Global Health Initiatives A Trans-University Center for Global Health Breyette Lorntz, MA, PhD, Jane R. Boissevain, Rebecca Dillingham, MPH, MD, Jane Kelly, April Ballard, W. Michael Scheld, MD, and Richard L. Guerrant, MD Abstract Can the challenge of improving health engage university faculty and students across all disciplines to more deeply understand the world and its people in order to make it a better place? Faculty and staff at the University of Virginia’s (UVa) Center for Global Health (CGH) think it can. The authors argue that by working to understand, teach, and improve the human condition, universities can engage multiple disciplines, help reverse the “brain drain,” and even change perspectives. The transuniversity Center for Global Health (CGH) at UVa employs three components for addressing global health issues: (1) scholars: sending UVa students abroad to conduct international fieldwork focused on global health, (2) fellows: inviting international colleagues selected by collaborating institutions abroad to work and train at UVa and return to become leaders in their home institutions, and (3) curricula: supporting and developing global health-related curricula throughout the university. UVa’s CGH is associated with sister CGHs in Fortaleza, Brazil; Hefei, China; Manila, Philippines; Accra, Ghana; and Thohoyandou, South Africa. Work with international colleagues in these centers provides opportunities for bilateral training of the next generations of leaders in global health around the world. Universities are uniquely positioned to enlist multiple disciplines to unravel the complex causes of health disparities, sustain international collaborations, and change students’ outlook on the world through overseas experiences. A university that actively supports global health becomes increasingly internationalized, grounded in scientific excellence, and committed to addressing the most pressing issues humanity faces today. Acad Med. 2008; 83:165–172. One of the most universal human values is health. Health transcends all our cultural, geographic, and political barriers to provide a fundamental base for human dignity. In seeking to understand and address complex global health problems and solutions, at the University of Virginia (UVa) we have learned that formulating the right questions is as important as crafting good answers. The following question has served to ground and shape our global health mission: Can the challenge of improving health engage university faculty and students across all disciplines to better understand the world and its people in order to make it a better place? We think it can. By doing what universities do (or should do) best, working to understand, teach, and improve the human condition, we argue from experience at UVa, that indeed universities can engage multiple disciplines in global health, help reverse the “brain drain” phenomenon that occurs when educated individuals leave their underserved home communities to pursue opportunities in developed nations, and even change who we are. History UVa’s Center for Global Health (CGH) began in 1978 as the division of geographic medicine in the UVa School of Medicine. Founded by Richard L. Guerrant, MD, its mission was inspired by his personal experience with international health efforts in Congo in 1967, Bangladesh in 1970 nad 1971, and Brazil in 1973, and by encouragement from his mentors. The division of geographic medicine was part of the Rockefeller Foundation’s Great Neglected Diseases Network, which launched such units at a dozen top universities in the United States and abroad and was sustained by subsequent UVa School of Medicine deans. The division of geographic medicine’s major focus was to address the diseases of the poor through scientific research collaborations, first in northeast Brazil and subsequently with colleagues in Ghana, the Philippines, China, and South Africa. Guerrant’s first faculty recruits to the division helped build collaborations in Brazil at the Universidade Federal do Ceara ´ in Fortaleza, the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte in Natal, and the Universidade Federal da Bahia in Bahia. These collaborations have been extended with collaborations with the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research in Dhaka, Bangladesh; with Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda; and with colleagues in Haiti. In 2001, UVa’s division of geographic medicine became one of the country’s first university-wide centers for global health. Besides research collaborations, another focus of this early global health work at Dr. Lorntz is assistant professor of medicine, University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville, Virginia. Ms. Boissevain is program administrator, Center for Global Health, University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville, Virginia. Dr. Dillingham is assistant professor of medicine, University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville, Virginia. Ms. Kelly is communications coordinator, Center for Global Health, University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville, Virginia. Ms. Ballard is program coordinator, Office of International Health, University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville, Virginia. Dr. Scheld is Bayer–Gerald L. Mandell Professor of Infectious Diseases and Director, Pfizer Initiative in International Health, University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville, Virginia. Dr. Guerrant is Thomas H. Hunter Professor of International Medicine and Director, Center for Global Health, University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville, Virginia. Correspondence should be addressed to Dr. Guerrant, #800822 HSC, Charlottesville, VA 22908; telephone: (434) 924-5242; fax: (434) 924-5994; e-mail: (guerrant@virginia.edu). Academic Medicine, Vol. 83, No. 2 / February 2008 165