October 27, 2016
Hello,
I spent part of last week in Washington, DC, attending two meetings. I attended the National Academy of Medicine’s (NAM) annual meeting, which focused on “Reversing the Dramatic, 30-Year Rise in Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes.” Dr. Margaret Chan, director general of the World Health Organization, gave the keynote address on the global perspective of this topic, and Dr. Bill Dietz, director of the new Redstone Global Center for Prevention and Wellness at George Washington University, addressed U.S. patterns and disparities.
I had the opportunity to lead the annual session of the NAM interest group meeting for Maternal and Child Health and Human Development. We had a wonderful symposium on “Pregnancy as a Window to Future Health,” which underscored the importance of adverse pregnancy events to predict women at highest risk for cardiovascular and other long-term health outcomes and a time to implement interventions to improve health. I was delighted to welcome Dr. Benjamin Chu, president and CEO of Memorial Hermann Health System, as one of the National Academy of Medicine’s 79 members of the Class of 2015. He and his class were officially welcomed to the academy at dinner on Saturday night.
While in Washington, I also attended a symposium honoring the leadership of Dr. Francis S. Collins, who has served as the director of the National Institutes of Health since 2009 and has been a great supporter of global health research.
Several speakers presented challenges and advances in global health–work supported by NIH over the years. With a smile and a great deal of familial pride, I watched my husband Dr. Roger Glass, director of the Fogarty International Center and associate director for international research at the NIH, kick off this wonderful event, highlighting several of the NIH’s works in global health research, in particular their Fogarty grantees.
Monday was a special day for the medical school—the annual Student Summer Research Forum and Frank C. Webber Prize competition. The Webber prize honors Dr. Frank Webber, former dean of our medical school. More than 20 students prepared posters based on their work and were on hand to present their work. Congratulations to the winners of the Webber Prize. They are pictured below, from left, first place winner—Kendall Masada (Dr. KuoJen Tsao, Pediatric Surgery, mentor), second place— Michael Joseph (Dr. Mary Austin, Pediatric Surgery, mentor), and third place—Peter Yu (Drs. Tien Ko and Yanna Cao, Surgery, mentors).
Warm regards,
Barbara
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