A few of us stopped over for a session called “Launch of the WHO Global Alliance for the Care of the Injured” sponsored by delegates from Romania, Brazil, Thailand, Mozambique, and the WHO Secretariat. This particular session was interesting because more information was provided about a recently established alliance by the WHO that seeks to address both intentional and unintentional injuries among its member-states. This particular session was attended by several physicians from the U.S., including surgeons, who often work with patients with traumatic injuries. We take for granted, I think, our emergency response system in the U.S. It became clear that such immediate responses in the face of injury may not be accessible elsewhere in the world. 

We ended our day at the WHA a little earlier than we typically do, so we took our free time and enjoyed the city. A few of us did some shopping and had some dinner (in true European fashion, where we spent a couple of hours just enjoying the food and talking!) Because I’ve truly felt immersed in the WHA activities, it was nice to get out and enjoy such a great city!

Today, we were up and at ‘em again for a 9 am committee session called “Promoting Health through the Life Course.” I am really enjoying the committee sessions - this is when you have the opportunity to hear delegates address the WHO. In this committee, delegates were discussing their progress on meeting the health-related Millennium Development Goals (more information here: http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/). I got the impression that many countries are working hard to address these problems, but progress is not especially easy. A lot of discussion has centered around the “post 2015 agenda” - if we don’t meet the 2015 goals that were set, where do we go from there? 

We took a break for lunch and then were back in a 12:30 pm session called “WHO EVIPNet Technical Support in Evidence-Informed Policy-Making in Member States,” organized by the delegation from Burkina Faso and the WHO Secretariet. Evidence-based policy is a huge focus within public health. Basically, it’s making sure the programs and policies you make to address health have been shown, by evidence, to actually improve the quality of life someone experiences. This session talked a lot about how evidence can be gathered from settings across the globe to ensure only those programs that can be successful are considered. This session was of particular interest to me.

Our trusty tram stop - where we begin the day!

After this session, we took a break and traveled back to the dorm. We spent a little more time strolling through the city with just enough time to make it back to the UN for an evening session. This was a fun one sponsored by the International Federation of Medical Students Associations (IFMSA). IFMSA has been quite active in the WHA this year - it is a group comprised of medical students and others from across the globe and they are attending the WHA to advocate for a stronger youth voice in the WHO’s activities. This session was the first youth-led and developed session for the WHA. The title was “Health of the World’s Girls (from five years of age through adolescence).” What was particularly interesting about this panel was their use of social media - they broadcasted the session over YouTube and also had a live Twitter feed with comments about the session that we could watch. 

After we closed the day at the UN, we traveled back to the dorm. We met in our large group to discuss what we’ve been learning the past few days and to debrief. Included in our time here is a group project that we will be working on. We are each divided into groups of 4 -5 and we have been tasked with choosing a global health topic to present on. Our small group will be working on global pandemics, specifically, H7N9.

And now it’s time to call it a day!  I hope you’re enjoying reading about this experience - in some ways, I think I will come home with more questions than answers (which is a good thing!) There is so much work to be done.

As I said though, this trip isn’t all work and no play! We have two lovely trips planned for this weekend. On Saturday, we will be traveling to Annecy, France (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annecy) which we have heard such great things about! And on Sunday, we will be headed to Chamonix, France (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chamonix) to see the alps - I am VERY excited to see that :) I will be sure to let you know how it is!