When:
November 3-4, 2005

Where:
Natcher Conference Center, National Institutes of Health
Information for visitors to NIH: http://www.nih.gov/about/visitor/index.htm/

Who should attend:
The symposium is open to the public; registration recommended.

Register online:
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/globalhealthhistories/.

Description:
As recent natural catastrophes and epidemics have shown, in a globalized world it is no longer possible to speak of public health crises as contained by local, regional, or even national boundaries. History provides a crucial tool to understand the response to disease on a global scale. This international symposium on “Global Health Histories” brings together some of the leading historians, social scientists, policy makers, and practitioners of the emerging field of global health.

“As the world becomes increasingly interdependent,” says Donald A.B. Lindberg, M.D., the Director of the National Library of Medicine, “a fully healthy population only becomes a reality when taking into account global forces: disease, nutrition, policy, infrastructure, and professional skill and management. This symposium sheds needed historical light on those interdependencies, and will help us plan for a healthier future.”

The symposium is designed to initiate a series of conversations among historians, anthropologists, sociologists, policy makers, and practitioners in order to spark new understandings and collaborative relationships. “Traditionally, the history of medicine and health has tended to focus mainly on the history of Europe and the Americas,” says Elizabeth Fee, Ph.D., Chief of the History of Medicine Division at the National Library of Medicine. “The ‘Global Health Histories’ symposium is intended to broaden all our horizons, to enhance awareness of some of the important work currently underway in exploring the many aspects of global health histories.”

The presence of World Health Organization officials and representatives from the Fogarty International Center and other branches of the National Institutes of Health is intended to encourage participants to consider how insights and understanding gleaned from history can enrich and inform efforts to respond to the global health challenges of today.

Panel discussion topics include:
Shifting the Borders: Conceptualizing Global Health Histories
Economies of Illness: The Global Politics of Malaria
Globalizing Women’s Health Histories
Treaties and Conventions as Tools of Global Public Health
Exploring Alternative Medicine in Global Perspective
Between Worlds: Local Histories, Global Consequences
Global Public Health and the NIH

For more information:
Global Health Histories
Meghan Attalla, Registrar
Phone: 301-496-8949
Fax: 301-402-7034
E-mail: globalhealthhistories@mail.nih.gov

The National Library of Medicine is a component of the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) — The Nation's Medical Research Agency — includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary Federal agency for conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and it investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit http://www.nih.gov.