Watch an interview with rising second-year Pritzker medical student (MS2), Ning Zhou, who studied how social networks can be used to prevent the spread of HIV in the men who have sex with men (MSM) population in Hyderabad, India for his Summer Research Project (SRP).

Watch an interview with Christine Anterasian, a rising second year at Pritzker School of Medicine who researched the economic barriers to breast cancer care in Ibadan, Nigeria, for her Summer Research Project (SRP).  Along with classmate Liese Pruitt, she also traveled to Accra, Ghana to learn more about cancer treatment in West Africa.

On September 9th, a delegation arrived from Xinhua Hospital, the teaching hospital for Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, and its branch institution, Shanghai Children’s Medical Center.  Jiaotong University is ranked in the top five medical schools in China, and Xinhua Hospital has been awarded 21 prizes by Shanghai Municipality for its clinical medical achievements. The original Memorandum of Understanding between the University of Chicago and Jiaotong University was established in September 2010.  This past March, Xinhua Hospital hosted a delegation comprised of Drs. Jeff Matthews, John Cunningham, Ari Shalhav, and Donald Liu during which they established a partnership between their respective surgery departments.

Friday’s delegation visited the University of Chicago to further discuss the development of a collaborative Comprehensive Cancer Center in Shanghai.  They were greeted by University of Chicago Medical Center faculty including Funmi Olopade, MD, FACP, Associate Dean for Global Health, Walter L. Palmer Professor of Medicine & Human Genetics, and Director for the Center for Clinical Cancer Genetics & Global Health as well as the University of Chicago Medical Center President, Sharon O’Keefe.

Xinhua Delegation Members:

Xu WeiGuo President, Professor of Internal Medicine

Yang Lujun Clinical Dean, Jiaotong University School of Medicine

Ou JianFeng Vice Director, President’s Office

Wu Yeming Vice President, Professor of Pediatric Surgery

Liu Yingbin Chairman of Department of Surgery Surgical Oncologist

Qi Jun Chairman of Urology

Pan Shuming Chairman of the Emergency Room

As a rising second year medical student at Pritzker interested in medical anthropology,  Liese evaluated the socio-cultural barriers to breast cancer care in Ibadan, Nigeria, for her Summer Research Project.  Before conducting her research in Nigeria, she spent a week in Accra, Ghana, to get a better picture of what cancer presentation and treatment look like in West Africa.

Stay tuned for more Pritzker student experience interviews.

Session One

Session Two

• Lisa Sun, China, Mentor: Renslow Sherer, MD
• Christine Anterasian, Nigeria, Mentor: Funmi Olopade, MD
• Rupali Kumar, India, Mentor: John Schneider, MD, MPH
• Liese Pruitt, Nigeria, Mentor: Funmi Olopade, MD
• Sandra Shi, China, Mentor: Renslow Sherer, MD
• Tess Wiskel, Nigeria, Mentor: Sola Olopade, MD, MPH
• Ning Zhou, India, Mentor: John Schneider, MD, MPH

Special congratulations to Tess Wiskel (pictured below), one of the award recipients for Overall Excellence in Scientific Quality, Content and Ability to Respond to Questions in the Performance of Research in Clinical Science for her project, “Effects of Indoor Air Pollution from Biomass Fuel on Pulmonary Function in Women and Children in Rural Nigeria,“ with faculty mentor, Dr. Sola Olopade.

We are proud of the excellent work by these students, and look forward to supporting their continued dedication to reducing health disparities both locally and globally.

Last summer after completing her first year of medical school at Pritzker,  Anne Toledo traveled to Santiago, Chile through the Global Health Initiative’s partnership with the Universidad Andres Bello (UAB), one of the finest and largest private universities in Chile.  Under the direction of  Dr. Brian Callender, her faculty mentor at the University of Chicago, and Dr. Eduardo Costa, her faculty mentor in Chile, Anne created a month-long public health elective and medical Spanish immersion experience which took her to the largest hospital in Chile (Hospital Sótero del Río) as well as smaller community health clinics outside the city.

Anne is in the Global Health Scholars Track at Pritzker, and hopes to return to Chile or another Spanish-speaking country during the course of her medical education. For more information on her experience as well as the international experiences of other Pritzker students,  see the  GHI’s website as well as this issue of Globoscope, a publication created by the International Medicine Interest Group at Pritzker.

GHI facilitates bilateral international experiences for students at the University of Chicago and GHI partner institutions.  In addition to sending University of Chicago students and residents abroad, opportunities exist for foreign scholars, faculty, students, and residents to study at the University of Chicago with faculty mentors. One such opportunity is the UAB exchange program, which accepts approximately six UAB medical students each year.

For more videos highlighting GHI activities, visit our YouTube page and stay tuned for upcoming featured international experiences.

Visiting Scholars Abayomi Odetunde, M.Sc. and Dr. Adewunmi Adeoye from the University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria in the Olopade lab

As part of its commitment to two-way international exchanges, GHI facilitates pathways for qualifying international visitors to learn and train under a faculty mentor at the Biological Sciences Division and University of Chicago Medical Center.

Three Visiting Scholars recently arrived from Nigeria for a short-term training opportunity under the direction of Dr. Funmi Olopade:

Adewunmi Adeoye, MBBS, Pathology Lecturer at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria

Dr. Adeoye specializes in breast cancer research and he is interested in spending time at UChicago to strengthen his reasearch technique.  Additionally, he  hopes to learn strategies that will help improve the overall research quality and capacity at his home institution.

Abayomi Odetunde, MSc, Senior Lab Technician, Genetics and Bioethics Research Unit, University of Ibadan, Nigeria

Mr. Odetunde specializes in breast cancer research, and will be studying Chromogenic in situ hybridization (CISH) for the detection of HER2 amplification in breast cancer tissue samples during his visit.  He also hopes to study techniques such as tissue microcarray, slide archiving, and database management in addition to  gaining other insights into the molecular pathology of breast cancer.

Abiodun Popoola, MBBS, Radiology Lecturer, Lagos State University and Teaching Hospital, Nigeria

At his home institution, Dr. Popoola is the Head of Oncology and Cancer Screening.  He will be working with Dr. Olopade to improve his skills and knowledge of breast cancer management.

Fulbright-Fogarty Fellowships offered in partnership between the Fulbright Program and the Fogarty International Center of the U.S. National Institute of Health have been established to promote the expansion of research in public health and clinical research in resource-limited settings. The Fulbright-Fogarty Fellowship was inaugurated in July 2011 with four fellows in Sub-Saharan Africa (Botswana, Malawi, and South Africa). The Fellowship has been modified and expanded with the 2012-13 application cycle to include countries in Asia and Latin America.  For a full listing of countries and more information about the program, visit the Fulbright-Fogarty Fellowships in Public Health description, and submit your online application today.

A group in Hyderabad, India watching Saturday's webcast

Over 300 viewers watched Saturday’s live webcast, “Sexual Identity, Health and Stigma in India: Traditional Statuses and Western Influences,” tuning in from more than 18 countries on three continents.

If you missed the webcast, stay tuned for more information on the release of the conference in both online and hard copy format.