1 Spring 2014 Newsletter

2

Introduction from Co-PresidentsDear Reader,

This year, and in the next few years to come, we aim to nourish our internal growth while simultaneously seeking to develop our external outreach among the Univer-

sity of Chicago administration, the wider global health network, and the general public. In terms of our internal development, we intend to (1) create a much more transpar-ent chapter, (2) strengthen inter-team collaboration, (3) invest in our staff members by adding an Internal Operations team to our chapter, and (4) perhaps most importantly, develop a strong institutional memory throughout the chapter. In fact, we started to implement these changes this past quarter. For the first time, we sketched out a basic plan for our MOU goal before the GROW trip, thereby involving all current members in that discussion rather than just the GROW team and EBoard. We spent several weeks developing a cohesive strategic plan for our chapter, including articulating our mission, vision, and ultimate goals. Finally, the successful creation of our Internal Operations team allowed us to strengthen existing recruitment, orientation and community-build-ing initiatives as well as to jump-start professional development programs within the chapter. In terms of our external development, we intend to (1) develop of an Advisory Board for our chapter, (2) strengthen our Corporate Sponsorship team, and (3) form strong, lasting partnerships with changemakers around the globe in order to increase the impact we can make.

We hope that you enjoy reading through GlobeMed at the University of Chicago’s first-ever newsletter and getting a glimpse into our day-to-day activities. If you’d like to contribute, you can help support our cause by donating to our organization here!

Sincerely,

Cindy Sui Lauren SpringettInternal Co-President External Co-President

3

4

5

Meet Melecio, ASPAT PresidentWhen it comes to the impact of the TB regimen on job prospects, there is no one who under-stands it better than Melecio Mayta Ccota, founder and president of Asociación de Personas Afec-tadas por Tuberculosis del Perú (ASPAT-Peru). Born in Puno, Peru, Melecio completed his prima-ry and secondary schools with the dreams of becoming a pilot. However, shortly after his high school graduation, he was diagnosed with TB. Later, his condition worsened until he underwent a surgery that saved his life but ended his dreams of being a pilot. Melecio then dedicated his life to helping others suffering from TB. Thus, ASPAT-Peru was born and since then the dreams of many others have been realized.

It started off in a small room with a single computer. Despite its humble beginnings, ASPAT-Pe-ru, like GlobeMed, was driven by a small group of committed volunteers who questioned the status quo and called for the rights of patients in Callao to reliable health care. Today, ASPAT-Pe-ru has 30 employees. It provides a holistic approach to fighting TB with programs ranging from assisting with job placements, raising public awareness of TB and the surrounding stigma, lobbying for improved TB-related legislation, and providing pre- and post-surgical support, food baskets, and educational activities.

Government officials, business executives, and ordinary citizens have the responsibility to pro-tect their communities from diseases by improving conditions of finances, infrastructure, and health care services – not out of charity or welfare but out of a vested self-interest. The chance of transmission to families and neighbors multiplies every time a person gets TB. At the heart of ASPAT-Peru’s model is a belief in the interconnectedness of the people in Peru – that the well-being of the society and the well-being of the patient are inextricably linked. As a result, Melecio and ASPAT-Peru strive to convey that a solution to TB in Callao can be found only when society realizes its responsibility towards TB patients and the patients realize their respon-sibility to society.

6

Our partner: ASPAT-Peru

7

Asociación de Personas Afectadas por Tuberculosis del Perú (ASPAT-Peru) is a non-profit, com-munity-health TB organization founded in 2007, made up entirely of volunteers who have either beaten TB in the past or are currently fighting the disease. ASPAT-Peru seeks to create job opportunities for TB patients and help them generate income during recuperation and after recovery, to educate society about the various preventative measures that can be taken to stop infectious diseases like TB and HIV/AIDS, to strengthen the Peruvian government’s TB moni-toring capacity through social monitoring programs, and to generate a public policy proposal for comprehensive TB control at the local, regional, and national levels.

Recent achievements include:

• Helpingtouniversalizerapiddrug-susceptibilitytestsforTBpatients,suchasMODs and GRIES.

• ImplementingsocialmonitoringprogramstoassistthegovernmentTBmonitoring programs.

• WinningtheFirstGlobalFundNationalPrizefororganizationsaidingthoseaffectedby tuberculosis, according to the qualifications set out in “Project Objective 5” in the 8th Round of the Global Fund.

• BeingrecognizedasastrategicallyinthefightagainstTBbytheNationalHealth Strategy forthe Prevention and Control of TB program, run by the Peruvian Ministry of Health(MINSA)

• BeinginstalledasamemberoftheCallaobranchofthePeruvianHighRegional Committee against TB

Other current projects include:

• PoliticallyadvocatingforTBpatientsasASPAT’sTBBillmakesitswaythrough Peruvian bureaucracy. If passed, the bill will make it illegal for employers to discriminate against TB patients in the areas of hiring/firing.

• PotentiallydesigninganeventfortheWorldLungConferencetobeheldOctober28- November1,2014

8

This school year, GlobeMed at the University of Chicago created our first strategic plan! Our Exec Board came together in our Autumn Retreat and set goals for the year, which our Internal Co-President,

Cindy Sui, then consolidated into a single document. Our goals this year fall into four general buckets:

1. Supporting the work of our partner, the Asociación de Personas Afectadas por Tuberculosis del Perú (ASPAT-Peru)

2. Becoming a highly effective and professional student-run organization

3. Becoming recognized as a highly effective and professional student-run organization and representative of our partner, both on-campus and beyond, and, last but not least,

4. Nurturingourstaffmemberstobecomefutureleadersfor social change

Click here to read our entire 2013-14 strategic plan, including how we’re monitoring and evaluating the success of our goals throughout the school year!

The Executive Board: Strategic Planning

9

10

Meet our advisors

11

In Autumn of 2013, we convened the first meeting of our advisory board, a collection of experts from different sectors, backgrounds and con-tinents to understand how best to achieve our goals for this year and

beyond. Our Advisory Board comprises: • Dr. Evan Lyon, a physician at the Pritzker School of Medicine with many years of experience working in Haiti with the non-profit Partners In Health • Justin Brown, COO of BigMarker and formerly of Accenture, with experience in international development through Accen- ture Development Partnerships • Sandeep Ahuja,founderandCEOofOperationASHA,anNGO working on TB care in India which has created the eCompliance platform, which has been very effective in increasing adherence to TB drug regimens - our partner organization in Peru is cur- rently seeking government support to roll this out through Lima. He is an alumnus of the Harris School of Public Policy. • Jonathan Allan, Senior Associate Director of the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship at the Booth School of Business and di- rector of D4Lab, a program that combines entrepreneurship with human-centered design. He’s especially passionate about applying design principles to create meaningful solutions to problems in healthcare

12

Our chapter participates in our network-wide Global Health University (ghU) curriculum, which is de-signed around our three “big ideas”:

1. Cultivating a systems-level understanding of health and equity2. Aligning personal values with daily actions to foster a just world3. Practicing the skills of effective collaboration

The curriculum aims to give exposure to different practices of effective action taken to combat inequity in the world, often examined in the context of our partner ASPAT-Peru’s work, and to ultimately foster innovation, compassion and thoughtfulness in our chapter members and the wider student body.

gHU

Chapter news

This year, our chapter has explored the following issues:

Equity: What are the distinctions between equity, equal-ity and disparity? Global health equity is our stated mis-sion, but how exactly should we define global equity? How do these questions of equity, equality and disparity manifest themselves in global health? Who is, or should be, responsible for bridging these gaps?

International Health Systems: What are the differenc-esbetweenaNationalHealthInsuranceSystem,aMulti-payerHealthInsuranceSystem,andaNationalHealth Service

Cultural Relativism: Is cultural relativism a valid con-sideration in global health, or does the right to health transcend territorial and cultural bounds? Are external actors justified in imposing the right to health? What is cultural imperialism?

Power and Privilege: What exactly is power and privi-lege? What are the ways in which power and privilege may manifest in our daily lives, our work with our partner, and in global health in general?

Structural Violence: What is structural violence? Why is it often invisible? How is structural violence manifest-ed? How does structural violence help us understand our partner’s work?

Structural Adjustment Programs: What is the logic of SAPs? How are they effective, ineffective, or even harmful?

Poverty: What is the poverty trap? How is this manifest in our partner’s work?

13

Our Campaigns Coordinators this year, Jeanne and Sayri tested new waters to increasing fund-raising by adopting other chapters’ successful campaigns,NationalOfficesuggestions,andthe 2013 Globemed Summit brain storming sessions. Through the process of implementing several new campaigns including Valentines Day balloon bouquet sales and hosting a global health film festival, we learned much about our target population ad their specific needs.

We are excited to announce that a campaign launched in the fall that had been previous-ly untested was a great success -- our James Bond-themed Laser Tag Tournament -- ap-pealed to the UChicago body who is famously also involved in Scav’, the world’s largest Scav-enger Hunt, and other real-life games such as Humans vs. Zombies. We also want to send a huge congratulations to the UChicago GROW team which has worked to contribute to our fundraising goal by applying to numerous grants -- Jeanne Chauffour was awarded the F. Championship Ward Third Year International Travel Grant, Ali Greatsinger was a finalist in the Microsoft YouthSpark Challenge, and a Partner-ships Team conjoined effort propelled UChicago

CAMPAIGNS

Chapter news

and ASPAT-Peru’s proposal to a Grand Challenges Canada’s 2014 finalist position!

Our chapter looks forward to the Rummage Sale, which is always a successful way to start Spring-time at the University, and provides students with “new” vintage clothing to spice up their wardrobe. As we head into the summer we are thinking of new campaigns and improvements on past ones to get the ball rolling for next year.

14

Updates on Desayunos

Every year, GlobeMed and ASPAT-Peru work together to design a project aimed at re-ducing the spread of TB in impoverished areas of Lima and its surrounding ports. This

year, we have agreed to sponsor and implement a pilot breakfast program. We believe we will need to fundraise a minimum of 9,600 USD or 26,620 soles to be able to implement the program, but fundraising 10,500 USD or 29,120 soles would be ideal.

Our Project

Our vision for our project is one in which breakfasts are provided six days a week to one carefully selected Lima health center, Centro San Sebastian, so that patients at

that center will have a reliable source of food during treatment. We expect that the provi-sion of a hearty, nutritious breakfast (to be eaten at the same time as tuberculosis meds are administered) will reduce the harshness of the side effects of treatment, thereby encour-aging patients to go to treatment centers regularly and improving treatment compliance rates.

Our Vision

Ultimately, the goal of this program is:

• toreducenegativesideeffectsfromtreatment• toimprovethenutritionandimmunewell-beingofthepatients• toprovidemoreopportunitiesforpsycho-socialsupportforpatientsinorderto increase adherence to treatment.

We hope that the effectiveness of this intervention will result in treatment abandonment rates dropping from 10% to 4-5%. Following proof of concept, we hope that this program can be scaled across health centers in Lima and Callao with support from the appropriate local government sectors.

Our Goals

15

In order to convincingly appeal to these government sectors, we will begin collecting data a month before the start of the program to establish a baseline adherence rate. At a

minimum, we will measure past adherence to treatment and patients’ medical and socio-economic backgrounds.

Ideally, we will continue collecting data every month for the duration of the program and up to six months after the conclusion of the program through the administration of target-ed surveys. We also hope to be able to administer these surveys to a health center not par-ticipating in the program for the same duration of time in order to use the data collected from the non-participatory health center as a control. ASPAT-Peru and GlobeMed will work closely together to develop the surveys and other data collection tools and to decide on a formal timeline for the administration of said tools.

We anticipate that this project will last six months and affect approximately 30-25 patients from Centro San Sebastian.

Timeline

At this point, we have selected the pilot health center, Centro San Sebastian, and are in the process of finding a control health center for comparison circumstances.

This quarter, we will be working to determine methods of demonstrating the program’s efficacy and evaluating its success.

Our Progress

16

Over the past year, GlobeMed at the University of Chicago has formed a close part-nership with Sandeep Ahuja, a member of GlobeMed’s own Advisory Board as well asthefounderandCEOofOperationASHA,anNGOworkingonTBcareinIn-

dia. Understanding that incomplete treatment regimens result in the spread of multi-drug resistant TB, Ahuja designed the eCompliance platform, a monitoring system intended to increase treatment compliance rates through better record-keeping. Rather than relying on paper-based methods, eCompliance tracks patients electronically: when a patient takes a dose of medicine, he signs in with a fingerprint which the system verifies. Should he fail to check in at the appointed time, health care providers are alerted and can follow up promptly.

GlobeMed and their partner, ASPAT-Peru, are very interested in seeing eCompliance rolled out in Lima. At this point, ASPAT-Peru has gotten buy-in from Peru’s Ministry of Health, meaning that if the money is found to cover implementation costs, every health center in Lima will participate in eCompliance as part of a pilot program. GlobeMed, ASPAT-Peru, and Ahuja are in the process of sourcing grants and foundations in order to raise the nec-essary funds.

To learn more about eCompliance, check out Operation ASHA’s powerpoint from Jan 2014 for a more comprehensive story, including the TB problem in India, the front and back end features of eCompliance, the key benefits and challenges of the system, the costs associated with the technology, and future plans.

eCompliance

17

Thank you

Board of AdvisorsSandeep AhujaJonathan AllanJustin Brown Evan Lyon

DonorsRosalba Benitez & United StationersJonathan A. Birnbaum & Michelle M Birnbaum

SupportersColin DelmoreAngela Heimburger & the Ci3 Team

Special Guests Ted GonderGillian JavetskiKaren LeeJeremy SchifbergDawn ShapiroGeoffrey SmithJonathan SmithRachel Park

Chapter AdvisorsCrystal Coats CarolineNguyen&GlobeMedNationalOfficeStaff

Special thanksAixin ChenCarrie ChuiEthel Yang& Communications Team

Sponsorship and FundingKINDBarsSugar Bliss Cake BoutiqueUniversity of Chicago Student Government

Grants & Awards

F. Championship Ward Third Year International Travel Grant

to Jeanne Chauffour for her 2014 GROW Internship

Norman Wait Harris Memorial Foundation Fund Grant

for our first Global Health Film Festival inNovember2013

Microsoft YouthSpark Finalist for Ali Greatsinger for her

2014 GROW Internship and Desayunos Project

Grand Challenges Canada Seventh Round Finalist

(recipient status pending) for ASPAT’s eCompliance Project

Clinton Global Initiative University (March 2014) Delegates: Lauren Springett, Olivia Clink

GlobeMed 2014 Summit (April 2014) Delegates: Jeanne Chauffour, Tze Ern Teo,

Sarah Huynh, Louise Judge

Millennium Campus Conference (October 2014) Delegate: Jeanne Chauffour

University of Wisconsin-Madison 2014 Hilltop Delegate: Jeanne Chauffour

18

GlobeMed at The University of Chicago

Executive Board

Jeanne Chauffour Director of Campaigns Ali Greatsinger Director of ghU Elena Hadjimichael Director of Communications Sarah Huynh Director of ghU Louise Judge Director of Community Building Jeanne Lieberman Director of GROW Victoria Liu Director of Communications Lauren Springett External Co-President Sayri Suarez Director of Campaigns Cindy Sui Internal Co-President Tze Ern Teo Director of Corporate Sponsorship Emily Wilt Director of Finances

General Members

Communications Aixin Chen Carrie Chui Caryn Tin ghU Kathy Deloso Caroline Frishman Jared Hinkle Adil Menon Priyanka Mysore Sarah Zhao

Partnerships Olivia Clink Chris Mathis Lizzette Melo-Benitez Chris Munoz Ritu Prasad Mandy Wiesler Campaigns Alexandra Berthiaume Sydney Birnbaum Charis Crofton Aliya Moreira Chiara Pandolfi Daniel Weis Internal Operations / Shweta Desiraju Community-building