News

09 May 2013 - HIV, HUMAN RIGHTS AND DEVELOPMENT NETWORK (HHRD) HOLDS INAUGURAL SEMINAR AT THE SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT

On Thursday May 9th the HIV, Human Rights and Development Network (HHRD) initiated by Dr George Palattiyil & Dr Dina Sidhva of the University of Edinburgh will hold its inaugural seminar at the Scottish Parliament sponsored by Jim Eadie MSP.

Oonagh O’Brien of IIHD is a member of the HHRD advisory group and will be facilitating the session Living with HIV in the UK, a reflective conversation. Other speakers include Professor Jane Anderson, Lorraine Sher and Avrom Sherr at what promises to be a very interesting and thought provoking evening.

23 April 2013 IIHD CELEBRATES GLOBAL INFLUENCE WITH MALAWIAN GRADUATES

Edinburgh; 23 April 2013; Scottish academics will travel to Malawi to celebrate an important milestone with Malawian graduates who have influenced international health.

Experts from the Institute of International Health and Development (IIHD), based at Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, will reunite with graduates at a celebratory event which marks the Institute’s 20 th anniversary. The alumni event, which will take place on the 7 th May in Lilongwe, Malawi, will bring together an impressive group of international health graduates who have positively influenced international health and development in Malawi and beyond. Read more...

April 2013 - IIHD DELIVERS HEALTH ECONOMICS PROGRAMMES IN KATHMANDU AND COLOMBO

From 2nd to 11 th April, Barbara McPake and David Newlands delivered a ten day programme on health economics at the Institute of Medicine, Tribhuvan University Kathmandu with the help of Sakthivel Selvaraj from the Public Health Foundation of India.

The programme is supported by WHO (SEARO) and GIZ. Read more...

IIHD Health Economics Class, Kathmandu

On 4th and 5th April, Barbara McPake delivered a two day introduction to health economics at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Colombo.

This programme was supported by WHO (SEARO).

25 - 27 March 2013 - IIHD IN ATTENDANCE AT AFRICA REGIONAL HEALTH LABOUR MARKET WORKSHOP

Barbara McPake attended the Africa Regional Health Labour Market Workshop, March 25-27, 2013, Hammamet, Tunisia: http://www.hha-online.org/hso/hrh/news/7467/hlmworkshop, organised by the World Bank, African Development Bank and Global Health Workforce Alliance. She presented the framework she developed for the workshop with Professor Anthony Scott of the University of Melbourne and Ijeoma Edoka of IIHD.

01 March 2013 - SUMMER SHORT COURSES IN HEALTH ECONOMICS AT IIHD

Increasingly, professionals in the health care field in low and middle income countries need to have a firm understanding of health economics in order to appreciate the different roles of the private, not-for-profit and public sectors in health care, use the techniques of economic evaluation, and participate in debates about the organisation and financing of health care.

These short courses are aimed at health care professionals working in the public, not-for-profit or private sectors, and those working working in academic centres or government. Full information on the courses

13 February 2013 - IIHD AWARDED FUNDING TO EXAMINE IMPACT OF ATTITUDES TO LOSS IN CHILDBEARING IN MALAWI

IIHD is to examine how attitudes to loss in childbearing might be affecting maternal care in Malawi where delays in seeking and receiving care are not fully explained by practical issues such as cost and distance, or lack of knowledge.

Loss in childbearing in Malawi is a significant social and public health problem where life-time risk of maternal death is 1 in 18, compared to 1 in 8200 in the UK. Stillbirths and deaths in the first week of life are five times as common in developing than in developed regions and 92% of induced abortions are unsafe and a main cause of maternal mortality and morbidity. All these forms of loss have significant economic, social and psychological implications for surviving women and their families.

Dr Bregje de Kok

Funded by the Independent Social Research Foundation (ISRF), the study will be led by Dr Bregje De Kok, Lecturer in International Health at IIHD, Queen Margaret University. Dr De Kok said;

“ Loss in childbearing is a medical and social tragedy for which we need new solutions. Current policy treats potential users of maternal health services in developing countries as rational decision-makers who will seek care if given enough information and practical barriers are removed. It is assumed that providers will provide adequate care if properly trained, paid and resourced. However, it is becoming clear that information and access to free, accessible care does not guarantee use of services .’

“In Malawi for example, obstructed labour can be seen as signalling a woman's infidelity, and she could be kept at home until she confesses. Practitioners' moral judgements may also underpin substandard maternal care. We need to go beyond the usual assessment of accounts of loss and maternity care, to examine how such accounts evoke local interpretations of human rights. The outcome of this interdisciplinary approach could affect future policy and begin to improve on the stark contrast in childbirth loss that currently exists between developing and developed countries.”

Dr De Kok’s research, which will take twelve months to complete, will draw on insights from public health, medical sociology, anthropology and psychology and will bring a discourse analysis into an area currently dominated by quantitative public health approaches.

04 February 2013 - NEW AT IIHD: RESEARCH DESIGN AND PROPOSAL WRITING BY DISTANCE LEARNING

April 29th until June 14th 2013 - Limited number of places and partial scholarships available .

Are you keen to develop small-scale research in the area of global health and development? The Institute for International Health and Development (IIHD) at Queen Margaret University is offering a new postgraduate distance learning module: Research Design and Proposal Writing. The module was successfully piloted last year and is accredited by the TropEd network. In this module you acquire skills to conceptualise, plan, and write up a coherent and convincing research proposal. In addition to state-of-the-art online teaching materials and interactive tools, we provide you with accessible, supportive, and personalised written and oral feedback while you work through the web-based module units. At the end of the module, you will have developed a research proposal that can be used as part of your academic studies, or in conjunction with your work in the fields of global health and development (broadly defined).

Interested? Further information here

28 January 2013 - NEW PUBLICATION ON ROLE OF INFORMAL CARE PROVIDERS IN HIV CARE IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

Linkages between informal and formal caregivers are strongly promoted as a way to ensure the 'continuum of care' for people living with HIV (PLHIV) and a means to alleviate the human resource crisis affecting health systems in sub-Saharan Africa. In a paper published last month, Karina Kielmann and co-authors critically review studies that document how such linkages work in practice. They suggest the need to adopt both a systems- as well as an actor-oriented perspective to assess the institutional frameworks within which linkages are formalised, as well as the ground-level interactions of those engaged in providing care.

Link to Full Paper

Alumni News