This week Geneva is host to hundreds of experts looking at the issue of global access to health. On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the University Hospitals of Geneva, this major international meeting, organized by the University Hospitals of Geneva and the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Geneva, with the collaboration of Geneva-based international organizations, explores how access to health affects the lives of millions of people across the globe. More than 600 experts from the fields of healthcare planning, health service delivery, medical education, and the drugs and vaccine industry will interact with practitioners, health policy makers, representatives of international humanitarian and health organizations, and civil society to explore solutions to the problems of access to care.
Somewhat different than other major medical meetings, the Geneva Forum is structured around dialogue and discussion rather than didactic presentations. This approach has proven successful in dealing with large-scale global challenges and allows for the free and open exchange of ideas, experiences and views across a spectrum of backgrounds. The health of millions of people could be improved, not necessarily by the sole means of new or expensive technologies, but simply through better, more efficient access to already existing services, drugs, vaccines, and healthcare personnel. Indeed, an essential issue to be tackled is how to create a well-trained and motivated medical workforce, and how to maintain a critical mass in the countries where the need is crucial.
The Forum provides the opportunity to generate effective global health solutions through partnerships and networks between industry, hospitals, universities, international, national and local organizations, civil society, and most importantly those who need care. It explores the new roles and responsibilities that universities and centres of medical education can play in an interconnected and globalized world. One of the greatest changes in the modern world is the access provided by possibilities of nearly instantaneous communication. The Forum will examine how such changes can be used to impact access to health. The potential provided by readily available information and educational networks is historically unprecedented and offers academic institutions new and more global opportunities in education, services, and the transfer of knowledge.
Participants will also consider how more effective partnerships between existing institutions can complement new initiatives and international programmes. The Forum reflects the fact that improving access to health care is a global challenge that requires integrated global solutions. Like the majority of successful global initiatives in health and other fields, those solutions are often the product of awareness gained through international dialogue. Insight gained from the Geneva Forum: Towards Global Access to Health can generate new levels of collaboration across several social, institutional and organizational levels.
Geneva Forum: Towards Global Access to Health
www.hcuge.ch/genevahealthforum
CONTACT: Dr Slim Slama, 079 446 70 86
slim.slama@hcuge.ch
