Missionaries and the improvement of access to health 傳教士與促進改善衛生

On November 26, 2010, within the framework of the “Global Health in practice” Forums, Fr. Pierrot ANTHONY, St Joseph Hospital, Huwei, Taiwan gave a unique lecture entitled ‘Missionaries and the improvement of access to health " at Taipei Medical University.

Medical work is part of religion’s marching order to “love our neighbor,” Father Anthony began his talk, which was richly illustrated by photographic slides. His mission site for 56 of his 80 years has grown from a half-finished factory building to a massive complex of 700 staff and almost 600 beds to provide care. Yunlin was a rather isolated area in central Taiwan when he arrived, with no paved roads for the farmers and fishermen who lived there. Industry in the area was limited to sugar, cement and fertilizer factories. The buffalo were the true engines of commerce, the priest said, and after school the farm kids had to take them to where they could graze. Even the mission’s movies and projector travelled by buffalo cart! Water was pumped by hand, and young girls had to care for younger siblings, with even small girls carrying babies tied on their backs as they tried to get away from the housework to play like the boys did.“Planting rice is hard work,” Father Anthony said, showing photos of the hand planting and threshing, which was accomplished by vigorously shaking sheaves of rice in a barrel till the grains fell off.

For the full story, please go to: http://www.tmu.edu.tw/english/app/news.php?Sn=51

Cultural competence and Literacy 文化地位和素養

On November 19, 2010, within the framework of the “Global Health in practice” Forums, Prof. Val CRAWFORD, Visiting Professor, TMU gave a unique lecture entitled ‘Cultural competence and Literacy, " at Taipei Medical University.

In her presentation, Prof. Crawford underlined what we need to learn from cultural incompetence and illiteracy and remind that cultural competence and literacy meant performing adequately in one’s linguistic environment. She notably explained how we need to be humbled in communicative contexts to understand and teach others who are illiterate in our professional worlds.

Finally she advised Taiwan to have better English if it wants to serve as Asia’s Switzerland: a place where the region’s business gets done smoothly, safely and reliably in several global languages.

She then opened the floor to the audience to let the participants share about their own situation in terms of linguistic environment challenges and to make comments and ask questions.

Prof. Val Crawford's lecture: https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0BwxiA_OBopmCMDJkNDY4MWQtMWZjMC00MDZlLWIwN2YtNmIyYjcwYjgxYjc1&hl=en&authkey=CJXc6-QK

Reaching Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in HIV/AIDS: Experience from Malawi. 千禧年發展目標—對抗愛滋病毒/愛滋病 馬拉威的經歷

On November 12, 2010, within the framework of the “Global Health in practice” Forums, Dr. Solomon CHEN from Pingtung Christian Hospital gave a unique lecture entitled ‘Reaching Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in HIV/AIDS: Experience from Malawi " at Taipei Medical University.

After presenting the MDGs and notably those related to health and short presentation of the socio-political situation of Malawi, he gave to the audience an overview of the HIV/AIDS situation in that country: 930,000 people infected, 10,000 new orphans every year and 200,000 people who need ART. He then presented the role of the Pingtung hospital and the Taiwanese team in Malawi and notably the Rainbow ARV clinic situated in Mzuzu Hospital, HIV nutrition program and the Traditional Birth attendance project.

He also used the opportunity to present his research on “Risk factors for early mortality in children on adult-fixed dose combination ART in Malawi” and “the true outcomes for patients on ART who are ‘lost to follow-up’ in Malawi”.
Finally, he presented a new project of identification of health facilities with GPS

Dr. Solomon CHEN's lecture: https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0BwxiA_OBopmCZTRkYzA3MjQtN2U4Ny00NTQxLTk3ZWUtMWRlZWE0ZDUwZDQ0&hl=en&authkey=CPuvlfcB

Experiences from south of the equator: Australian clinical indicator analysis, reporting and systems theory-based improvement 南半球經驗:澳洲臨床指示劑分析及報告與系統理論基

In the framework of the “Global Health in practice” Forums, on November 05, 2010, Prof. Peter Howley from the University of Newcastle, Australia gave a lecture entitled "Experiences from south of the equator: Australian clinical indicator analysis, reporting and systems theory-based improvement" at Taipei Medical University.

In his lecture, he explained how Bayesian hierarchical modeling could be used to foster quality improvement activity in health care, through the creation of improved methods for analysis and reporting of clinical indicator data.

He then underlined'performance measures' in the health care field.

Finally, he showed to the audience how research and applications of Statistics could be notably used in the fields of health with quality improvement activity in health.