Category: World health

Cholangiocarcinoma: What is it and why is it so prevalent In Thailand?

By Imperial medical students Thomas Hughes and Thomas O’Connor 

Today, 17th February 2016, marks the first ever World Cholangiocarcinoma Day.

Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) is a primary liver cancer, usually formed from glandular structures in the epithelial tissue (adenocarcinomatous). It occurs in the bile ducts and is classed as being either intra-hepatic (IHCC) or extra-hepatic (EHCC) depending on whether the tumour forms inside or outside of the liver.

CCA is the second most common form of primary hepatic malignancies in the world, with survival beyond a year of diagnosis being <5%.[1] It represents 30% of primary hepatic malignancies with a mean survival rate of 3-6 months after diagnosis, due mostly to the late presentation of symptoms which massively reduces treatment success rates.

Introducing HarvardX’s Massive Open Online Course (MOOC): Practical Improvement Science in Healthcare: A Roadmap for Getting Results

Developed through a collaboration between HarvardX and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, ‘Practical Improvement Science in Health Care: A roadmap for getting results’ is a free online course, which starts 20th January and lasts for 6 weeks.  It aims to provide learners with the valuable skills and simple, well-tested tools they need to translate promising innovations or evidence into practice.

Learners will dive into short, engaging lectures and have access to additional materials and resources. They also will have full access to the social network provided by the edX platform, which provides immediate peer-to-peer feedback and facilitates shared learning.

The course is designed so that learners will begin building and applying basic practical improvement skills right away, regardless of their role in health or health care, and regardless of previous improvement experience.

Part 4: The future of Universal Health Coverage and how we can achieve it globally

To mark Universal Health Coverage Day on 12th December, we interviewed former CEO of the NHS and Adjunct Professor at IGHI, Sir David Nicholson.

Universal health coverage (UHC) improves how health care is financed and delivered – so it is more accessible, more equitable and more effective.

In the final video of our series below, Sir David talks about how the key to obtaining and maintaining UHC across the world is to get the support required from leadership and politicians in order to make it happen.

He provides examples of countries that are already working towards UHC and addresses how IGHI are contributing towards the UHC system in order to make quality and safe healthcare a reality for all. 

Photographs that change the world

By Student Challenges Audience Choice Award winners Jacob Levi, Amanda Stenbaek and Hiba Saleem-Danish

In Feb 2015, we took part in the IGHI Student Challenges competition and won the 3rd place prize of £1000, towards our Photovoice App Development Project.

Photovoice is a research method, which is already in use globally, whereby photographic data is collected and analyzed in order to gain insight into various health, social or community problems. Currently, the methodology is inefficient and expensive. Cameras are distributed to communities in and they’re asked to capture images, which depict a problem in their life, however, our concept was to modernize and improve the Photovoice methodology in a digital age.

Celebrating the first ever Universal Health Coverage Day: 12.12.14

Today, the Institute of Global Health Innovation (IGHI) will join 500+ organisations around the world to launch the first-ever Universal Health Coverage Day. This historic coalition will mark the anniversary of a landmark UN resolution urging all countries to provide universal access to healthcare without financial hardship.

We believe that no one should fall into poverty because they get sick and need healthcare. Universal health coverage (UHC) is essential for making progress against challenges like HIV, cancer, Ebola, dementia, diabetes and mental health issues – and for creating a fairer, more resilient society.

Universal healthcare coverage is one of the seven forums at 2015’s World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH), which takes place in Doha from 17-18th February and launched by the Qatar Foundation.

Raising awareness about female genital mutilation: What can we do to help?

By Sunila Prasad, Imperial Hub

On 16th October, Imperial Hub hosted its inaugural talk of The Challenge Series – a series of seminars aiming to inform students on key issues.

Imperial Hub was honoured to host special guest speaker and FGM survivor, Ms Hoda Ali, and Honorary Clinical Senior Lecturer at Imperial, Dr Naomi Low-Beer, to offer their insights into the increasingly prevalent issue of female genital mutilation (FGM).

With Hoda as the first speaker, the audience was immediately immersed into the world of FGM through the perspective of a survivor. Having experienced FGM at the age of 7 in her native Somalia and then forced to flee her war-torn country, she finally settled in the UK to work as a sexual health nurse and FGM campaigner.

Moving from global heath 3.0 to global health 4.0

Richard Smith of the UnitedHealth Chronic Disease Initiative and Adjunct Professor at IGHI talks about our NCD event at the Royal Society on 4th October and how we can make progress in global health as a whole.

Global health 1.0 was called tropical medicine and was primarily concerned with keeping white men alive in the tropics. Global health 2.0 was called international health and comprised clever people in rich countries doing something to help people in poor countries. It had Cold War overtones. Global health 3.0, which is still the main manifestation of global health, is about researchers from rich countries leading research programmes in poor countries.

Richard Smith: “I’m the minister of health in a poor country”

Richard Smith of UnitedHealth and Adjunct Professor at IGHI, writes for the BMJ about our upcoming NCD event at the Royal Society on 4th October.  

I’m the minister of health in a poor country. Until last year I was a urologist. I was the president’s urologist and took out his prostate. To be honest, I don’t think it needed to come out, but he insisted. You don’t resist the president. He was delighted with the result and rewarded me by making me minister of health.

It doesn’t feel like a reward. Everybody wants something from me, but I’m very low in the hierarchy.