Links I liked

I'm in the middle of reading through my blogroll after a very long time. I've just been inundated with work, and am finally able to make the time to catch up on my reading. Here are some of the best of the links I've seen so far:

1. Interesting Q&A session with popular development economist and author of "The End of Poverty", Prof Jeffrey Sachs

2. Diagnostics continue to be the bottleneck for most healthcare in the developing world. Therefore, it shouldn't be surprising that this particular cheap diagnostic test out of Vietnam is causing ripples.

3. Around a fifth of global science papers are now freely available online, a study finds, with Latin America and India leading the pack!

4. Ask a garbologist questions. Fascinating potential discussion and amusing writeup.

5. Belgium is considering resomation...would you want to be resomated after you die??

6. How "easy" do you think this award-winning "easy latrine" is??

7. Alaskan water being shipped to India...(seriously!)

Gates Foundation Grand Challenges

Got this in my mailbox this morning:

Just wanted to pass along this amazing opportunity from the Gates Foundation - Grand Challenges in Global Health. Applications are now being accepted through May 19th. Learn more here:

http://www.gatesfoundation.org/global-health/Pages/grand-challenges-explorations.aspx

Grand Challenges Explorations Seeks Innovative Thinkers for New Round of Funding

Researchers from all fields who can offer fresh perspectives on global health problems are encouraged to apply for a Grand Challenges Explorations grant, which awards $100,000 to test their unique and largely untested ideas. Applications for Round 5 of the initiative are being accepted from March 25 to May 19, 2010.

Grand Challenges Explorations focuses on research areas where creative, unorthodox thinking is most urgently needed. In this latest round of funding, applicants will be asked to submit proposal addressing these topic areas:

• Create Low-Cost Cell Phone-Based Applications for Priority Global Health Conditions


• Create New Technologies for the Health of Mothers and Newborns


• Create New Ways to Protect Against Infectious Disease


• Create New Technologies for Contraception

Currently, more than 260 scientists from 30 countries are working to take their innovative ideas to the next level through Grand Challenges Explorations grants. Featured below are some examples of these projects. For a complete list of all research awarded to date, visit the Grand Challenges Explorations web site.

Motherland Afghanistan

Dr Mojadidi treating a woman in Afghanistan, in the documentary Motherland Afghanistan (photo source: PBS)

I took some time to R&R (btw, R&R = rest and relaxation) last week and over the weekend. Spent a lot of time napping, reading, and doing a movie binge (God Bless Netflix!). I LOVE watching documentaries, and for some reason, a lot of what I've been watching has centered around Afghanistan and Pakistan. That's how I came across Motherland Afghanistan.

Motherland Afghanistan is a beautiful, poignant, almost heartbreaking documentary about a male Afghani-American Obstretician/Gyneacologist, Dr Qudrat Mojadidi, who returns to help fix the broken medical system in Afghanistan. Afghanistan has some of the highest infant and maternal mortality rates in the world, and seeing the documentary, you'll have a very clear idea of why this is.

Dr. Mojadidi has practiced medicine within and outside of Afghanistan for the past 40 years. Originally from Kabul, Afghanistan, he relocated to the United States to finish his medical training in Jacksonville, Florida. In addition to treating Afghan refugee women in Pakistan and Afghanistan since 1982, he founded and managed the only free teaching hospital for Afghan women refugees in Peshawar, Pakistan for ten years during the Soviet-Afghan war. In 2002 he was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for his 20 years of work in Afghanistan. His commitment to women’s health in displaced communities has also led him to teach and work at Native American reservation hospitals in Arizona and Montana.

Here's a preview:

The X PRIZE for Healthcare

Turns out that even insurance companies are frustrated with the healthcare system in the US. Wellpoint, one of the largest insurance companies in the US, has sponsored an X PRIZE to improve the current healthcare.

The Healthcare X PRIZE, as it is called, has just opened up calls for review of its initial prize design. If you are interested or vested in the American healthcare system, definitely check it out here. Also, I've had a look at their blog a bit, which I would highly recommend.

Surprisingly, inspite of the multitude of text, the concept is relatively easy to follow. Personally, I don't know that much about the healthcare system, but I do know that it is flawed. Yet, looking at the way the prize is designed, its HARD for me to give any sort of input. I once got into a discussion with Dr Vijay Goel, who is the spearheading the Healthcare X PRIZE, and came out feeling even stupider and more ignorant. I feel like I know even less about the flaws of the healthcare system. So I don't know how much I can contribute to this discussion.

Essentially, if I can direct any educated people towards this cause, I'll be better off in the long run. I, like many Americans, need better healthcare...so get on it folks!!

Friendship, healthcare, and a gym

Find a friend, says the NY Times, and your wellness factor increases!

The American healthcare system sucks. Not because the doctors or quality of healthcare sucks; but because of insurance issues. You can't get decent care in this country without buying into the insurance system. Ironically, frustration, rather than being about the medical system, is about measly insurance companies who couldn't cure a patient even if their life depended on it.

Because I'm an independent consultant, I'm responsible for my own health insurance (most Americans get their insurance through their employers). And because its so expensive and so hard to decide what type of health insurance to get, I've been living without health insurance for several years now. But the tables are turning (as they always do).

I'm getting out-of-shape, and everyone is scaring me about terrible calamities to come. So I went to several gyms yesterday and found out that insured people have lower monthly fees, which really pushed me to start hunting for an insurance policy. I am having SO much difficulty picking something. Every one of my friends then gives me an opinion about which one to pick and they are all different, further confusing me.

In the midst of this, I read three different articles in the same issue of the NY Times, all relating to healthcare: this one about a family struggling to keep their son free of cancer, and this one about friendship being good insurance.

I'm lost and frustrated, have high gym rates, run the risk of taking my wonderful family into financial bankruptcy; but I have friends and hopefully that will keep me alive and well. Maybe I should take my friends to the gym, and we really will be alive and well to an exponential degree! :-)

Amazing Time Magazine Photoessays

Time Magazine photographers have outdone themselves again. In the past couple of weeks, they've put out some powerful photoessays on a range of interesting topics. Here are some:

1. Can Change Come to Congo? By amazing photographer James Nachtway.

2. Happy 200th Birthday Darwin. A collection of photographs of Darwin and his work.

3. Spiritual Healing Around the World.

4. Portraits of Abraham Lincoln.

5. Slumdog Entrepreneurs. Real life entrepreneurs in the same slums (Dharavi) that the move was shot in (see picture above; photo credit: Daniel Beheruhak).

6. Healthcare in Tehran.

Public Health Tweets

1. Chris Blattman blogs about Dr. Gary Sultkin, a public health warrior and peace crusader, who has started an organization called Ceasefire to stop unnecessary shooting and killing, using public health techniques. I must say, its very cool to see how medical principles can be applied (with successful results) outside of just medicine!

2. Shawn blogs about his mosquito bednet project on Uncultured.com. I think bed nets ROCK! Personally, they have saved my life (and my sleep) a number of times. Bed nets are SO cheap and effective against malaria that I think its a crime for any government to not provide one with the birth of every child.


3. The food crisis has gotten so bad that the poor in Haiti are eating mud. Can someone, anyone explain to me why we are fighting a war that no one wants, while people are eating mud??

4. I've been reading some of the comments on the CBS 60 Minutes website in response to Paul Farmer's segment that aired today. I was truly taken aback by the anger and bitterness against Paul Farmer, whom many accuse of being a "traitor" and "turning his back on his own." This says a lot about how one of the world's wealthiest nations is failing its people most. At the same time, i need to stand up for Paul and all the aid workers who go out on a limb (I like to call it America's good and peaceful force) everyday to undo the damage caused by the American Administration. Were it not for their heroic deeds, we'd have been blown out of the water years ago!

Pioneer Profile: Dr Paul Farmer, Dr Jim Kim

Another segment I plan to start will be called "Pioneer Profiles," where I will quite simply try to profile a pioneer of technology, social entrepreneurship, and/or education in the developing world.

Let's start with physicians Paul Farmer and Jim Kim.

Dr Jim Kim (source: Harvard University)


Dr Paul Farmer with a 15 y/o boy in haiti (photo source: Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston)

I came across their amazing story a few years back, when I was sitting in on a seminar series on AIDS in Africa. Nearly all the best presenters in the seminar were in some way affiliated with Partners in Health, a relatively obscure public health program that has revolutionized healthcare in the developing world. Turns out it was started by Paul and Jim, and two other friends.

Paul and Jim's least impressive feature is that they are both M.D, Ph.Ds from Harvard, and MacArthur Genius Fellows. What is most impressive is how they've revolutionized treatment against two of the developing world's most dangerous killers - multidrug resistant TB (MDR-TB) and HIV. Their holistic, sustainable approach to public health has really won people over. PIH runs a few hospitals and medical programs in select countries (Haiti, Rwanda, Peru, Russia, to name a few) for the most disenfranchised. All medical treatment is provided free. The hospitals are also built on local capacity, i.e. they try to hire and train as many doctors, nurses, and other hospital staff from within the country as possible, both to encourage and keep local resources in the country, and to promote sustainability of the clinics/hospitals. The result is a largely functional, resourceful, and knowledgeable team providing effective healthcare. Now other countries are turning to them for advice on building up their own infrastructure.

Rather than talk more about them, I'll let you loose on a few resources. CBS 60 minutes did a great profile on Paul Farmer today (bel0w):


In addition, you should read the book on the Paul Farmer and PIH called Mountains Beyond Mountains, penned by Pulitzer Prize winner Tracy Kidder.

A few years ago, PBS did a brilliant 6-hour award winning documentary series called Rx for Survival, an absolute MUST SEE for anyone interested in healthcare technology in the developing world. Filmed across several countries, the series identifies pioneering technology and health care approaches that are saving millions of lives. You can see a biography and videos of Jim Kim, and of Paul Farmer.

There's a lot more about both on the web. Just google their names and you'll have enough to keep you going for days!

The Schweitzer Fellowship for health professionals

Another of the blogs I follow regularly is one written by Paul Levy, President and CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess (BID) hospital in Boston, MA. BID is one of the most respected medical centers in the country.

I first met Paul in 2005, when he was part of a panel of speakers talking about leadership. Paul stood out because he was, by far, the most effective. He was clear, concise, and laid back. He spoke simply, so that you didn't feel stupid, and had a very encouraging manner. At one point he said that he learned everything he needed to know about leadership from coaching his daughter's soccer team. I'd encourage you to read his blog, particularly if you are interested in public health, medicine, and/or leadership.

Today he wrote a great post about the Schweitzer Fellowship, that financially supports a variety of budding health professionals in their studies, provided they dedicate atleast 2000 hours of community service in return. You can read all about it here.