Faculty ranging from English scholars to genome czars are talking about the role that the Academy has to play in fostering global health.
President Richard Brodhead noted in his inaugural address Saturday afternoon that global health will be a focus of his presidential tenure, but at a panel discussion in the Bryan Center Friday afternoon, half a dozen scholars already had the new University buzzword on their lips.
The inequality of health issues will be the “defining issue” of the next generation, said Dr. Victor Dzau, chancellor for health affairs and president and CEO of Duke University Health System.
Each panel member emphasized the role of his own discipline, but the need to draw from the humanities and social sciences to examine health took center stage.
“Humanities are part and parcel of thinking about it in new and interesting ways,” said Robert Cook-Deegan, director of the Center for Genome Ethics, Law and Policy. “Global health is not just about health care.”
Priscilla Wald, associate professor of English, explained that health “shock scenes” in journalism and fiction build racial, geographic and socio-economic connotations into infections. Authors, she said, have a responsibility to create new narratives that recognize the role of developed countries in health problems.
When championing health care, it helps to explain to people the economic benefits of increasing the level of health worldwide, said Dr. William Roper, dean of the School of Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “It is important for the people of North Carolina—8 million of them—to see global health as something that is applicable to them,” he said.
James Joseph, professor of public policy and former U.S. ambassador to South Africa, said U.S. organizations are often too steeped in their own ideas for aid to be as beneficial as it could be. “There is a tendency to respond through our cultural whims rather than through the local customs of the country,” he said.
That sentiment was echoed by Dr. Barton Haynes, director of the Human Vaccine Institute. He emphasized the need to collaborate with developing countries to produce health care delivery systems palatable to the country. He also emphasized the role universities, which are not profit-focused, must play in researching drugs useful to the developing world.
The discussion was momentarily interrupted when Claude Allen, deputy secretary of health and human services for the United States, made an unannounced appearance at the panel to present the first installment of an $8.5 million grant for heart disease research.
Brodhead, who was one of more than 90 people listening, welcomed Allen, Law ’90, with his traditional humor as he accepted an oversized check. “Come often,” he quipped.
Allen then joined the academics, voicing how crucial global health is to national security because it promotes stable governments. He cautioned panelists, however, not to abandon entirely the American methods of research and health care delivery. “Yes, we must have partners on the ground,” he said, “but they must be willing to work with us.”
The various disciplines represented on the panel will all play a role as Duke forges further into the implications of global health, Provost Peter Lange said in his opening remarks. But he noted that Dzau’s recent arrival at Duke would lead the discussion.
“Victor’s presence here is making a real difference in how we’re going to put the pieces together,” he said.
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