In light of the current atmosphere of violence and political disorder in parts of the Middle East and North Africa, public health and innovation have recently been ushered to the back of the line in terms of regional priorities. It was up front and center at UC Berkeley the first weekend of October. While the rest of campus celebrated UC Berkeley homecoming weekend, three campus groups–The Center for Middle Eastern Studies, The Center for Global Public Health (School of Public Health), and the Blum Center for Developing Economies–united to host the first UC Berkeley Summit on Public Health and Innovation in the Middle East.
Spearheaded by the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, and the brain child of Dr. Daniel Zoughbie, a young scholar, innovator, and advocate for public health in the Middle East, the event brought together an impressive gathering of talks and panels exploring how to provide better health care in a complex sociopolitical context. Attendees ranged from undergraduates studying Middle Eastern political systems, to PhD students conducting research in Lebanese slums, to local physicians and CEO’s of multi-million dollar start-ups.
The kick-off on Friday night featured keynote speaker, UCSF Global Health Science’s Dr. Eric Goosby, was formerly appointed by President Obama to serve as the US Government’s Global AIDS Coordinator. He currently serves as United Nations Special Envoy on Tuberculosis and leads the UCSF-UC Berkeley Institute of Global Health Delivery & Diplomacy. Goosby spoke about the importance of recognizing the burden of non-communicable diseases in the Middle East, and the critical importance of bolstering political will and health services towards health systems strengthening through diplomatic channels. Recognizing the turmoil in the region, and the challenge for public health practice, he urged students and individuals in the audience to continue to work towards improving health from ground-up.
The full day summit on Saturday was full of vibrant panels and diverse speakers. The first panel focused on the factors of “silent killers” of populations in Iraq, Libya, Bahrain, and Syria, among many other countries. Looking beyond political strife, guests addressed the lack of access to primary health care services and the need for new social and networking platforms to connect patients with critical health information.
The afternoon session looked forward at that potential impact that technology has to propel population health. Entrepreneur Kamran Elahian, whose start-ups have amassed more than $8B in revenue, stressed the importance of encouraging and educating youth to take chances to innovate and create for health–and to work towards imagining a Middle East with free gas, free water, and a less restrictive internet. And in the final panel, a dynamic panel discussed the challenges implementing and developing technologies for health but ways in which successful cases have broken through the barriers.
Professor Eva Harris, faculty director of the Center for Global Public Health, perhaps said it best in the closing session when commenting on the dearth of attention to public health in the Middle East, at least in academic global health. “The focus for global health in this country has traditionally been on countries in Africa and South Asia, especially. We should also do more for this region.” She said that universities and institutions of research could do more to encourage research and education exchanges in the region with the appropriate partners, since safety for students is a major concern. Heather Kinlow, Director of Special Projects at the Blum Center, echoed this sentiment, and highlighted the importance of small grants and research opportunities at the university-level to develop and encourage public health ideas into bigger more impactful innovations. For more on the conference and to catch video highlights (to be available in November 2015), please visit: http://cmes.berkeley.edu/