Physicians for Peace and Norfolk State Partner to Sponsor Global Health Forum

Norfolk, Va.—Norfolk State University has partnered with Physicians for Peace, the Eastern Virginia Medical School, Old Dominion University, and Partners in Health to hold the biennial Global Health Forum for 2009 at NSU Friday, May 15 at the L. Douglas Wilder Performing Arts Center. The Global Health Forum’s 2009 theme is Collaborative, Sustainable Health Care in the Developing World and will feature a series of afternoon panel discussions by noted experts. The experts will examine the challenges and opportunities for health care organizations to collaborate and create sustainable, replicable and effective health care.

The keynote address will be given by Dr. Paul Farmer, an infectious disease physician, anthropologist, global health expert and the founding director of Partners in Health. Dr. Farmer will speak at the 1 p.m. panel discussion and again at 7 p.m. The Partners in Health organization works with poor communities worldwide to fight disease and poverty. Dr. Farmer’s work is the subject of Tracey Kidder’s best-selling 2003 book Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World.

Global Health Forum participants will also discuss delivery models for supporting and expanding existing public health infrastructures to more effectively serve the most impoverished populations worldwide. Panelists will include representatives from a range of hospitals and medical schools, as well as prominent global health care experts from Haiti and Africa.

The event is also being sponsored by Operation Blessing International, Operation Smile, Sentara Health System, the University of Virginia, Virginia Wesleyan College, the World Affairs Council of Hampton Roads and Tidewater Community College. The Global Health Forum is free and open to the public, but registration is required.

For more information or to register, visit www.physiciansforpeace.org or call NSU’s Communications and Marketing at 757-823-8373.