Dr. Hodes treats children in his clinic in Ethiopia
Rural House in Kenya
CFW storefront: The Child Family Wellness Shops are a Kenyan NGO where Sinai residents and students rotate
Dinali Fernando worked with the NGO Healthstores in Kenya
Partner Sites
The Mount Sinai Global Health Center works closely with domestic and international partners to provide opportunities for educational exchange and collaborative research, training, and public health projects.
Jamkhed, India
The Comprehensive Rural Health Project
The Comprehensive Rural Health Project (CRHP) is a non governmental organization that has been working in the field of community empowerment and community-based healthcare in rural India more than 30 years (www.jamkhed.org) CRHP promotes “health for the people, by the people”. CRHP programs include village-based health programs lead by community health workers, mobile health teams, and a small hospital offering outpatient clinics and inpatient care including basic surgery, maternity, pediatrics and intensive care. Research topics are determined annually in collaboration with the director CRHP, and answer a research question that will help CRHP to develop and improve its health programs. Examples of past research include: village mapping and surveying to deduce prevalence of anemia in adolescent girls and pregnant women, household verbal autopsies to find causes of newborn mortality, clinic observation and interviews to study use of ayurvedic medicines for common outpatient conditions, measuring HIV prevalkence among pregnant women, and instituting healthworker trianing in newborn care.
Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique
Project Title: Ecosystems Approach to Health
Host Organization: Gorongosa Restoration Project, Carr Foundation
Background to ecohealth approach in Mozambique:
Studies conducted in Mozambique over the past ten years identify HIV/AIDS, malaria, and maternal-child health as significant health challenges for the country, particularly for the large proportion of the population living in rural areas [1]. Mozambique also lacks an adequate health infrastructure, and suffers from a shortage of trained health care workers, with a total of only 514 physicians and 6,183 nurses in the country. The Carr Foundation and the Government of Mozambique have entered into a long-term partnership to restore and protect Gorongosa National Park as a way to bring development to the area. Towards this end, they are also working to build much-needed health infrastructure and implement complementary public health and environmental programs.
Over the past few years, there has been a growing interest in the idea of environmental management as a way to improve human health. This is particularly relevant in regions of the developing world where millions of children and adults suffer from poor health due to preventable environmental health threats. The ecosystem approach to health considers how human health and wellbeing are influenced by the complex interplay between socioeconomic, political, and in particular, environmental issues. In many communities, direct links can be drawn between practices that compromise the environment and those that negatively impact human health. Reliance on wood for fuel, for example, leads to deforestation and causes indoor air pollution and respiratory ailments. Widespread deforestation can also lead to changes in rainfall patterns and result in water and food insecurity. Creative solutions can address environmental and health concerns simultaneously.
Ethiopia
Worldwide Orphans Foundation
Worldwide Orphans Foundation (www.wwo.org) provides direct services in many areas to care for the health of children living in orphanages around the world. Students have the opportunity to participate in the Orphan Ranger Program, which was the first program established by the WWO. After her medical missions to orphanages in Romania and Russia, Dr. Jane Aronson, realized that there was a way of life for children living in institutions that was incomprehensible, and that had to be understood in order to properly care for them. She created a “peace corps” for orphans modeled on her childhood hero, The Lone Ranger: the person who comes to do what others need and leave without thanks or payment. The first Orphan Rangers were college students but over time, the ranks have included medical students and practicing professionals with specialized skills who want to give their time and their talents to vulnerable children.
Nairobi, Kenya
Centers for Disease Control, Global Disease Detection; Influenza Activity
CDC-Kenya, in collaboration with the Kenya Ministry of Health, works to promote health, prevent disease, injury and disability, and prepare for new health threats. There are opportunities for students to learn about population-based surveillance, provide technical support during outbreaks, and conduct epidemiologic research. Many projects focus on influenza and other respiratory diseases. Students will also work closely with individuals from the Ministry of Health. Past students have participated in outbreak responses throughout Kenya and have contributed to publications in MMWR on "Introduction and Transmission of Novel H1N1 Virus in Kenya."
Brazil
Pantanal Project
Panthera is a Wildlife Conservation non-governmental organization that has launched a jaguar conservation program in the Brazilian Pantanal. The goal of the program is to work in close collaboration with local populations to develop a model for sustainable cattle ranching that also serves to maintain the jaguar population. To promote community “buy in”, the organization is also working on community development via the provision of necessities such as education and health care. Ideally, this model will demonstrate to the local population that jaguars and their habitats can be preserved while also promoting improved and sustainable ranching practices. Panthera has purchased extensive ranch land holdings and has hired employees to tend the ranch’s cattle herd while working with them to promote practices that preserve the jaguar population and their habitat.
The ranch has hired approximately 30 employees, most of whom are cowboys who tend to the ranch’s cattle. Their ages range from 18 to 57, but a majority are in their twenties or thirties. Although almost all are married and have children but most of the families live in the nearest town due to the lack of education and health care options on the property. In addition to the ranch employees, there are also a small number of people living independently along the river or employed by nearby businesses. The major health care issues of the ranch community include limited access to quality health services, such as maternal-child-prenatal care and other preventive services. There is no formal emergency care. Tobacco and alcohol problems are common and musculoskeletal injuries are frequently reported.
Mount Sinai is collaborating with Panthera to help assess and address the health needs of of the ranching community. Additionally, Mount Sinai is investigating areas where environmental issues directly impact human health, such as changing patterns of vector-borne diseases with changing climate and land use changes.
Sao Paolo, Brazil
Departamento de Parasitologia, Cidade Universitaria of Brazil
The Departamento de Parasitologia, Cidade Universitaria of Brazil is a leader in infectious disease and malaria research in South America. Opportunities include a lab-based experience in Sao Paulo and/or a field-based project (15-30 days) at a field site in Acre, Amazon. Past students have participated in ongoing research and have authored papers on: Evolutionary dynamics of circumsporozoite protein (CSP) repeats in sympatric isolates of the human malaria parasite Plasmodium vivax, and Microsatellite typing in multiple-clone Plasmodium vivax infections.
North Dakota
Spirit Lake Nation
Background: The Mni Wakan Oyate, or People of the Spirit Lake, belong to the Dakota family of American Indian Tribes. Their reservation borders Devil's Lake in North Dakota. The tribe suffers from a poor economy and considerable disparities in health care exist, most notably in preventable disease and illness. As such, many tribe members are enthusiastic about entering health-related professions but as of yet have had minimal opportunity and training to do so.
Cankdeska Cikana (Little Hoop) Community College (CCCC): This two-year tribal college is one of four tribal colleges in North Dakota. It offers associates degrees in arts and sciences. The only present health-related offering is a Pre-Nursing track. For 2006-7, there are 227 students enrolled, most of whom are full-time and have children.
Mount Sinai faculty and trainees have an ongoing relationship with CCCC in developing a new curriculum and associates degree program in Community Public Health. Mount Sinai students will also be expected to partner with CCCC tribal college students and local community health workers on a community health research project based on the needs of the community which might possibly be followed by a joint health education intervention.
Tanzania, Ahakishaka Community
In rural Tanzania, communities face significant health care challenges; including poor access to care, financial barriers, and little knowledge of disease prevention. Their situation is exacerbated by the high prevalence of malaria and HIV. The project’s goal is to expand on an already successful public health campaign started by Mount Sinai medical students targeting malaria and HIV. Community members and medical students conduct education sessions, train students and health workers, and provide mosquito nets. The project has the potential to improve the health of not just one or two villages, but of Karagwe district as a whole. Mount Sinai students have been working in Karagwe on HIV peer education and a bednet distribution program since 2007. The project will expand on these already successful programs.
Ahakishaka is a village of about 2800 people in the Karagwe District in the Northwest of Tanzania. It is close to the border with Rwanda and five hours by bus from Bukoba on Lake Victoria. It is an agricultural region, and most residents subsist by growing bananas, beans, coffee, and vegetables. Cows and goats graze in the hills, and fish are caught in the nearby lake. There are many common misconceptions about issues such as HIV/AIDS that make it difficult for local youth to protect themselves from infection. Healthcare is provided through a government-operated clinic at the entrance to the village as well as several traditional healers and a private hospital in the neighboring village of Nyabiyonza. Malaria is a major cause of morbidity and mortality along with TB, respiratory infections, and mechanical injury. The HIV prevalence is about 19%.
In the past 3 years Mount Sinai students have introduced Long-Lasting Insecticidal Net (LLIN) net use by combining net distribution with community-tailored education. During the summer of 2009 Mount Sinai Medical students conducted a Malaria prevalence study to support and help to evaluate the government’s bed net distribution program in the district (pre distribution study. In 2010 students will conduct a similar study to assess the success of the program (post distribution study).
Argentina
Fogarty AIDS International Training and Research Program
The Mount Sinai Fogarty AITRP provides prevention research and training opportunities in a variety of different settings throughout Argentina. The Mount Sinai AITRP supports research training for scientists in Argentina. The program works with consortium members and Argentine faculty in identifying and supporting trainees in various Masters and PhD level programs in academic institutions throughout Argentina.
Research training focuses on biomedical prevention/basic research; behavioral and socio-medical prevention research; data management and analysis, and translational research that can draw upon basic, biologic and behavioral science. The program links research training and resources with strategic community based settings. Under the guidance of assigned Argentine and/or US mentors, each trainee develops a research project in one of the following areas in a combined didactic and experiential program: prevention of perinatal HIV transmission; primary prevention of HIV through secondary prevention of STDs; prevention of blood borne diseases through infection control; capacity development for the generation of reliable data sets; prevention, diagnosis and treatment of TB; and clinical, diagnostic and basic research in HIV/TB.
The Argentine/US Consortium is formed by the MSSM (within the Mount Sinai/New York University Health System), the State University of New York at Albany, the AIDS Institute of the NYSDOH and several institutions in Argentina.
Grenada Heart Project
To learn more , visit: http://www.mountsinai.org/Patient%20Care/Service%20Areas/Heart/Mount%20Sinai%20Heart%20Today/Global%20Impact
Colombia
Sesame Street Education Project
To learn more , visit: http://www.mountsinai.org/Patient%20Care/Service%20Areas/Heart/Mount%20Sinai%20Heart%20Today/Global%20Impact
Bangladesh
Lifebuoy Friendship Hospital
The site of research will be at Friendship’s Floating Hospital, an urgent care center established on a ship. Friendship (a non profit, non governmental organization (NGO) based in Bangladesh) delivers basic health care services to men, women, and children in rural northern Bangladesh (Districts: Kurigram, Gaibandha). This special population (estimated 5 million) has a particular problem with access to health care because of their unique geographical isolation. They live on “char islands” (sand islands created by repeated monsoon rains and cyclones). The floating hospital travels along the river to different communities. Services provided are medicines for common infections (diarrhea, pneumonia, etc), prenatal health care (check up, vitamin distribution), limited serum laboratory testing, and simple radiographic imaging. The NGO reaches >300,000 residents/year. Friendship is largely funded by private donors (including Emirates Airlines, Lifebuoy Unilever).
To learn more , visit: Bangladesh Project