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Global Health Education Day is an exciting opportunity to draw together global health researchers, educators, and students. Led by the Institute for Global Health's Center for Global Health Education, this year's event began with an online poster session where students, trainees, and faculty members presented posters on projects relevant to global health. All posters can be enlarged by clicking the link underneath each image.

Global Cleft Lip and Palate Trips: A Google Trends Analysis

International cleft outreach trips have historically yielded positive benefits in providing reconstructive cleft care to communities with limited infrastructure. Online search data resources such as Google Trends enable plastic surgeons and international outreach organizations such as Operation Smile to longitudinally track global demand in cleft care. Understanding patient awareness of orofacial clefts and evaluating demand for necessary procedures may serve to better target future mission trips.

Presenting author: Joshua Weissman

Poster 1

Development of a Virtual Training and Mentoring Initiative for Implementation Research in Rwanda During the COVID-19 Pandemic

As the interest and investment in global health equity has grown in the last century, there has been a disparity between the wealth of evidence based interventions (EBIs) created to decrease morbidity and mortality, and the knowledge needed to ensure the effective delivery of these EBIs in low and middle income countries. Implementation research (IR) is critical to understand how to study and address these delivery and policy gaps. Northwestern has been a leader in IR in the US and growing globally, working to develop capacity of IR in these settings.

The University of Global Health Equity (UGHE) of Rwanda is a university with a mission to shape global health professionals into leaders in sustaining quality health services for all, with IR as a growing area of focus. Building on existing collaborations, Northwestern Institute of Global Health (IGH) and UGHE received catalyst funding to develop a pilot IR training program, targeting student teams in the Master of Science in Global Health Delivery (MGHD) program at UGHE. The blended curriculum was designed to use effective pedagogical methods to support the learning of IR through workshops and mentorship. Before the initiative could be launched, the Covid-19 pandemic required a rapid pivot to a purely virtual approach.

Presenting author: Rebecca Dworkin

Poster 2

*Winner - Best Poster*

Opportunities for Addressing Climate Change and Developing Youth Leaders in Peacebuilding in Somalia

The Northwestern Access to Health Project (ATH) is an interdisciplinary global community health initiative that brings law, public health, medical, and business faculty, and graduate students together with communities, health advocates, government and university institutions, and human rights organizations around the world. ATH operates as part of the Center for International Human Rights at the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law and the Institute for Global Health at the Feinberg School of Medicine. Founded in 2011 by Professor Juliet Sorensen and Dr. Shannon Galvin and supported by Schuette Clinical Fellow in Health and Human Rights Alexandra Tarzikhan, ATH works across disciplines on targeted, sustainable initiatives that address health-related issues of partner communities, and teaches students how to engage in interdisciplinary, transnational, socially impactful collaborations.

Presenting author: Alexandra Tarzikhan

Poster 3

*Honorable Mention*

Assessing Barriers to Essential and Basic Neurosurgical Care in the Public Sector Throughout Peru

In Andean Latin America, an estimated 60% of the population is without access to safe, affordable, and timely surgical care. In the present study, we evaluated public health hospitals to identify essential elements of basic and essential neurosurgical services.

Presenting author: Roxanna Garcia

Poster 4

Developing a Primer for Quality Improvement in Global Health

Many health trainees and professionals from high-income countries (HICs) are interested in improving the quality of health care delivery in a global context. Despite a growing recognition of the importance of quality improvement (QI), few targeted resources exist to guide these practitioners participating in global health QI projects. We aim to create a primer to facilitate ethical and effective quality improvement work in global settings.

Presenting author: Caitlin Visek

Poster 5

Global Impact of Golf for the Disabled on Player Health, Quality of Life and Self-Perception: A Thematic Analysis

Golf for the disabled (G4D) is one of the fastest growing adaptive sports in the world. No prior studies have evaluated enablers to playing the sport in individuals with disabilities and their perceived benefits. The objective was to assess the overall health and psychological effects of the sport and its influence on participant perception of themselves.

Presenting author: Stanley Guillaume

Poster 6

On Top of the World: Reaching Underserved Domestic and International Populations Through PM&R Residency Training

Domestic underserved populations require nearly 100,000 physicians to have the same medical services as the rest of the United States population. In 2015, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that over 400 million individuals across the world lack access to medical care. It has been shown that clinicians are more likely to treat underserved patients during their careers if they have exposure to these populations during their training. It is essential that Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation (PM&R) residency programs analyze what forms of didactics are lacking with respect to domestic and international underserved populations. Additionally, it is important to discover what aspects of these didactics trainees and program directors view most favorably in PM&R and what barriers limit their pursuit of such training opportunities.

Presenting author: George Ross Malik

Poster 7

Cultural Failings in the America's HPV Vaccinations: A Global Perspective

HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection and has the potential to cause deadly cancers of the cervix, vulva and anus. With the advent of the Pap smear, the global burden of cervical cancer has been carried mostly by under-resourced nations that did not have the resources to screen and properly treat their patients. However, the tides may be shifting, as many of these low resource countries have implemented successful HPV vaccination campaigns, reaching the majority of their populations. While the US remains a world leader in many areas of medicine, we are woefully behind when it comes to HPV vaccination.

Presenting author: Susan Folsom

Poster 8

Online Regional Anesthesia Curricula to Address Provider Shortages in Limited Resource Settings (LRS) During a Global Pandemic

In limited resource settings (LRS), general anesthesia can be dangerous and subject to numerous constraints: oxygen supply failures are common, vital sign monitors are frequently unavailable, ventilators can be faulty or absent entirely, and the number of providers trained in alternative anesthetic techniques is often limited. Additionally, restricted access to intravenous analgesic medications in LRS makes control of postoperative pain particularly challenging. The 2020 pandemic caused by COVID-19 has imposed additional constraints on healthcare systems in LRS further limiting the safe administration of general anesthesia. In some countries, the demand for oxygen has skyrocketed owing to the increased need to treat nonsurgical patients affected by COVID-19 thus limiting the availability of oxygen for use in the perioperative setting. Restrictions in travel have greatly limited the number of providers available in some LRS and consequently also reduced the number of educational initiatives in these settings. Because of these constraints, regional anesthesia may have a significant role in facilitating patient safety in LRS and the development of online regional anesthesia curricula is of paramount importance to address provider shortages during this global pandemic.

Presenting author: Jordan Sharlin

Poster 9

Creating a Health Education Curriculum for Immigrant/Refugee Students at Sullivan High School

According to the Illinois Department of Human Services, Illinois has resettled more than 123,644 refugees from more than 60countries since 1975. About 40% of these refugees have settled in Chicago. Sullivan High School, located in the Rogers Park neighborhood on the north side of Chicago, reflects the immigrant population of Chicago. The current school population includes 45% immigrants, many of whom are refugees. These students come from more than 38 countries and speak more than 35 languages. As part of the Illinois Chapter of American Academy of Pediatrics Refugee Immigrant Child Health Initiative (RICHI), University of Chicago residents/faculty and Lurie Children's Hospital faculty have recently started a partnership with Sullivan High School to teach two different classrooms about different health care topics.

Presenting author: Alison Murray

Poster 10

Facilitators and Barriers to Family Medicine Resident Engagement in Global Health: A Secondary Data Analysis of a CERA Study

Interest in global health has been increasing over the years. Many family medicine residency programs have been incorporating abroad training opportunities for their residents. An analysis was done to identify facilitators and barriers to resident engagement in global health.

Presenting author: Oanh Truong

Poster 11

Teaching Pediatric Residents to Use Point of Care Ultrasound for the Detection of Pneumonia

Worldwide, pneumonia is the leading infectious cause of mortality in children under five years of age. Chest radiographs are the standard imaging modality used in the diagnosis of pneumonia. However, conventional radiography is not readily available in many resource-limited settings. Point-of-care ultrasonography (POCUS) has been proposed as a promising alternative to diagnose pneumonia in resource-limited settings, due in part to the cost, durability, and portability of ultrasound machines. There is a need for sustainable, replicable training modalities for POCUS. In this study, we developed and deployed a mastery-based learning curriculum to train US-based pediatric residents in POCUS for pediatric pneumonia, with the ultimate goal of replicating such a curriculum at partner sites with limited access to conventional radiography.

Presenting author: Chris Miller

Poster 12

Changes in Fibrosis Liver Scores Using AST to Platelet Ratio Index (APRI) After Antiviral Therapy Initiation in Tanzanian Adults with HIV, HBV and HIV/HBV Co-infection

In Sub-Saharan Africa, 8-25% of persons living with HIV (PLH) are co-infected with chronic hepatitis B (HBV), which is associated with an increased risk of advanced liver disease and higher mortality compared to mono-infected individuals. We determined changes in APRI scores as a surrogate for liver fibrosis over three years and risk factors associated with lower APRI score declines in HIV mono-infected, HBV mono-infected, and HIV-HBV co-infected Tanzanians who initiated antiviral therapy.

Presenting author: Ryan Lee

Poster 13

*Winner - Best Poster*

Improving Patient Preparedness Prior to Obstetric Fistula Repair Surgery in Rwanda: A Feasibility Study

Studies of obstetric fistula patients have shown poor overall awareness and knowledge of the condition, however, research regarding optimization of preoperative counseling for genitourinary fistula repairs in the developing world is limited.

Presenting author: Oluwateniola Brown

Poster 14

*Honorable Mention*