School of Medicine and Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences-International Education and Research- Tufts University

School of Medicine and Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences

An Ecological Analysis of Cryptosporidium in Kenya

Led by principle investigator Jeffrey K. Griffiths, MD MPH&TM, the major goal of this research is to map the genotypes of /C. parvum/ isolates found in water, animal feces, and from cases of human diarrhea in a region of Kenya where HIV is prevalent and human-animal contact is frequent (Meru Town and Meru game park, Kenya). Collaborators include the Vice Chancellor of Kenya Methodist University and the Kenya Wildlife Service.

http://www.tufts.edu/med/phfm/faculty/griffiths-jeffrey.htm

Cryptosporidium in HIV Positive Children in Ecuador

Led by principle investigator Jeffrey K. Griffiths, MD MPH&TM, the major goal of this research is to test the hypothesis that micronutrient interventions will decrease the incidence of diarrheal diseases, and specifically cryptosporidiosis, in HIV seropositive children in Guayaquil, Ecuador.

http://www.tufts.edu/med/phfm/faculty/griffiths-jeffrey.htm

Effectiveness and Cost of HIV Care Delivery and Treatment in Kenya

Dr. Mkaya Mwamburi of the Tufts University School of Medicine is conducting a trial of modified, directly observed therapy for HIV, and determining the cost-effectiveness of this approach. He is also doing qualitative research to determine why some people afflicted with HIV in Kenya may elect not to undergo antiretroviral therapy when it is available. His current focus is in operational and translational research in developing countries.

http://www.tufts.edu/med/stu-org/AMSA/faculty.doc

Food Policy and Applied Nutrition

Built around a high-quality, multidisciplinary teaching and research curriculum, the FPAN program seeks to equip students with the diverse skills and comprehensive knowledge base needed to make a successful impact on food policy and nutrition intervention worldwide. With its three fields of specialization, FPAN provides conceptual and analytical skills, as well as a solid foundation in applied statistics and research in the technical aspects of program planning, design, implementation, and evaluation.

http://nutrition.tufts.edu/1177953852922/

Global Health Framework Interdisciplinary MPH

This three-year program funded by the National Institutes of Health links all the Tufts graduate schools around the topic of Global Health. The program, which was first held in September of 2006, promotes interdisciplinary education and research at Tufts through a series of workshops. It is designed to integrate Tufts courses with those of institutions in East Africa, and soon in South Africa, India, and other sites, using the curriculum co-development model.

http://www.tufts.edu/med/education/globhealthedexp.html

Global Health Interest Group

The premise behind this Tufts University School of Medicine student organization is that students who have a positive experience abroad early in their training are likely to be more sensitive to issues of international health and to engage in such work in the future. The Global Health Interest Group strives to provide a monthly international health series seminar, help students engage in international work after their first year, establish an international summer selective program for first-year students, and encourage students to spend a fourth year rotation abroad.

http://www.tufts.edu/med/stu-org/ghig/index.html

Global Health Internship at Father Muller Medical College

Father Muller Medical College and the Public Health & Family Medicine Department at TUSM offer Tufts medical and public health students two-month summer fellowships in Mangalore, India. Each summer since 2005, six Tufts students have participated in a rich didactic and clinical program taught by Father Muller faculty. In addition, students visit local hospitals, community health centers, homeopathy clinics and other medical facilities including uniquely Indian health settings such as ashrams and ayurvedic medicine centers.

http://www.tufts.edu/med/education/globhealthedexp.html

Global Health Internship in Panama

This program was developed in collaboration with the School of Medicine at Panama University (Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Nacional de Panama). Students are assigned to a community health center in the Panama West Health Area, where they have the opportunity to work as volunteers. Their days are divided between volunteer work and the study of Spanish, with an emphasis on medical terminology.

http://www.tufts.edu/med/phfm/news.htm

Global Health Internships in East Africa

This project, based on work conducted by Dr. Jeffrey Griffiths, Associate Professor of Public Health and Family Medicine, places students at the Institute of Public Health at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda, and the School of Public Health at Muhimbili University College of Health Sciences in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Students function as facilitators, helping faculty at the participating institutions learn how to use Tufts University Sciences Knowledgebase (TUSK).

http://www.tufts.edu/med/education/globhealthedexp.html

Global Health MPH Concentration

The Global Health Master's Degree in Public Health at Tufts University School of Medicine is designed for students who anticipate studying, identifying, and solving public health problems in a global environment. It seeks to provide students with an interdisciplinary set of skills; to prepare them to recognize biomedical, social, economic, and other factors that affect health; and to identify, design, monitor, and implement interventions that address health disparities. The concentration takes full advantage of the great breadth of global health-related courses and scholarship at Tufts.

http://www.tufts.edu/med/education/phpd/mph/concentrations

Hickey-Peyton International Travel Fellowship

The Hickey-Peyton Travel Fellowship was established through an anonymous gift to the Tufts School of Medicine to support students interested in public health research/activities in international settings. It is hoped that, by taking advantage of this opportunity, students will gain a broader perspective on the roles of public health and medical care practice. Fellowships are awarded annually to first-year medical students.

http://www.tufts.edu/med/phfm/news.htm

Innovative Curricula in Water & International Research

The Innovative Curricula in Water & International Research is a five-year NIH-funded "Roadmap" program. Its goal is twofold: to develop and implement a health and water curriculum in the new Tufts University Water: Systems, Science, and Society interdisciplinary program, and to create novel interdisciplinary Internet-based curricula linking Tufts University with East African public health educators, researchers, and institutions.

http://www.tufts.edu/med/education/globhealthedexp.html

International Institute for Prosthetic Rehabilitation of Landmine Survivors

The International Institute for Prosthetic Rehabilitation of Landmine Survivors is a Tufts-affiliated non-profit organization which strives to help landmine survivors regain their quality of life. The Institute was founded in April 1998 to contribute to the international effort to rehabilitate amputees, especially civilians, many of whom are children.

http://www.tufts.edu/med/IPRLS/home.html

International Nutrition and HIV Project in Hanoi, Buenos Aires, and Chennai

The Tufts University School of Medicine has established an HIV-related project in Argentina that studies the nutritional and metabolic status of intravenous cocaine users, as well as their co-infection status (i.e., hepatitis B, hepatitis C). This project is funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Another project that examines the risk of HIV in non-injecting cocaine users is also submitted.

http://www.tufts.edu/med/stu-org/AMSA/faculty.doc

Office of International Affairs - Tufts University School of Medicine

The International Affairs Office provides orientation to all foreign students and scholars beginning at Tufts University Health Sciences campus or one of its affiliated hospitals. Foreign students and scholars are welcome to visit the IAO for assistance and advice. In addition, the IAO provides training opportunities for foreign health care professionals at Tufts affiliated hospitals, ranging from formal training to observation in various clinical and dental fields.

http://www.tufts.edu/med/iaffairs/about.html

Pharmacology, interactions between HIV and TB Medications

Led by program investigators Christine Wanke, MD, and David Greenblatt, MD, the program trains individuals in pharamacologic techniques to look at interaction of antiretrovirals with TB therapy. It relies on collaborations with the ICMR TB research institute in Chennai, India.

http://tufts.edu/sackler/pharmacology/faculty/greenblatt.html

Probiotics in Growth Faltering in Pakistan

This National Institutes of Health grant to Dr. Christine Wanke supports a collaborative research project examining the feasibility and efficacy of a probiotic intervention to prevent growth faltering in a birth cohort in Karachi, Pakistan. Malnutrition is associated with more than half of the 10 million deaths per year in children under the age of five in the developing world. In areas where breast-feeding is supplemented by additional foods, there is an increased risk of exposure to contaminants that cause diarrheal disease. Many communities in the developing world lack the resources for controlling such illnesses. The project studies the feasibility of using probiotic Lactobacillus GG (LGG) to break the cycle of malnutrition and diarrheal disease in these areas.

Study of Helicobacter Infection in Quito Children

Dr. Jeffrey Griffiths is Associate Professor of Public Health in the Department of Public Health and Family Medicine, and is the Global Health concentration leader in the MPH program. He is currently doing research on natural immunomodulation by agents such as Helicobacter pylori and Toxocara in children in Quito, Ecuador.

http://www.tufts.edu/med/phfm/faculty/griffiths-jeffrey.htm

Surface Mining Impact on Spread of Schistosomiasis in Ghana

Dr. John Durant is a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the School of Engineering and teaches undergraduate- and graduate-level courses on environmental chemistry and chemical fate and transport. His research interests involve the human health consequences of environmental chemistry, particularly in air and water. Currently he is studying the influence of surface mining on changes in hydrology and its impact on the spread of schistosomiasis in Ghana.

http://ase.tufts.edu/cee/faculty/durant/bio.asp

The Quito Integrated Environment and Policy (QUIEP) Program

This three-year National Institutes of Health-funded program, directed by Dr. Jeffrey Griffiths, represents an international collaboration to encourage research in developing countries on topics that combine the issues of health, environment, and economic development. The goal is to improve understanding of the relationships between these topics and to help guide policy. The program encourages faculty and student exchanges at the Schools of Medicine, Engineering, and Fletcher.

Thermo-stable Measles Vaccine Research

In Sub-Saharan Africa, where measles is one of the top killers of children, vaccines are often rendered useless by lack of refrigeration. Led by Dr. Jeffrey Griffiths, an interdisciplinary team from the Famine Center, the School of Veterinary Medicine and the School of Medicine seeks to reverse that trend by developing a heat-resistant measles vaccine.

Vitamin A and Zinc: Prevention of Pneumonia Study

Tufts School of Medicine's Vitamin A and Zinc: Prevention of Pneumonia (VAZPOP) Study, completed in 2004 by primary investigators Simin Meydani and Dr. Jeffrey Griffiths, researched the effectiveness of vitamins A and zinc in treating malnourished children at high altitude in Quito, Ecuador. This four-year, nutritionally stratified, placebo-controlled, double-blind study helped to increase understanding of pneumonia and its treatments, as well as to control respiratory and diarrheal infections, improving the lives of many sick children.

http://clinicaltrials.gov/show/NCT00228254

Water: Systems, Science, and Society

Water: Systems, Science, and Society (WSSS) is an integrated, multi-disciplinary approach to managing and understanding the complexity of water issues worldwide. Students who elect to enroll in the program to complement their graduate studies in a related field emerge with both their degree and a WSSS certificate. Students in the WSSS program conduct research and plan projects related to global water issues, take courses and seminars, and undertake a field internship, learning on-site skills from professionals.

http://www.tufts.edu/water

<h4>A Dental Education Delivered to your Doorstep</h4>

<p>Unlike most first-year students at Tufts, the students in the School of Dental Medicine's distance education program -- the first of its kind in the world -- don't get together on campus for study groups. Instead, they remain in constant communication with the school and each other from their homes around the world as they earn their M.S. degrees in craniofacial pain and temporomandibular joint disorder.</p>

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<p>Dr. Jeffrey Griffiths, an associate professor of public health and family medicine, is always on the go. But then he needs to be: he is bent on nothing less than changing the world. What makes him run? "I'd just like the world to be a better place when I go," he says. "And it's fun doing this stuff."</p>

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<h4>A Mission to Help </h4>

<p>During the summer of 2007, Tufts dental student Marjorie Brisard traveled to her native Haiti this summer with a team of classmates and faculty members. For Brisard, the trip was one step toward fulfilling a life's goal.</p>

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<p>Working for the United Nations Mission in Sudan gave two Fletcher School students a unique view into an international peacekeeping operation and a new outlook on the Darfur conflict.</p>

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<h4>Bienvenue à Talloires</h4>

<p>The Tufts in Talloires program allows students to explore a foreign culture -- and themselves.</p>

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<h4>Castle in the Clouds </h4>

<p>Elliot Hirshon (A'05) recalls a trip to Tibet with Engineers Without Borders.</p>

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<h4>Change Agent</h4>

<p>Salome Otami, a Tufts Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development graduate student, hopes to make a difference when she returns to her native Ghana.</p>

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<h4>Connecting Across Continents </h4>

<p>Students in GMAP, a combined residency and Internet-mediated graduate program at Tufts University's Fletcher School, are gaining an interdisciplinary education in global affairs, while making lifelong connections with their classmates from around the world.</p>

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<h4>Deliverance</h4>

<p>Through the organization he founded, LimaKids, Joseph Donroe (A'98, MD/MPH'07) seeks to address both mental health and quality of life issues of orphaned children in Peru's capital city.</p>

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<h4>Depth of Field</h4>

<p>One of several programs offered by the Tufts Institute for Global Leadership (IGL), EXPOSURE is an institute for photojournalism, documentary studies and human rights. It all began when IGL Director Sherman Teichman and undergraduate Matthew Edmundson (A'05) teamed up with acclaimed photographer James Nachtwey.</p>

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<h4>Dr. Chotanga</h4>

<p>Jeffrey Lazar, M03, recalls his seven-week stint at Livingstone General Hospital in Zambia.</p>

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<h4>Growing Strong</h4>

<p>The New Entry Sustainable Farming Project (NESFP), part of the Agriculture, Food and Environment Program at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, was founded in 1998. It now serves about 50 immigrant farmers from Laos, Cambodia, Liberia, Ghana, Cameroon, Zimbabwe, and Kenya.</p>

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<h4>It's All Breaking New Ground</h4>

<p>As the directors of Tufts University's Nutrition/ Infection Unit, Drs. Christine Wanke, MD, and Sherwood Gorbach, MD, explore the link between nutrition and HIV/AIDS.</p>

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<h4>Making Its Mark </h4>

<p>A decade after its inception, Tufts University's Feinstein International Center is making a powerful impact on humanitarian work around the world.</p>

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<h4>Re-engineering a River</h4>

<p>Applying engineering principles to primary disease prevention can help bolster public health efforts, says David Gute, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at Tufts.</p>

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<h4>Summer Smarts</h4>

<p>Through Tufts Summer Scholars program, Jamie Chang (A'06) spent a summer in Korea exploring her passion for theater history. With support from her faculty mentor, she studied how contemporary Korean theater incorporates traditional performance forms, such as one-man operas and masked dances.</p>

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<h4>True Blessings</h4>

<p>Sue Higgins, T86, G02, has seen firsthand the difference occupational therapy can make in the lives of adults and children living in Mexico.</p>

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<h4>Welcome to America </h4>

<p>In 2000, Jane Leu (J'91) founded Upwardly Global, a San Francisco nonprofit dedicated to helping legal immigrants find work in their field. Today, with more than a dozen employees and a field office in Manhattan, the organization has assisted immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers from some 65 countries.</p>

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<h4>Welcome To Arada Vieja </h4>

<p>Jonny Crocker (E'07), the former president of Engineers Without Borders, talks about the group's water filtration project in rural El Salvador.</p>

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