Former ATS President William J. Martin II, MD, discusses a project to reduce indoor air pollution in poor nations.
Solving health problems involves more than science. Often, the solutions start with leaders who drive change, a process that was covered by four speakers on Monday during the ATS President’s Symposium.
“Developing Global Health Leadership” featured representatives from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), two other institutes, and the World Bank. Speakers reviewed projects that are achieving set goals because leadership helped create an environment for success.
Susan Shurin, MD, acting director of the NHLBI, discussed how the institute began a planning process to establish objectives in global health. That led to the realization that non-communicable diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes and COPD, are growing in poor nations as the control of infectious diseases increases. It also led to the development of the Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases.
“The hope is that by bringing attention to these diseases and coordinated research, we can bring better attention to these disorders,” Dr. Shurin said. “The focus is on leadership. The problems are massive and distributed across many sectors.”
The U.S. has stepped up its global health role by developing centers of excellence around the world to collect data about these diseases and their treatment. Support for those efforts could come from the Fogarty International Center, a branch of the NIH that focuses on international health, said Joel G. Breman, MD, DTPH, Fogarty senior scientific advisor. The Fogarty Center established an AIDS treatment program in 1988, which has become the model for programs focusing on other issues, such as tobacco control and salt intake reduction.
The World Bank does more than lend money to poor nations; it also has taken a role in improving global health and lung health, said Enis Baris, MD, MSc, PhD, of the World Bank. The organization is leading an effort to control indoor air pollution by investing in the development of alternative stove technology.
Former ATS President William J. Martin II, MD, associate director for translational biomedicine for the NIH, also focused on indoor air pollution. He discussed the creation of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves. The group’s goal is to have 100 million homes adopt clean and efficient stoves.
“The most critical issue is framing the vision for the solution,” Dr. Martin said. “The burden on the leader is that you have to frame the opportunity.”