July 31, 2018

Nashville, Tennessee. The  Global Health Catalyst’s ecancer4all program received the Award for Best in Innovation in Education, the most prestigious education and training award of the American Association of  Physicists  in Medicine (AAPM). The award was presented to Prof Wil Ngwa in Nashville Tennessee during the 2018 AAPM Conference in recognition of the innovative Global Radiation Oncology course which is taught online on the ecancer4all platform. Thanking the Award selection committee, Dr Ngwa said this award was greatly appreciate and provides more momentum to continuing this highly impactful continuous education course highly relevant for low and middle income country radiation oncologists, medical Physicists, radiation therapists and other oncology health professionals. The next series of this course kicks-off in September 2018 through March 2019 on the ecancer4all platform www.ecancer4all.com

July 02, 2018

Join us at the University of Heidelberg Germany Medical Faculty Mannheim on August 31st for the 2018 Global Health Catalyst Summit Europe. Expected participants include global health leaders, especially from Europe and Africa, and  leaders from government, industry,  and diaspora organizations. 

 Admission is free: 

We ask for a brief informal registration via E-mail

volker.steil@umm.de 

July 05, 2019

Following the successful 2018 Global Health Catalyst (GHC) summit, the GHC is now collaborating with El Passo Farms, American States University,  and CBIS to bring phytomedicines education and research in Africa.  One initial outcome of the collaboration will be the creation of a new University, the Pan African Agriculture and Commerce University (PAACU), with world-class education and research, focused on agriculture, food security, and healthcare accessible throughout the African continent.

 “Our collaboration with CBIS, ASU, and Elpasso Farms will help to significantly elevate phytomedicines in global health, consistent with the goals of the Harvard GHC to promote improvements in global healthcare, and eliminate global health disparities using innovate and low-cost approaches.  This collaboration will establish  a platform through which faculty at Harvard and partner institutions will provide the best in education and training via PAACU, and cutting-edge research ‘From Farm to Bedside’ with support from GHC,” stated Dr. Wilfred Ngwa, GHC Director at Harvard Medical School. “Given PAACU’s pan-African focus on education, agriculture, food security, and healthcare throughout the African continent, PAACU will also provide a platform for establishing a center of excellence in phytomedicines care, research and education, building on some of the recent work at Harvard in this area, including research done by Harvard faculty in collaboration with CBIS, and other collaborative initiatives.”

​

July 02, 2018

In a project led by UPENN Professor Stephen Avery, the funding will allow UPENN and the Harvard GHC collaborate with a  long-term goal  to develop a USA/Africa Radiation Oncology Core (ROC), with both practical (PROC) and virtual (IROC) components, dedicated to Research Education/training in Radiation oncology in East Africa. It also provides desperately needed quality assurance tools for patient safety and research collaborations for cancer control. The project will establish a regional center of engagement with East Africa to significantly increase research capacity, ensure radiation/patient safety and build research capacity to address an ongoing silent crises which is undoubtedly causing significant loss of life and disability in Africa. This Core program will provide a hub for Radiation Oncology research/education in east Africa; benefiting students/researchers from neighboring countries like Kenya, Uganda, Burundi, Malawi, Zambia DRC, Rwanda, South Sudan and Central Africa Republic.

May 18, 2018

The Global Health Catalyst Emerging Leaders  are an exceptional new cadre of young leaders being equipped and empowered by the Harvard Global Health Catalyst with knowledge and skills to lead in today’s changing global health environment.  From the USA to Africa, honors students, minorities, off-campus youth, residents and young diasporans are demonstrating ubuntu in championing global health in unprecedented ways.  Learn more during this year's summit.

May 07, 2018

On behalf of the organizing committee of the Global Health Catalyst Summit, we are excited to announce the 2018 Harvard Global Health Catalyst Award winners. Awardees are nominated and voted for by the organizing committee and past award winners. Award winners will be specially recognized during the 2018 summit at Harvard Medical School May 25-27. 

Award winners include:

• H.E. Arikana Chihombori (African Union Ambassador to the USA); 

• Eduardo Cazap (Professor and founder of the Latin American and Caribbean Society of Medical Oncology (SLACOM)

• Nicholas Abinya (Professor of Medicine, Head of section of Haematology/Oncology, Department of Clinical Medicine and Therapeutics, University of Nairobi and Kenyatta National Hospital). 

• Dennis and Nancy Palmer (Professor/Dean Mbingo Baptist Hospital, Cameroon)

• Groesbeck Preer Parham (Professor the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill School of Medicine)

• Rwanda  (presented to Honorable Minister of Health):

• Bismack Biyombo (NBA Star)

• Raymond Dabney (President and CEO of Cannabis Science Inc)

• Krishnan Suthanthiran (Founder and President of Best Medical group of companies)

​

The Africa Oxford  (AfrOX) Cancer Foundation will be partnering with the Harvard Global Health Catalyst to improve cancer care in Africa. Led by Oxford University Professor David Kerr, AfrOx's mission is to partner with African countries and assist them with implementing comprehensive cancer prevention and control programs. In this new partnership, catalyzed by Prof Ahmed Elzawawy, AfrOx is providing funding support and expertise to support the establishment and launching  of a premier tele-oncology service  and infrastructure for a regional cancer center in Kisumu Kenya. Formal launching will be on May 25th 2018 during the win-win session of the Global Health Catalyst summit.  A high-level delegation from Kenya will be on hand for the launch.  Stay tuned for updates.

University of Massachusetts and Harvard faculty have secured funding for developing an ICT-powered global oncology platform which will be employed by the Global Health Catalyst to support  global health collaborations. The new platform will allow for multi-center clinical trials, telemedicine support and training of residents/students. Initial collaborations will include Institutions in a number of African countries where the GHC is currently supporting efforts to address the growing global burden of cancer: Nigeria, Tanzania, and Cameroon. The leading-edge platform will build on the NIH-funded QARC platform, adapting it for global health with anticipated participation of hundreds of diaspora oncology health professionals and subsequent scale-up to include other Low and Middle Income Countries.  The potential of the QARC platform for global health was elaborated during the 2017 GHC summit at Harvard Medical School, and the work has recently been published in the Red Journal

March 30, 2018

In 2017, the Global Health Catalyst  (GHC) organized the first ever global radiation oncology course for African Oncology Health Professionals via the AORTIC (African Organization for Research and Training in Cancer) online education platform. Certificates were awarded during the 2017 AORTIC conference in Kigali Rwanda.  This year, the GHC will continue this successful online education program beginning on May 5th 2018 with a lecture to train LMIC doctors in contouring to improve the quality and safety of radiotherapy for cancer patients in Africa.  The lecture is jointly organized with eContour, which provides an open-access web-based interactive contouring resource that aims to facilitate point-of-care decision support  based on available evidence-based radiotherapy treatment guidelines. Over 50 oncology health professionals in Africa are expected to participate.

The lecture will be given by Dr. Erin Gillespie who is the founder of eContour and Radiation Oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

Class: e-Contouring (3D/IMRT Radiotherapy)

Lecturer: Erin Gillespie MD

Date: Saturday, May 5th 2018

Time  11AM EST (Boston time)

Format: Web-hosted, Live Online

You can register for the classes via this link

A link for online participation will be forwarded to registered participants

​

Further questions on registration and technical issues can be directed to the class coordinator at omi766@mail.harvard.edu

March 30, 2018

One of the major challenges for cancer patients in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMIC) is that there are not enough doctors and other oncology health professionals who can provide quality healthcare. Where there are doctors, they are often overwhelmed with large number of patients who have travelled, sometimes over hundreds of kilometers and have to wait for days or weeks, if not months to see a doctor. The doctors have no time for continuous medical education or research, and sometimes need support for the highly complex cancer cases they see.  To address this problem, the Global Health Catalyst will be launching a major tele-oncology initiative on May 25th 2018 at  Harvard to support LMIC doctors and dramatically increase access to cancer treatments for patients beginning in a number of African Countries: Nigeria, Cameroon, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Kenya. There has been major local buy-in to this initiative including from Ministries of Health, over 50 oncologists in more than a dozen cancer centers and hospital networks. This initiative will increase access to cancer treatment for tens of thousands of cancer patients with plans to scale this to other LMICs.

March 22, 2018

A cancer diagnosis can have a huge impact on mental health of most patients, families, and caregivers. Feelings of depression, anxiety, and fear are very common and are normal responses to this life-changing experience. Many things can cause these feelings. Changes in body image can affect self-esteem and confidence. Family and work roles may be altered. People might feel grief at these losses and changes. Physical symptoms such as pain, nausea, or extreme tiredness ( fatigue) also seem more likely to cause emotional distress. People might also fear death, suffering, pain, or all the unknown things that lie ahead. For patients in poor-resource countries, cancer is often equated to a death sentence. So as the global burden of cancer increases, mental health becomes a crucial health issue to consider. The 2018 GHC summit will feature a session on mental health with participation of the USA National Institutes of Health Program Director for Mental Health, Dr Makeda Williams. Stay tuned for updates

February 02, 2018

On January 22, 2018, The Global Health Catalyst (GHC) Director Dr Wil Ngwa and  Dr  Dennis Palmer (New Dean of the Mbingo Biomedical Institute) met with the Prime Minister of Cameroon, His Excellency Philémon Yang to thank him for his support for the Mbingo Baptist Hospital and securing his support towards  establishment of the first Comprehensive Cancer Center at  Mbingo Baptist Hospital, North West Region, Cameroon. The GHC will be supporting the training of Cameroonian oncology health professionals and catalyzing support from the USA and Europe towards establishing this center and increasing access to cancer medicines, radiotherapy and multi-center clinical trials. A roadmap for establishing radiotherapy services at this center was first presented during the 2016 GHC summit at Harvard Medical School.

March 30, 2018

Over the past years, the Global Health Catalyst (GHC) has become a world leader in catalyzing collaborations to close the cancer divide with high impact international collaborations benefiting cancer care, research and education in Africa. Now hundreds of young doctors and young leaders from different backgrounds, united by their passion for global health, have joined the Harvard GHC young ambassadors program, which will be launched during the 2018 Summit at Harvard Medical School. A recent Lancet Oncology Commission report makes a number of recommendations that could dramatically increase access to cancer treatment, with radiotherapy in LMIC. The young highly motivated ambassadors will help lead a major advocacy movement towards making these recommendations, reality, saving lives. During the Harvard GHC summit this year, Rwanda will also be recognized as an African Cancer Advocacy Champion following major efforts by the Rwandan government in cancer control and high success in hosting the 2017 African organization for Research and training in Cancer conference in Kigali. Stay tune for updates.

February 02, 2018

In 2018 the Global Health Catalyst (GHC) will feature prominently at major conferences in the USA and Europe including at the AAPM conference in Nashville Tennessee from July 29 - August 2, and at the IUPESM conference in Prague, Czech Republic. The GHC will showcase some of the emerging models for global health in radiation oncology, and opportunities for ICT-powered global oncology care, research and education. The GHC will also present research on online learning to build capacity in LMIC, and the new e-health platform being developed in collaboration with the University of Massachusetts and European partners which will be used for telemedicine (remote treatment planning support and QA), multi-center clinical trials, and training of residents and students. The events will also provide opportunity for participation in the GHC win-win initiative, which involves stake-holders from governement, industry and leading institutions in the USA, Europe and Africa

February 01, 2018

The Global Health Catalyst (GHC)  initiated the first global radiation oncology course  offered on the AORTIC Education and Training Platform. The GHC also supported a certificate on Mixed Methods for Research. Certificates were awarded to African trainees during the 2017 African Organization for Research and Training in Cancer (AORTIC) conference in November 2017.  The GHC will scale the online training program in 2018  in 2018, to build more capacity in addressing the growing global burden of cancer and associated disparities

February 01, 2018

The first purpose of the collaboration is providing support for education and training, building oncology capacity for the country's facilities like the Rwanda Military Hospital. It  will also include partnering in cancer research, supporting research projects in Rwanda co-mentored by Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center faculty, as well as helping Rwandans in the use of advanced information and communications technology in  telemedicine, multi-center clinical trials, and cancer diagnosis.

February 01, 2018

The first  Global Health Catalyst (GHC) summit took place in Germany recently with focus team on Solar-powered radiotherapy and building collaborations between German and African Institutions in global oncology. The summit included participation from leading Industry companies like Elekta,  and diaspora participation led by MEPHIDA

February 01, 2018

The Director of the  Global Health Catalyst (GHC) was invited to participate in the development of recommendations for the Trump Administration for Africa on global health and development. 

February 01, 2018

The President of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO), Prof Brian Kavanagh highlighted the Global Health Catalyst (GHC) as one of the leading global health initiatives in radiation oncology. The President spoke about the GHC during the Presidential session of the 2017 ASTRO conference.  Prof Kavanagh participated during the 2016 GHC summit at Harvard Medical School during which he expressed commitment to global health and collaborations. Through his leadership, the GHC  was able to support the initiation of Africa Chartrounds. Prof Kavanagh also contributed to the new book on Global Oncology featuring lectures from the yearly Harvard Global Health Catalyst summits

The Academic Dean of the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health Karen Emmons Met with Ministers of Health from Rwanda and Namibia to discuss global Health collaborations during the 2017 Harvard Global Health Catalyst summit. They agreed to pursue collaborations involving ICTs with diaspora support championed by the African Union Ambassador HE Dr Arikana Chihombori-Quao. Also present was Constitutency for Africa President Mr Melvin Foote, winner of the 2017 HGHC Diaspora award

The Honorable Minister of Health from Kisumu County Kenya, Dr Elizabeth Ogaja, and leading Kenya Clinical Oncologist Prof Nicholas Abinya participated at the 2017 Global Health catalyst summit, with focus on collaborations to establish a cancer center in Kenya. The Minister met with industry leaders and GHC win-win initiative Chair Prof Ahmed Elzawawy who is a major champion for win-win partnerships to close the cancer divide in Africa. Kenya has received donation for a radiotherapy machine and presented a roadmap for building the cancer center at the GHC summit at Harvard Medical School

The event was co-organized by Constituency for Africa, Boston University, and Harvard University. KEYNOTE SPEAKERS included

​

•    Her Excellency Dr. Arikana Chihombori-Quao, African Union Ambassador to the United States of America.  Dr. Chihombori-Quao is a renowned healthcare and women’s rights activist, a family medicine doctor, a former Chair of the African Union-African Diaspora Health Initiative, and a recipient of numerous international honors and awards.

•    Dr. Julius Garvey, M.D., F.A.C.S., F.R.C.S. (C), F.I.C.S., F.A.C.Ph., F.A.C.C.W.S, a renowned diaspora activist, educator, and board-certified surgeon specializing in vascular diseases. Dr. Garvey is son of Marcus Garvey, founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League, and an early proponent for civil rights and Pan-Africanism.

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute was specially recognized during the 2016 Global Health Catalyst summit for the impactful work Dana-Farber is doing across the world. The  Global Health Catalyst Award was presented to Prof Ed Benz by one of Africa's leading cancer advocates and cancer survivor Kwanele Asante. In his acceptance speech, President Ed Benz remarked that this was in honor of the dedicated staff and faculty of the Dana-Farber and was happy too see that the work of the Dana-Farber was impacting the lives of cancer patients in Africa.