UTHSCT Hosts International Leaders to Help Address Rural Healthcare Disparities
December 17, 2019
On Thursday, December 12, 2019, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler hosted 14 public health leaders from 13 different African countries as part of a three-week International Visitor Leadership Program sponsored by the U.S. Department of State. While on campus, the foreign public health professionals met with a multitude of UT Health Science Center at Tyler faculty, who also serve as leaders in the field of community and rural health. Specifically, the meetings addressed efforts to improve healthcare in rural areas and reduce rural-urban disparities in care and health outcomes.
“There is a growing worldwide need to address the public and rural health needs of local regions, particularly within the continent of Africa,” commented President Kirk A. Calhoun. “Through our School of Community and Rural Health, we have the expertise that they can take back and utilize in their own countries to help improve conditions there.” Dr. Calhoun continued by emphasizing that the institution remains focused on advancing East Texas, but relayed that the opportunity to share their knowledge and successful implementations on a global scale is a tremendous honor and he is “very happy and pleased to participate” in helping best serve their respective populations.
“In our setting, public health is working better in urban settings, but not in rural settings,” noted Ms. Herilinda JOSEPH TEMBA, MD, African Union medical epidemiologist for the Africa Centers for Disease Control. “What we’ve learned from UT [Health Science Center] is that you’ve been able to integrate community health successfully as a component of public health in a rural setting.”
The International Visitor Leadership Program began on December 2 in Washington, DC., which introduced the federal system of government and key federal agencies involved in improving public health and combating infectious diseases. Participants also learned about the evolving role of the United States in addressing global health challenges, particularly those affecting Africa, and the “One Health” approach to understanding disease outbreak. In Orlando, the group explored efforts to address the HIV/AIDS epidemic, initiatives to detect and combat the spread of Zika and other mosquito-borne diseases and public health campaigns to raise vaccination rates. In Dallas, participants examined the 2014 Ebola cases – the first in the United States. Following Dallas, the group arrived in Tyler to meet with public and rural health leaders at UT Health Science Center’s School of Community and Rural Health. Following their stint in the “rose capital,” the group traveled to Seattle, to meet with university- and private-sector innovators in the realm of vaccine development and health technologies; the program also focused on efforts to halt the spread of disease among the city’s large homeless populations. Finally, the program concluded in Atlanta with a day of meetings at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.