From the UW-Madison Global Health Institute website:

Beginning January 15, 2012, the UW-Madison Global Health Institute began accepting applications for the Graduate/Capstone Certificate in Global Health, a collaborative offering from the Schools of Medicine and Public Health, Nursing, Pharmacy, Veterinary Medicine, and the Division of International Studies.

Through a 9-credit program that includes a global health field experience, the certificate prepares candidates to address health issues that transcend national boundaries, with an emphasis on health and disease in developing countries. The program is based in the Department of Population Health Sciences of the UW School of Medicine and Public Health and is administered by the Global Health Institute.  Please note that the application deadline for 2012-2013 is April 15, 2012.

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It may not take a village to take care of the acutely ill older patient, but it definitely takes a team.

Five geriatric specialists from Singapore recently spent two days touring University of Wisconsin Hospital to learn more about the Acute Care for Elders (ACE) consult team’s approach to treating older patients, an approach that relies heavily on a team concept.

The visitors included Dr. Reshma Merchant, an assistant professor and head of general medicine at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, and four representatives from the National University Hospital: Noreza Sailani, nurse manager of the medical/geriatric ward, Koh Meijiao, a geriatric nurse clinician, Lin Wiwei, an occupational therapist and Chai Chee Pei, a physiotherapist.

Dr. Michael Siebers, a geriatrician and associate professor of medicine at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health and medical director for the Acute Care for Elders program, said the Singapore visitors were shown how the ACE Interdisciplinary Consult Team assures top quality care for elderly patients who are hospitalized. They also looked at the research and teaching activities of the Division of Geriatrics.

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Driven from her home as a child during the fall of Saigon, UW Health’s Cat Burkat, MD, has used her skills as an oculoplastic surgeon to re-establish the connection to the country of her birth, a connection that was severed by the Vietnam War.

An assistant professor in the UW School of Medicine and Public Health’s Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Dr. Burkat’s journey to Madison began in 1975 when her father took her family from Saigon on the day Vietnam’s crumbling capital fell to a refugee camp in Pennsylvania.

“I don’t have any early memories of Vietnam, because I was very young,” Dr. Burkat says. “But my older sister remembers running away when the bombs were going off.”

Read more to learn how Dr. Burkat became interested in medicine, and how she’s making a difference in her home country.

Check out this great introductory video about the Global Health Institute with director Jonathan Patz.

A Global Health Ethic from UW Global Health on Vimeo.