From Humanitarian Assistance to Global Advocacy: International Campaign to Ban Landmines—Voice for Landmine Survivors 國際禁止地雷運動和康復的地雷受害者

In the framework of the “Global Health in practice” Forums, on October 29, 2010, Mrs. Serena CHANG, Manager of the International Campaign to ban Landmines, Eden Foundation will give a lecture on “From Humanitarian Assistance to Global Advocacy: International Campaign to Ban Landmines—Voice for Landmine Survivors”.

In her presentation, Ms. Chang introduced the global problem of anti-personnel landmines and the challenges that landmine survivors are facing today. A 20-minute documentary on survivor assistance in Afghanistan was screened.

The screening was followed by a presentation on the work of ICBL (International Campaign to Ban Landmines) as a voice for landmine survivors to end the global landmine epidemic. The success of ICBL’s global advocacy created a new international norm, and was recognized with Noble Peace Prize in 1997.

The presentation also discussed how a local NGO, Eden Social Welfare Foundation, participates in a global humanitarian movement by providing humanitarian aid and advocating the issue.

Innovative models in personal health records 個人健康紀錄的創新模範

In the framework of the “Global Health in practice” Forums, on October 22, 2010, Prof. Chien-Yeh HSU (徐建業), Director of the Graduate Institute of Biomedical Informatics, TMU gave a unique lecture entitled “Innovative models in personal health records & application for E-Health”.( 個人健康紀錄的創新模範)

After a short presentation of the Taiwan Healthcare system, Prof. Hsu made a clear presentation of the Health Information Network – Virtual Private Network (NHI-VPN) covering Taiwan and the Health Insurance IC card. He then focused his presentation on Electronic Medical Record (EMR) and Electronic Health Record and share with the audience the usability problems of the current HER.

Prof. Hsu used this opportunity to present his research projects like the Taiwan Health Informatics Initiative and the Taiwan Electronic Medical Record Template (TMT) (台灣電子病歷標準格式).

Finally, he discussed with the audience about the implementation of EMR in Taiwan, the use of Google Health, and the numerous social issues related to this topics (privacy, human rights, security,…).

Prof. Hsu's presentation: https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0BwxiA_OBopmCMjg1NGM4YTItNTg1ZC00OGVmLWE2ZDQtZjVmOTZlNGY3ZDE1&hl=en&authkey=CNvMmPEN

Trade and Public Health: Mutually Supportive or Mutually Exclusive? 貿易與公共衛生：相輔相成或相互排外？

On October 15, 2010, Prof. Chang-Fa LO, Director of Asian Center for WTO and International Health Law and Policy at National Taiwan University (NTU) and Lifetime Distinguished Professor of NTU gave a lecture entitled “Trade and Public Health: Mutually Supportive or Mutually Exclusive?”

During his presentation, Prof. Lo underlined how trade rules basically require countries to remove trade barriers. They help countries to exchange goods, such as medicine and medical equipment, which could be important to handle health matters. They also help countries to secure necessary financial resources so as to support or improve the implementation of their public health policies.

However, trade rules could also have negative implication on public health, such as not being able to assist developing countries to access to necessary medicine.
Prof. Lo also explained that on the other hand, international health rules could also have positive or negative implication on international trade.

Then in his speech, he covered these various aspects and explored the possibility of striking a balance to make the two sets of rules mutually supportive.