Integrating Technology and Cultural Understanding to Improve the Health of Underserved Populations

sponsored by The Peninsula Chapter, The Global Health Research Foundation, and the Los Altos Public Library

Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Free to all; Cosponsored by the Santa Clara County Library
Refreshments: 7:00 pm
Program: 7:30 pm

Los Altos Youth Center
1 South San Antonio Rd.
Los Altos, CA

Frequently international health improvement programs designed to reach medically underserved populations fail because they are missing the key ingredients of sustainability and cultural integration.

By incorporating technical innovations and advanced computational techniques, along with integration of the cultural context of health and disease, The Global Health Research Foundation (GHRF) has developed a “Toolkit for Sustainability” to measure health outcomes and inform continuing improvements in health for medically underserved populations. GHRF tools allow program managers to pool multiple factors affecting health and disease, then determine and test key related variables. GHRF tools also allow resources to be tracked and appropriately targeted so that locally led health improvement efforts are integrated within the community and thus sustained. These tools have been successfully implemented to assist Uganda in its Malaria Surveillance Program through a rapid return of data to track the disease.

GHRF is assisting the Fresno County Asthma Coalition in delineating the role of pollution on the rapid rise of asthma in Fresno’s at risk populations. Recently, efforts have been focused on assisting the Kingdom of Bhutan’s Ministry of Health in providing effective, affordable health to all citizens, and in incorporating environmental preservation in its health improvement programs. The cultural background for these efforts are discussed as a major issue in implementing programs.

Erica Weirich is a practicing Physician and Stanford faculty, who lives and works in Los Altos Hills. With degrees in Medicine and International Development Policy, she has worked in maternal and child health in remote Northern Pakistan, reproductive health in the Republic of Georgia, and on Refugee Health in London, England.