Global Health Field Research Projects Now Recruiting Students

Peru Bass project

Peru Bass Connections in Global Health project team

Published August 26, 2014, last updated on April 9, 2018 under Education News

Students, from undergraduate to doctoral, have the opportunity while at Duke to take their learning outside the classroom and into the world as they work alongside peers and expert faculty to study a complex global health problem. Working in diverse, multidisciplinary teams in the Bass Connections in Global Health program, students learn how to work together and within the community on a global health research project. This fall, DGHI is recruiting students for three projects based in Madagascar, Kenya and Peru.

Shining Evolutionary Light on Global Health Challenges – Madagascar
Led by DGHI faculty member Charles Nunn, the project will identify new connections between evolutionary medicine and global health. Members of the team will focus on a concept central to the emerging field of evolutionary medicine called mismatch -- the idea that current lifestyles differ from the lifestyles in which humans evolved. They will also collect new data in northeastern Madagascar, where transitions in diet and behavior are leading to an increase in chronic Western diseases and musculoskeletal injuries. The project provides exciting new opportunities to better understand human health from an evolutionary perspective. Other leaders on the project include Daniel Schmitt and Allen Rodrigo.

“This project is giving us the opportunity to further study the intersections of evolutionary biology and global health,” said Nunn.  “We have also identified incredible enthusiasm across the university for the growing field of evolutionary medicine, both from faculty researchers and students.”

Project applications due September 19.

Evaluation of Scaling of Innovative Healthcare Delivery in East Africa – Kenya
The project based in Kenya with a focus on East Africa will tackle some of the core challenges facing healthcare services and delivery. The key question informing the work of this team is determining the factors that play in role in scaling the impact of innovations in global health. The team will investigate the challenges of scalability from multiple perspectives, including financing and payment schemes, clinical quality improvements and mobile health technology. Leaders on this project include Krishna Udayakumar, Joseph Egger, Elizabeth Turner, Gary Bennett and Jeffrey Moe.  This work is part of the Social Entrepreneurship Accelerator at Duke (SEAD) initiative.

“This is an exciting project because students will have the opportunity to travel to East Africa and work alongside some of the most innovative organizations in healthcare,” said Egger.

Project applications due September 19.

Environmental Epidemiology in Latin America – Peru
Working in the Madre de Dios region of the Peruvian Amazon, the Peru team is studying the impacts of gold mining on human health in the Peruvian Amazon. In phase one of the project last year, the team largely focused on environmental impacts of the heavy mining operations, focusing primarily on the distribution of mercury and the effect on land use and land cover change on insects. In the second phase now under way, the team is interviewing members of households to learn more about vulnerability to mosquito-borne diseases, dietary patterns and nutrition, and mercury toxicity in people living in the communities surrounding the mining sites.

The project is led by William Pan, faculty member at the Duke Global Health Institute and Nicholas School of Environment.  Phases one and two of the project have involved five undergraduates and six graduate students from a variety of disciplines including toxicology, engineering, global health, anthropology, statistics, public policy and environmental management. Other leaders on the project include Jennifer SwensonMarco Marani and Ernesto Ortiz.

“We hope this project and our research can help our community partners identify some important positive changes in the environment as well as human health,” said Pan. “The team that is putting all this together is going to be really important to informing all those policies.”

Watch a video to learn more about the project, and hear the experiences of former Bass Connections students working in Peru. For two years ina row, the team has engaged in oral hygiene education and community outreach. Read more.

Project applications due September 10

“This experience was life-changing. I was eager to get hands-on experience, and for the first time, I felt I was making a difference.”

- Laura Mistretta, former Peru Bass Connections in Global Health student

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