Four Alumni Receive Awards
Billions of dollars are spent in the U.S. and abroad on health care, and extraordinary technologies exist to diagnose and treat many serious medical conditions. So why are so many people sick?
That question was the focal point of a panel featuring prominent public health leaders and educators at this year's HSPH Alumni Weekend at the Harvard Club of Boston. The weekend is organized each year by the Office of Alumni Programs and the Alumni Council. The program consisted of a dinner and awards ceremony on Friday, June 8, when four alumni were given awards of merit. (See sidebar below.) Then, a panel and keynote address took place on Saturday, June 9.
Saturday's panel explored the current state of health care domestically and internationally: the failure to deliver care efficiently to groups most in need; a lack of commitment to health care as a human right; inappropriate and limited response to patient needs; and skyrocketing costs.
From left to right, William Hsiao, Stephen Marks, and Deborah Prothrow-Stith
HSPH Professor William Hsiao, PhD '82, MPH '72, took an international view. His research focuses on health care access in developing countries. He cautioned that donor-funded programs that address single issues - such as malaria, or HIV/AIDS - can have a debilitating effect on a country's health care system by drawing away the best-qualified physicians, nurses, and health care managers. The end result can be the weakening of a poor country's basic prevention and health care infrastructure, Hsiao said.
The sensible solution, he said, is to organize and finance strong, comprehensive delivery systems, such as community-based health care programs, into which other health care programs can plug. Hsiao is working with the governments of Tanzania, China, and Ghana to develop a suitable model.
Stephen Marks, Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Professor of Health and Human Rights at HSPH, explored the concept of health as a basic human right. This concept has been particularly difficult to fulfill in the U.S., where health care is part of a market-based system and where human rights have no market value, he said. He decried the use of language in political rhetoric that speaks of a right to health care, while simultaneously ignoring human rights problems. He also suggested that human rights should not be up for debate as a political issue.
HSPH Professor Deborah Prothrow-Stith, MD '79, viewed access and delivery of health care with violence prevention in mind. A former Massachusetts Commissioner of Public Health, Prothrow-Stith established the first Office of Violence Prevention in a state department of public health.
Violence causes health disparities, but health disparities also can cause violence, she said. "There is a lot to be saved by putting money into prevention," noted Prothrow-Stith.
She urged public health practitioners to learn more about the effects of violence on vulnerable populations, integrate successful community strategies into their programs, increase their empathy for victims, think and act outside the box when it comes to treatments, and yield power to those who have demonstrated success in curbing violence, especially among youth.
Barbara McNeil, MD '66, PhD '72, AMP '86, compared health care systems in the U.S. and Canada, describing the two systems' strengths and weaknesses. She was recently named acting dean of Harvard Medical School, effective July 1. In the U.S., the most important health care issue is access to care - and rising costs are intertwined with that access, she said. In Canada, patients pay little out of pocket for care, but must put up with queues and limited access to new medical technology. In the U.S., insured health consumers want the latest - and often, most expensive - drugs, devices and procedures. In other words, the fundamental differences between the two systems are "downright preferences," she said.
The afternoon session on June 9 was devoted to the topic of global health. The keynote speaker was Jim Yong Kim, Francóis-Xavier Bagnoud Professor of Health and Human Rights at HSPH. He noted that there is a big difference between aspiration and action when ending health disparities. He emphasized that disparities can cease, but added that the world, so far, has not focused on using science to improve capacity to deliver the tools already in existence, let alone new tools under development.
Elsbeth Kalenderian, DDS, MPH '89, who chaired the Alumni Weekend Committee, welcomed participants. Consultant David Ropeik moderated the panel. HSPH Alumni Association President J. Jacques Carter, MD, MPH '83, closed the daylong series of talks.
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Alumni Awards of Merit Bestowed
From left to right, Myron Allukian, Jr., G. Timothy Johnson, Charlotte Neumann, Tomio Hirohata, Barry Bloom, and J. Jacques Carter
SPH alumni gathered at the Harvard Club of Boston on Friday, June 8, to enjoy a dinner and reception and to honor four distinguished graduates who were given Alumni Awards of Merit:
MYRON ALLUKIAN, JR., DDS, MPH '67, is an internationally recognized public health expert and former Director of Oral Health for the Boston Public Health Commission. He served as chairman of the U.S. Surgeon General's Work Group on Fluoridation and Dental Health for the 1990 Prevention Objectives for the Nation. He is a past president of the American Public Health Association.
TOMIO HIROHATA, MD, SM '65, SD '68, is currently Professor Emeritus of the Kyushu University Medical School and the Research Supervisor for the Radiation Effects Research Foundation in Japan. In 1972, Hirohata, as a senior scientific expert for the UN, wrote a report entitled "Radioactive Carcinogenesis," in which he assessed the carcinogenic risk in humans of ionizing irradiation. He was the first scientist who estimated cancer risk per unit dose of irradiation, and remains involved in studying radiation effects on humans, following atomic bomb survivors and assessing the lifetime risk of irradiation.
G. TIMOTHY JOHNSON, MD, MPH '76, is one of the nation's leading medical communicators of health care information. As Medical Editor for ABC News, Johnson provides on-air medical analysis for "World News Tonight," "Nightline," and "20/20." He has provided commentary on medical problems and answers for viewers of ABC News' "Good Morning America" since the program's debut in 1975.
CHARLOTTE NEUMANN, MD '54, MPH '60, is Professor of Community Health Sciences at the UCLA School of Public Health and Professor of Pediatrics at the David Geffen School of Medicine. Her focus is on nutrition and health in mothers and children. In Los Angeles, she has been working on obesity prevention and nutrition improvement in children in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Her research activities include work in India, Ghana, and Kenya, where she has examined outcomes of malnutrition, particularly on pregnancy. Currently, she is involved in a nutrition intervention study in HIV-positive mothers and children in Kenya.
HSPH Dean Barry Bloom presented the awards. The Alumni Award of Merit Committee was chaired by Royce Moser, Jr., AB '57, MD '61, MPH '65. Jerome Groopman, MD, delivered the keynote address. HSPH Alumni Association President J. Jacques Carter, MD, MPH '83, welcomed guests and provided closing remarks.
Copyright, 2009, President and Fellows of Harvard College
