Seed Global Health

Global Health Service Corps

The Global Health Service Corps is a non-profit organization whose purpose is to ally health professionals as medical and nursing educators in resource-poor settings while providing needed expert technical support to these clinician educators during their periods of service. Our greater goal is to help provide a sustainable solution addressing the vast shortages of health professionals in many parts of the world. Healthcare provider shortages limit the ability of developing countries to deliver even basic healthcare, to respond to more complex needs and to address new, unforeseen epidemics. Provider shortages are a significant obstacle to health system strengthening and are perpetuated by the scarcity of educators in medical, nursing and other health science schools in many countries. To help address this need, Global Health Service Corps (GHSC) has partnered with the Peace Corps to create a public-private partnership investing in local capacity and human capital. This innovative program, called the Global Health Service Partnership will establish the first ever “Peace Corps for doctors and nurses.” A key component of GHSC will be to help volunteer clinicians to repay their medical and nursing educational debt.

In this pioneering model, GHSC is the exclusive medical partner to the Peace Corps deploying doctors and nurses abroad as medical educators, creating the most comprehensive global clinical capacity-building program to date. Over time GHSC will engage other medical professionals as well. The program’s model focuses on partnerships: as a public-private partner to the U.S. government to enhance existing efforts through the flexibility awarded to private organizations; as a partner to resource-poor countries to meet their needs and invest in their long-term sustainability; and, as a partner with the educators deployed globally. Despite the breadth of activity in human resource settings, missing are programs with a strong focus on clinical education and training necessary to improve outcomes and invest in the public medical and nursing education systems of resource poor countries. The GHSC, in conjunction with the Peace Corps, aims to fill this gap.

Sub-Saharan Africa has an unacceptably insufficient physician-to-population ratio of only 18 per 100,000 people continent-wide. In some countries, the number of doctors is far less with only one physician for every 100,000 individuals; the US has 280 physicians for every 100,000 people. The World Health Organization quantifies the critical need for 2.4 million doctors, nurses, and midwives across more than 57 countries. Additionally, shortages are most pronounced in areas where the global disease burden is highest. Sub-Saharan Africa has 24 percent of the global burden of disease, but only 3 percent of the world’s health workforce and holds just 1 percent of the world’s health expenditure. These shortages limit many countries’ abilitiesto deliver even basic health care, let alone respond to growing and emerging epidemics. To address these problems and improve health care, Africa needs more trained health professionals and increased training opportunities to develop those professionals.

To find out more about the GHSC, please go to: http://globalhealthservicecorps.org/

To find out more about the joint program, please go to: http://globalhealthservicecorps.org/joint-program/

Educational Loan Repayment Stipends

GHSC believes that educational loans should not be a barrier to service to our country and our partners. Volunteers are eligible to apply for the loan repayment stipend if they are selected to be a GHSP Peace Corps Volunteers (GHSP PCV) and they carry education debt at the time of enrollment. Selected GHSP PCVs will need to apply to the GHSC separately for the loan repayment stipend. They will need to show proof of educational indebtedness at the time of application. Applicants are eligible for up to $30,000 for each year served. The stipend will be paid directly to the GHSP PCV. The GHSP PCV will be responsible for paying their lender directly and for any taxes affiliated with the award. The PCV will be required to show to the GHSC that the stipend was used for educational loan repayment.

To find out more, please go to: http://globalhealthservicecorps.org/loan-repayment/

GHSC Leadership

The GHSC is supported by a strong team of staff[1] and board of trustees[2].

Staff[3]: Vanessa Kerry, Pat Daoust, Pamela Richmond, Sadath Sayeed, and Jennifer Goldsmith

Board of Trustees[4]: Charlene Engelhard, Paul Farmer, Vanessa Kerry, and Fitzhugh Mullan

History of Effort

The Global Health Service Corps has roots that extend back over more than half a century. The year 2011, for example, marked the 50th anniversary of President Kennedy’s signing of the Peace Corps Act and the creation of a new era of service.

October 14, 1960: President Kennedy spoke at 2 AM to 10,000 students at the University of Michigan saying, “… I think Americans are willing to contribute. But the effort must be far greater than we have ever made in the past…How many of you, who are going to be doctors, are willing to spend your days in Ghana? Technicians or engineers, how many of you are willing to work in the Foreign Service…?”

September 12, 1978: The Declaration of Alma-Ata called the world to protect health and health equity for all mankind. It boldly defined health as “a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity…a fundamental human right.” The Declaration declared the inequity between developed and developing countries as politically, socially and economically unacceptable and called for economic and social development as a prerequisite to attaining health for all.

June 27, 1979: Senator Jacob Javits with the support of Senators Bill Bradley, Edward Kennedy, Carl Levin and Harrison Williams Jr., sponsors the International Health Act of 1979. The Act proposed to establish within the Public Health Service an International Health Service program, as well as programs to support international health centers and international health in U.S. academic institutions.

January 28, 2003: The President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) was announced by President Bush in his 2003 State of the Union address. The plan was introduced as a five-year, $15 billion initiative to combat global HIV/AIDS. Widely successfully, it was reauthorized in 2008 for $39 billion to fight HIV/AIDS and another $9 billion for tuberculosis and malaria. PEPFAR has supported care for more than 10.1 million people worldwide and is one of the largest international health initiatives in history. It has helped revolutionize the global understanding of tackling epidemics and health inequity.

December 6, 2005: In support of the Global Health Corps Act of 2005, Senator Bill Frist writes, “Promoting democracy around the world, improving our image among the citizens of lower-income countries, and winning the Global War on Terror require a vigorous and creative effort, and I believe that a focused plan that combines diplomacy with public health can help us do that.”

May 5, 2009: In introducing his Global Health Initiative, President Barack Obama explains, “I recognize that we will not be successful in our efforts to end deaths from AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis unless we do more to improve health systems around the world, focus our efforts on child and maternal health, and ensure that best practices drive the funding for these programs.”

March 15, 2010: In March 2010, the National Institute of Health (NIH) and the President’s Emergency Program for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) announced MEPI, designed to help strengthen medical education in Sub-Saharan Africa. Ambassador Eric Goosby, the head of PEPFAR noted, “As we transition from an emergency response to a more sustainable approach, we are supporting partner countries in leading the response to their epidemics. Shortages of trained doctors [and nurses] are a key constraint, and we are proud to support partner nations in expanding the number and quality of clinicians available and facilitate strong faculties of medicine so they can meet their people’s needs over the long term." Ten U.S- sub-Saharan African collaborations are awarded grants. The Nursing Education Partnership Initiative (NEPI) is launched shortly after.

October 12, 2010: On October 12, 2010 at a public forum in Boston, the founding members of the Global Health Service Corps, Drs. Sara Auld and Vanessa Kerry, asked three former Peace Corps directors and current director, Aaron Williams, to consider an idea. They asked if the Peace Corps would send doctors, nurses and other health professionals abroad as medical and health educators to build capacity, invest in sustainable health systems, and to harness the long history of service in our country and the growing interest in global health at home. This led to discussions to develop the joint program, the Global Health Service Partnership.

March 13, 2012: After years of effort, the first international service program for medical professionals is launched, marking a new era of investment in global health and health equity. On March 13, 2012 in Washington D.C., the Peace Corps, PEPFAR, and the Global Health Service Corps, announces the Global Health Service Partnership (GHSP), a novel public-private partnership to send doctors, nurses and other health professionals abroad as medical educators. GHSP continues a long U.S. tradition of service and develops a new one of capacity building and partnership for sustainable health systems.

Staff

Vanessa Kerry, Chief Executive Officer

Dr. Kerry is the Director of the Global Public Policy and Social Change Program in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School. The program focuses on developing needed partnerships between medicine and public and foreign policy. Her research aims to help highlight the impacts of political decisions on health, the need to support health education and capacity building programs in developing countries, and the role health can play in improving foreign assistance efforts. She also serves as the Associate Director of Partnerships and Global Initiatives at Massachusetts General Hospital’s Center for Global Health where she focuses on developing global health education, research, and capacity-building opportunities at MGH and in their partner countries. She is instructor in Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School and in Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. She published on the idea of the Global Health Service Partnership in the New York Times and in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2010.

Pat Daoust, Chief Nursing Officer

Ms. Daoust, MSN, RN is a lecturer at the University of Massachusetts School of Nursing and Health Sciences and a clinical instructor at the Boston College Connell School of Nursing. She is also the co-chair of the Global Committee for the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care (ANAC). She was previously the Director of Health Action AIDS for Physicians for Human Rights (PHR). Pat is a registered nurse with over 30 years of clinical, education and managerial experience. Prior to joining PHR she worked on issues related to the domestic HIV epidemic and served as the Director of Client Services for the AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts. She subsequently worked with the Harvard AIDS Institute and served on the nursing faculty of the KITSO program, an HIV education partnership between the Harvard School of Public Health and the Botswana government. She then led to a large and innovative Center for Disease Control-funded Nursing leadership and Capacity and Building Project in Ethiopia, which is presently being replicated in other African countries.

Pamela Richmond, Advisor

Ms. Richmond, MSW, is the Director of the Hebrew SeniorLife Institutional Review Board in Boston, MA. She serves as the Co-Chair of the Harvard Catalyst International Regulatory Sub-Committee, which is providing tools to Investigators and Institutional Review Boards engaged in research in international settings. Ms. Richmond’s background includes a broad spectrum of program development and management in the US and developing country settings. She is a returned Peace Corps Volunteer.

Sadath Sayeed, Chief Medical Officer

Dr. Sayeed is Instructor of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School where he serves as Director of the Program in Newborn Health and Social Change. He is a staff neonatologist at Children’s Hospital Boston. He is also Program Director for the Responsible Conduct of Research at Harvard Medical School. Holding a JD in addition to his medical degree, Dr. Sayeed’s research focus has been on the social and ethical determinants of early childhood survival in resource rich and poor settings. He is the author of several peer-reviewed papers and book chapters on the same. Dr. Sayeed is co-founder and director of The International Pediatric Outreach Project, a service and delivery-oriented non-profit that partners with health care providers in Africa and India.

Jennifer Goldsmith, Chief Administrative Officer

Ms. Goldsmith is the Chief Administrative Officer for the Global Health Service Corps. Jennifer has previously worked as Director of Finance and Administration for the Harvard AIDS Prevention Research Project, as Assistant Dean for Finance at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University and as Director of Strategic and Financial Planning at Brigham and Women's Hospital. She was Special Advisor to the Global Task Force on Expanded Access to Cancer Care and Control in Developing Countries based at Harvard Medical School and Development Consultant to Women of Means, an organization providing healthcare to homeless women and families in Boston. Ms. Goldsmith earned her MS in Public Health at the Harvard School of Public Health, her MEd at Boston College and BA from the University of Michigan. She currently is also the Director of Strategic Initiatives in Graduate Medical Education at Partners HealthCare where she has developed programming in many areas including global and humanitarian medicine.

Board of Trustees

Charlene Engelhard

Ms. Engelhard, a graduate of Harvard University in Visual Arts and Environmental Studies, is an artist who has used her talents and interest to provide therapy and healing to children and teens in conflict and resource poor settings. She has worked in countries worldwide including Indonesia, Panama, Haiti, Malawi and Mozambique. In 2005, in partnership with UNICEF she started Art-in-the-Bag (AIB). AIB is a psycho-social arts program, which helps children cope with natural disaster, war and displacement, as well as training teachers to provide and teach art therapy. In 2006, she expanded her work to begin the Healing and Education through the Arts (HEART) Program with Save the Children. HEART, piloted in Mozambique, West Bank/Gaza and El Salvador, works with children affected by conflict, violence, HIV/AIDS and poverty, encouraging them to use the arts to give voice to their trauma. Collaborating with local partners, the program both trains teachers in and provides art supplies to school programs. Already in Nepal, Haiti, Mozambique and Malawi, this year HEART will resume in the West Bank and Ethiopia. In addition to serving on the board of GHSC, Ms. Engelhard is a present board member of the Charles Engelhard Foundation and Refugees International.

Paul Farmer

Dr. Farmer is a medical physician and anthropologist. He is a founding director of Partners In Health (PIH), an international non-profit organization that provides direct health care services and has undertaken research and advocacy activities on behalf of those who are sick and living in poverty. Dr. Farmer is the Kolokotrones University Professor and Chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School; Chief of the Division of Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women's Hospital; and the United Nations Deputy Special Envoy for Haiti, under Special Envoy Bill Clinton. Dr. Farmer and his colleagues have pioneered novel community-based treatment strategies that demonstrate the delivery of high-quality health care in resource-poor settings. Dr. Farmer has written extensively on health, human rights, and the consequences of social inequality. Dr. Farmer is the recipient of numerous honors, including a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, and, with his PIH colleagues, the Hilton Humanitarian Prize. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Vanessa Kerry

Dr. Kerry is the Director of the Global Public Policy and Social Change Program in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School. The program focuses on developing needed partnerships between medicine and public and foreign policy. Her research aims to help highlight the impacts of political decisions on health, the need to support health education and capacity building programs in developing countries, and the role health can play in improving foreign assistance efforts. She also serves as the Associate Director of Partnerships and Global Initiatives at Massachusetts General Hospital’s Center for Global Health where she focuses on developing global health education, research, and capacity-building opportunities at MGH and in their partner countries. She is instructor in Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School and in Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. She published on the idea of the Global Health Service Partnership in the New York Times and in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2010.

Fitzhugh Mullan

Dr. Mullan is the Murdock Head Professor of Medicine and Health Policy at the George Washington University School of Public Health and a Professor of Pediatrics at the George Washington University School of Medicine. He served 23 years in the United States Public Health Service starting as a physician in the National Health Service Corps and later as director of the program. He subsequently worked at the NIH, served on the staff of Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, directed the Bureau of Health Professions, and attained the rank of Assistant Surgeon General. His research focuses on health workforce policy in the United States and globally. He has written widely for both professional and general audiences on medical and health policy topics. He is the senior editor of the Institute of Medicine 2005 report, Healers Abroad: Americans Responding to Human Resource Crisis in the HIV/AIDS and the principal investigator of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funded Sub-Saharan African Medical School Study. Dr. Mullan is the Founding President of the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship and is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.

Supporters

Organizations

American College of Surgeons[5], American Medical Student Association (AMSA)[6], Face AIDS: Building a Global Youth Movement to Fight HIV/AIDS[7], Support for International Change[8]

Individuals

Dr. David Bangsberg (Director of the Mass General Center for Global Health)[9], Dr. Michele Barry (Senior Associate Dean for Global Health,Stanford School of Medicine)[10], Lincoln Chen (President, China Medical Board)[11], Senator William Frist (Chairman, Hope Through Healing Hands, Former U.S. Senate Majority Leader)[12], King Holmes (Chair of Global Health, University of Washington)[13], Mark Kline (Professor and Chairman, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Physician in Chief, Texas Children’s Hospital)[14], Michael Merson (Founding Director, Duke Global Health Institute)[15], Stephen Morrison (Senior Vice President and Director, Global Health Policy Center, Center for Strategic and International Studies)[16], Edward O'Neil (Founder and President, OmniMed)[17], Rajesh Panjabi (Co-Founder, Tiyatien Health, Justice in Health)[18]

News and Presence

May 2012

AAMC Reporter Viewpoint: Investing in Medical Education for Health Equity

Drs. Kerry and Mullan describe the imperative for the Global Health Service Corps and the GHSP opportunity.

April/May 2012

Building the Next Generation of Global Health Leaders

Dr. Roger I. Glass, Director, Fogarty International Center lauds efforts to expand early career Global Health opportunties in NIH's Global Health Matters

THE LAUNCH

March 23, 2012

ASPH reports launch of GHSP

Lincoln Chen, founder of the Harvard Global Equity Initiative, describes crisis of lack of medical educators

March 19, 2012

George Washington University cites a vision realized

Dr. Fitzhugh Mullan builds on Partnership concept he described in JAMA in 2007

March 14, 2012

Global Healthcare Delivery Project Interviews Dr. Kerry on GHSP

Dr. Kerry Hopes New Training Program Will Have Multiplier Effect

March 14, 2012

Boston Globe describes GHSP launch and the campaign for health equity

As GHSP is launched Dr. Kerry describes imbalance between burden of disease and health workforce

March 13, 2012

Harvard Medical School Announces GHSP launch

Department of Global Health and Social Medicine cites efforts of Vanessa Kerry and Paul Farmer

March 13, 2012

Institute of Medicine Reports New Global Health Service Partnership (GHSP) Funded Through the Peace Corps and PEPFAR

New faculty will help developing countries address the health care professionals shortages they face by adding capacity and support

March 13, 2012

PSI Healthy Lives reports USA Global Health Service Partnership launch

Innovative public-private partnership to place nurses, physicians and other health professionals as adjunct faculty in medical or nursing schools overseas

March 13, 2012

ScienceSpeaks:HIV and TB News describes Partnership

Organizations announce new volunteer opportunity for U.S. docs and nurses to train counterparts in disease-ravaged countries

March 13, 2012

US Embassy Tanzania announces Health Professional Training

Developing countries will have more trained doctors, nurses and other health professionals, thanks to a new partnership

March 13, 2012

The Hill Blog reports: Obama administration launches health partnership in developing countries

Doctors, nurses and other health professionals to teach at medical and nursing schools in developing countries

LEADING EVENTS AND RESEARCH

November 11, 2010

Lancet report: Sub-Saharan African Medical School Study describes critical faculty shortages

The authors examine challenges,innovations, and emerging trends in medical education prioritising medical education scale-up as part of health-system strengthening, and identifying innovations in premedical preparation, team based education, and creative use of scarce research support.

September 23, 2010

NEJM Perspective on An International Service Corps for Health

Drs. Kerry, Auld and Farmer present An Unconventional Prescription for Diplomacy

February 13, 2010

New York Times Op-Ed on Humanitarian Health Service Corps

Dr. Kerry’s call to action: adequate health care correlates to a country’s stability and security

2007

JAMA Commentary responds to HIV/AIDS crisis with global health workforce proposal

Dr. Mullan describes a Peace Corps for Health

External links

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