Kidney Week Conference 2014
Published December 16, 2014, last updated on April 6, 2020 under Education News
The Duke Global Health Institute (DGHI) offers Master of Science in Global Health (MSc-GH) students funding for professional development activities. This fall, several MSc-GH students took advantage of this opportunity to attend conferences throughout the United States.
Duke MBA Health Care Club’s Annual Health Care Conference
The Duke MBA Health Care Club’s Annual Health Care Conference, hosted at the Fuqua Business School, is Duke’s largest health care business conference. Elyse Thulin and Sulzhan Bali attended this conference to better understand the business side of health care. Within DGHI, students’ coursework focuses on global health research. Therefore, this event provided an opportunity for students to explore different perspectives on global health work and encouraged the attendees to understand how their global health innovations affect the health care markets in the developing world.
American Society of Nephrology Annual Meeting
Joseph Lunyera attended the American Society of Nephrology (ASN) Kidney Week Annual Meeting in Philadelphia. Lunyera is a recipient of the 2014 ASN Kidney STARS program, which offers conference registration and travel support for residents and medical/graduate students who conduct nephrology research.
Lunyera attended the conference to network with the global nephrology community and to “connect [his] research goals with the gaps in kidney disease research and clinical practice.” He added, “I also saw this as an opportunity to re-connect with colleagues from other programs in the U.S. with whom I’ve collaborated on previous projects in the developing world, including my home country of Uganda.”
American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene Annual Meeting
The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene Annual Meeting promotes global health through the prevention and control of infectious and other diseases. A One Health breakout session attracted Melissa Manus to this conference. Manus attended presentations that focused on wildlife health and zoonotic exposure and networked with students and potential employers. This conference allowed Manus to better understand the impact of her research in the broader context of global health.
She reflected, “It’s inspiring to attend these conferences where you’re exposed to a myriad of countries and disciplines. The opportunity to hear experts in my field present their research motivates me to continue my own path in global health research.”
USAID’s TechCon
Dorothy Mangale and Libby MacFarlane attended TechCon 2014, a conference co-hosted by USAID’s Higher Education Solutions Network (HESN) and the Development Impact Lab (DIL) at UC Berkeley, held in San Francisco. The HESN is a partnership between the U.S. Global Development Lab and seven universities—including Duke—to create a network of development labs that bring together students, researchers, faculty, and others to devise tech-based solutions to the world’s most challenging development problems.
MacFarlane particularly enjoyed a session on crowdsourcing innovation and design thinking with Shauna Carey from IDEO, who spoke about the importance of human-centered design when addressing global development issues. MacFarlane and others also had the opportunity to meet with Carey to discuss potential future partnerships between IDEO and HESN labs.
Our MSc-GH students also attended the following conferences this fall:
- Libby MacFarlane - Net Impact
- Melissa Burroughs Pena - U.S. Investigators Global Non-Communicable Disease Conference and the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions
- Elyse Thulin - Triangle Global Health Consortium Conference
- Sulzhan Bali - Triangle Global Health Consortium Conference, Universities Allied for Essential Medicines, This Week in Global Health: World AIDS Day
