Dr. Jo Ivey Boufford, Professor of Public Service, Health Policy and Management at Wagner, President of the New York Academy of Medicine and founding Co-Director of the NYU Master’s Program in Global Public Health has been named one of Crain’s top 100 most influential women in New York business.

Dr. Ana Krieger, HMPT '08, is part of a team of researchers from the NYU College of Dentistry and the NYU School of Medicine who are partnering with the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey on a major NIH grant to fund the most comprehensive study to date on the underlying causes of temporomandibular disorder - popularly known as TMD. Dr. Krieger, a second year Global MPH student studying Health Policy and Management, directs the NYU Sleep Disorders center, which received $845,000 from te grant to observe the subjects while sleeping.

Global MPH faculty members Beth Dixon and Domingo Pinero are part of a team which have received a contract for $49,000 from the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygeine for the project titled "Evaluation of Menu Calorie Labeling in Fast Food Restaurants in New York City." City health officials believe this information would help consumers make healthier food choices, thereby reducing obesity and incidences of other ailments related to poor diet.

Global MPH student Vincent Guilamo-Ramos (Epidemiology, '11) has developed a new guide for the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. The guide is called "Parent-Adolescent Communication about Sex in Latino Families: A Guide for Practitioners" and is available online at http://www.teenpregnancy.org/espanol/PDF/Parent_AdolFINAL.pdf. A national conference call will also be held on March 4th. Participants can register by visiting http://guest.cvent.com/i.aspx?1Q,P1,591A150D-C7B2-4F36-BF54-F4C3B1B83897

A team of researchers, including NYU Global MPH Director and NYU School of Medicine Professor of Medical Parasitology Dr. Karen Day, believe they have figured out why a genetic blood disorder found in the tropics protects against death from malaria. Their work was featured in the March 18, 2008 editions of The New York Times and New Scientist magazine.

Their research focused on a disease called alpha thalassemia that causes children to produce abnormally small red blood cells. It has long been known by parasitologists that the disease protects against malaria, and it has been speculated that it somehow blocked the malaria parasite from entering the cell.

But Dr. Day and the rest of the research team from NYU and Oxford University studied 800 children in Papua New Guinea and found parasites in the blood cells of children with thalassemia. Children with thalassemia produce more red blood cells than average, with less hemoglobin per cell. Dr. Day and her colleagues propose that this protects them because parasites destroy a smaller percentage of their blood cells.

Their paper, "Increased Microerythrocyte Count in Homozygous {lower case alpha}⁺-Thalassaemia Contributes to Protection against Severe Malarial Anaemia" (manuscript number 07-PLME-RA-0238R2) was published in the journal Public Library of Science Medicine, and can be viewed online at http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.0050056

A study by a New York University dental research team has discovered evidence that pregnant women with periodontal (gum) disease are more likely to develop gestational diabetes mellitus than pregnant women with healthy gums.

The study, led by Dr. Ananda P. Dasanayake, a Global MPH faculty member and professor of epidemiology & health promotion at the NYU College of Dentistry, followed 256 women at New York’s Bellevue Hospital Center through their first six months of pregnancy. Twenty-two women developed gestational diabetes. Those women had significantly higher levels of periodontal bacteria and inflammation than the other women in the study.

The findings, published in the April 2008 issue of the Journal of Dental Research, underscore how important it is for expectant mothers to maintain good oral health.

Global MPH student Dr. Ricardo Restrepo-Guzman (Health Promotion, Disease Prevention and Human Migration, '08) is the author of two chapters in the recently published book "The 5-Minute Clinical Companion to Women's Health", edited by McGarry and Tong and published by Wolters Kluwer Health / Lippincot Williams and Wilkins. Dr. Restrepo-Guzman is the author of the chapters "Alcohol Use and Abuse" and "Abuse and Sexual Assault". The book is a quick-reference guide to the diagnosis and management of symptoms and disorders that commonly occur in women.

The cumulative death toll from AIDS has reached over 25 million people, and more than 33 million persons are currently living with HIV-1. Although it is one of the most-widely studied viruses, many mysteries remain about this pathogen. Global MPH student Erin Murphy (Epidemiology) is helping to shed light on those mysteries, most recently by authoring a chapter in the just published book "HIV-1: Molecular Biology and Pathogenesis to Women's Health", edited by August, Murad and Jeang and published by Academic Press. Ms. Murphy's chapter, "Current Clinical Treatments of AIDS", is meant to help clinicians understand the underlying data that inform current HIV treatment guidelines. In the textbook, leading investigators in HIV research present a timely picture of the molecular mechanisms which guide HIV-1 expression and replication and provide the most current clinical strategies for combating the virus.

Current GMPH students along with recent graduates will present their work at the 136th American Public Health Association Annual Meeting and Exposition, taking place October 25-28 in San Diego, CA.

A team of recent graduates including Besa Bauta, Ricardo Restrepo-Guzman, and Dagmar Kostkova will present on their project Needs Assessment of Elderly Colombian Population in Jackson Heights (Queens), New York . Their study assessed the needs of the elderly Colombian population in Jackson Heights, Queens and focused on the perceptions of community and availability of services in Jackson Heights, a neighborhood which contains the largest Colombian population in New York City. Findings identified in their study provide useful information for further development of research, program planning and advocacy to close the gaps observed in the Latino population, especially Colombian elderly living in urban settings.

A group of current students, including Joan Combellick, Lalitha V. Ramanathapuram, Moneesha Kamani, Nok Chhun, and Vanesa Rios will present their research on Maternal Mortality in Honduras and Peru: Meeting the Millennium Development goal target of 2015 The project recognizes that as maternal mortality throughout the developing world remains stubbornly resistant to improvement, the remarkable, short-term advance in Honduras holds out hope for the possibility of significant progress before the Millennium Development Goal target of 2015. At the end of their comparative analysis, the group sees political prioritization of funding towards infrastructure, accurate census data, sustained commitment to accessible primary health care, and accountability in health systems development to be chief role players.

Current MD/MPH dual degree student Laura Rueff will also be on hand at the APHA meeting and expo to present on A Comparison of Tobacco Control Policy in Two Newly Independent States: Lessons Latvia Can Learn from Poland, a group final paper she worked on with fellow GMPH students Marty Putenis and Huub Gelderblom . The paper was produced as part of Dr. Victor Rodwin's course Global Health Policy and Management.

More info on the 2008 APHA Annual Meeting and Expo can be found at http://www.apha.org/meetings/.

Global MPH Public Health Practice Coordinator Amy Joyce has contributed to Plan Canada's second annual report in their nine-year initiative examining gender discrimination and girls' rights around the world.

Released in commeration of the International Day of the Family, the report, Because I am a Girl: Girls in the Shadow of War, reveals why and how girls' rights are being violated in countries affected by armed conflict. It shows clearly what is lost when girls' voices are ignored and their capacities and skills go unrecognized and underdeveloped.

Amy served as a global researcher for both the newly relased 2008 report and the 2007 version, The State of the World's Girls.

Plan Canada is one of the world's largest international, child-centered development organizations. For more information, visit http://plancanada.ca.

Global MPH faculty member Dr. Renata Schiavo, Adjunct Professor of Public Health at the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development, is the co-author of two pieces featured in the latest issue of Cases in Public Health Communications and Marketing, an online peer-reviewed journal for which she also serves on the Supervising Editorial Board.

The two pieces, "Raising Awareness of Sustainable Food Issues and Building Community via the Integrated Use of New Media with Other Communication Approaches" and "New Media Cases in Cases in Public Health Communication & Marketing: The Promise and Potential", are both available online via the Cases website at http://www.casesjournal.org/

Global MPH Students Upal Basu Roy, Lalitha V. Ramanathapuram and Joyce Wu are part of a team that will be presenting their work at the American Public Health Association's 2008 Annual Meeting & Exposition in San Diego, CA from October 25-29, 2008.

Their poster presentation, Cervical Cancer: A Paradigm To Understanding the Global Burden Of Disparities in Cancer Care, addresses the nature and severity of the growing burden of cancer in developing nations, how social and economic factors influence barriers in access to treatment affecting global populations, and how the creation and execution of culturally-sensitive policies will affect global cancer outcomes.

For more information, click here.

Global MPH Director and Associate Professor of Public Health James Macinko is the co-author of a new paper examining recent changes in the medical experiences of racial and ethnic groups in the United States. The paper finds that racial/ethnic minorities experience worse medical care than non-Hispanic whites, leading the authors to conclude that although results differ among groups, disparities in medical care experience have irrefutably increased for some, and efforts must be made to reduce financial and nonfinancial barriers to care for racial/ethnic minority populations.

The paper, Changes in Medical Care Experiences of Racial and Ethnic Groups in the United States, 1996-2002, is published in Volume 38 (2008) of the International Journal of Health Services.

Streaming video of the 10/24/08 event Rethinking HIV Prevention Strategy: Debating What Works is now available. The event was sponsored by the NYU Master's Program in Global Public Health and featured Dr. Daniel Halperin (Senior Research Scientist and Lecturer on International Health in the Department of Global Health and Population at Harvard University), who discussed his provocative recent work - including publications in Science and The Lancet and editorials in The New York Times and The Washington Post - which scrutinizes the prevailing orthodoxy of which HIV prevention strategies are effective and should be pursued, and which are less effective. Joining Dr. Halperin in this important discussion were Dr. Bill Easterly (Professor of Economics at New York University, co-Director of NYU's Development Research Institute, and author of the recent The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good) and Dr. Helen Epstein (noted public health specialist and author of The Invisible Cure: Africa, the West and the Fight Against AIDS).

Streaming video of the event can be viewed by clicking here.

The January 26, 2009 issue of the university-wide publication NYU Today profiles 13 Global MPH students and alumni who presented their work at the 2008 American Public Health Association meeting in San Diego. Their work explored the causes of stark health disparities from New York to Latvia to Peru and pointed to paths for improvement.

The issue is available now at newsstands around NYU and will be posted online at NYU Today's website.

Due to overwhelming interest in the program, the deadline for receipt of Fall 2009 applications has been extended to March 15, 2009. All prospective students must apply for admission using the online application provided on the program website. All application requirements and instructions are also available on the website, but if you ever have any questions or concerns regarding the admissions process, dates or deadlines, or what you need to do to apply, please do not hesitate to contact us in the program office: we're here to help you!

Program Director and associate professor of public health James Macinko was recently appointed to the editorial board of the Journal Of Ambulatory Care Management. Professor Macinko is guest-editor of an upcoming special edition of the journal focusing on "innovations in Primary Health Care in the Americas".

In addition, Professor Macinko is co-author of two recent publications in the journal: "The impact of primary healthcare on population health in low- and middle-income countries" assesses 36 peer-reviewed studies of the impact of primary healthcare on health outcomes in low- and middle-income countries. "Primary care and avoidable hospitalizations: Evidence from Brazil" provides evidence of the effectiveness of family-based, community-oriented primary healthcare programs on the reduction of ambulatory care sensitive hospitalizations in Brazil.

Fall 2009 incoming Global MPH student Alexandre Carvalho has been awarded an NYU Reynolds Graduate Fellowship in Social Entrepeneurship. The Reynolds program is designed to attract, encourage and train a new generation of leaders in public service, and provides up to $25,000 for each of two years of study. Fellows also participate in an intensive two-year curricular and co-curricular component designed to help prepare them to be the next generation of social entrepreneurial leaders.

Dr. Carvalho is a physician from Brazil, and the work he presented in his Reynolds application involves working with impoverished rural communities there to help them write and produce their own heath education films.

For more information on the Reynolds Fellowship at NYU, please visit their website.

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS) has elected Robert Berne, NYU senior vice president for health and a professor at the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, as a new fellow. Senior VP Berne, who has been instrumental in the founding, development and continuing oversight of the Global MPH program, is one of five fellows from NYU elected to the AAAS this year. AAAS will welcome this year's fellows at an induction ceremony on Oct. 10 at the academy headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts. A complete list of the new members is available here.

Senior VP Berne, a scholar of public education policy and financing, furnished expert analysis and testimony in the landmark school finance case, CFE v. the State of New York. He has authored The Relationships Between Financial Reporting and the Measurement of Financial Condition and co-authored The Measurement of Equity in School Finance, Hard Lessons: Public Schools and Privatization, and The Financial Analysis of Governments. As senior vice president for health, Berne is responsible for working with deans and other university leaders on long-term academic, financial, and operational strategies for the wide range of health activities at NYU.

Global MPH Program Director James Macinko is the lead author of a newly published study which shows that two-thirds of the difference between death rates among African Americans and Caucasians are now due to causes that could be prevented or cured. The study appears in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

The major reason for the black-white mortality gap - representing about 30 percent of the gap for men and 42 percent for women - is due to conditions that have effective treatments, the study found. Disparities were most pronounced for conditions or diseases for which deaths can be prevented, such as diabetes, stroke, infectious and respiratory diseases, preventable cancers, and circulatory diseases like hypertension.

Dr. Macinko co-authored the report with Irma T. Elo, Ph.D. The report can be accessed online here.

Global MPH Program Director James Macinko is co-author of a new article in the journal Health Affairs.

The article, "The Health Effects of Decentralizing Primary Care in Brazil", proposes that a renewed focus on primary health care could lead to improved health outcomes in developing countries. Moving more control to local authorities, or decentralization, is one approach to expanding primary care’s reach. While proponents argue that it increases responsiveness to local needs and helps local resources reach those in need, critics counter that it might increase fragmentation and disparities and provide opportunities for local economic and political gains that do not improve population health. Dr. Macinko and his co-author explore questions surrounding decentralization using the example of infant mortality in Brazil, and their study finds positive effects on health outcomes in that context.

The article is available online here.

New York University’s Office of the Senior Vice President for Health has announced the recipients of the 2009-1010 Global Public Health Research Challenge Grants, which support faculty-initiated public health research on a global scale.

The five proposals, selected by a faculty review committee through a competitive process, include:

- The link between periodontal disease and gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) in Thailand (Ananda P. Dasanayake, College of Dentistry);
- Educational disruption as a risk factor for infectious disease among young refugees from Zimbabwe (Sally Guttmacher, Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development);
- The effect of antiretroviral therapy on malaria in Sub-Saharan Africa (Photini Sinnis, School of Medicine);
- Establishing a comprehensive health system performance monitoring system in Ghana (Karen A. Grepin, Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service);
- Effectiveness of a train-the-trainer program for increasing poisoning prevention awareness in Ghana (Lewis Goldfrank, School of Medicine).

Click here for more information.

The online admissions application for September 2010 admissions is now available. We encourage all prospective students to visit the Admissions section of our website for additional detail and instructions. Please also visit our Events page for information on our upcoming Open Houses.

Global MPH students Carlos Cunningham and Reynolds Fellow Alexandre Carvalho have been accepted to Unite for Sight's Global Health & Social Entrepreneurship Idea Incubator workshop taking place on November 6th in New Haven, CT. The workshop will focus on effective healthcare delivery and the importance of best practices in global health, successful strategies of social innovation and social entrepreneurship, and mentoring and guidance on how to establish new initiatives and organizations. The workshop is a small, intimate forum with a limited capacity of no more than 9 participants. For more information on the workshop, click here.

NYU Master's Program in Global Public Health student Ikenna Umechukwu has been elected to the position of Career Development Officer for the NYU Global Health Alliance.

Ikenna received his MBBS degree from the University of Nigeria in 1998. Following some years of clinical practice in public and private hospitals with a keen interest in public health, Dr. Umechukwu joined the EPI unit of World Health Organization (WHO) in Nigeria. While with WHO; he worked in various capacities, the most recent being National Surveillance Officer. Ikenna was also involved in setting‐up an NGO that provided health knowledge, care and support for the disadvantaged populations of Adamawa State of Nigeria, where he volunteered in the management capacity. His interest is in health management and policy research. Ikenna plans to return to Africa where wants to support healthcare strengthening through provision of quality leadership.

Global MPH student Segufta Dilshad presented at the 20th World Diabetes Congress this past week in Montreal. Her presentation, "Need Assessment for Financial Support of People with Diabetes: A Case Study of a Developing Country like Bangladesh" described resent rsearch to identify the need for and sources of financial support for persons with diabetes who have low-incomes. The complete abstract can be found online (P-1710).

Global MPH student Ivana Chapcakova contributed to the recent report "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Domestic Violence in the United States in 2008" published by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs. Ivana's contributions focused on the New York City data and the entire report can be accessed here.

Over 30 presentations will be made by NYU faculty, students and staff at the annual meeting of the American Public Health Association November 7 - 11th in Philadelphia. This year, approximately 60 faculty and researchers as well as 13 students from the NYU Master's Program in Global Public Health will present their work. For detailed information and abstracts, visit the conference website.