Yale Hosts Global Health Leaders to Inspire New Approaches to Improving Healthcare

This month, Yale University’s newly launched Global Health Leadership Institute will host “Strategic Problem Solving in Global Health,” an innovative conference that will bring together health officials from five countries and members of Yale’s global health community to generate a high-level dialogue on how to approach vital health care issues facing each country. Officials from Ethiopia, Ghana, Liberia, Mexico, and Rwanda will attend the meeting, which will take place in New Haven from June 15-19.

Building upon Yale’s long-standing commitment to global health, this gathering of international health leaders is designed to strengthen countries’ capacity to deliver high quality healthcare for all citizens. It is a key component of Yale President Richard Levin’s framework for establishing a global academic institution that is dedicated to improving the human condition through dialogue, leadership development and strategic action.

“We have promising approaches that can reduce maternal mortality, for example, or improve access to quality healthcare. The challenge is applying these lessons in different countries and ensuring that there is leadership needed to make change,” said Elizabeth Bradley, Ph.D., professor of public health and director of the Yale Global Health Initiative. “The conference is about gathering health officials from around the world to share experiences, develop leadership and identify creative ways to solve problems that affect the everyday lives of people in these countries.”

The countries attending the meeting were chosen because they have made exceptional improvements in their health systems in recent years despite substantial resource constraints. Each country delegation will be comprised primarily of Ministry of Health officials, as well as representatives from non-governmental organizations and academic institutions. The specific objectives each country hopes to achieve are:

Liberia: To develop and implement innovative ways of reducing high maternal mortality rates;

Ethiopia: To strengthen the managerial capacity of personnel within hospital facilities and the health system in general;

Rwanda: To reduce the total fertility rate of women of reproductive age by focusing on the accessibility and quality of family planning services;

Ghana: To develop a clear and consistent system to assess the performance of health care managers at various levels of the healthcare delivery system;

Mexico: To better link payment to healthcare providers to performance and quality of care.

Each delegation will work with Yale faculty and outside experts on its specific healthcare priority and will develop action plans to implement solutions. Delegates will learn to apply strategic problem solving tools in facilitated work sessions. In addition, delegates will hear from renowned leaders in global health, including:

• Dr. Michel Kazatchkine, Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria
• Dr. Ariel Pablos-Mendez, Managing Director of the Rockefeller Foundation
• Sir Richard Feachem, Founder & Director of the Global Health Group at UCSF
• Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Minister of Health of Ethiopia.

Yale launched the Global Health Leadership Institute in February, 2009, in an effort to accelerate improvements in the effectiveness and efficiency of healthcare in developing nations around the world.

This inaugural conference of the GHLI is funded by The Glaser Progress Foundation.

For more information on the GHLI conference, go to http://www.yale.edu/ghli/conf_overview.html.

PRESS CONTACTS:
Helen Dodson, 203-436-3984 
Michael Skonieczny, Executive Director of the Global Health, Leadership Institute, 203-436-9115.