The Institute of Global Health (ISG) at the heart of global health
© UNIGE. From left to right: Mr Alain Berset, Dr Tedros Adhanom Gebreyesus and Mr Mauro Poggia.
On May 20, the UNIGE, through its Institute of Global Health (ISG), and the Permanent Mission of Switzerland to the United Nations received the world's elite health experts at the Biotech Campus on the occasion of the opening of the 72nd World Health Assembly. More than a thousand people, including representatives of delegations from the 194 Member States of the World Health Organization (WHO), international and non-governmental organizations and academic institutions, gathered in one of the most beautiful jewels of the Lake Geneva Health Valley, "a joint home for the University of Geneva and EPFL, which is entirely focused on health research and training. It is also a Swiss hub for academic global health " said Alain Berset, Federal Councillor and Head of the Federal Department of Home Affairs, in his speech. Mr Mauro Poggia, State Councillor in charge of the Geneva Department of Security, Employment and Health, was also present.
Dr Tedros Adhanom Gebreyesus, Director-General of WHO, also addressed the meeting: "Switzerland - and in particular Geneva - is not only the host country of the World Health Assembly, where 194 ministerial delegations of WHO Member States have converged for more than 70 years, but it is also a rich land of innovation. »
This very high-level event was an opportunity for the ISG to highlight a selection of projects conducted in collaboration with other Swiss academic institutions (HUG-UNIGE, IHEID, UNIL, Swiss TPH-UNIBAS, EPFL, ETHZ, SSPH+, GHF) and NGOs (MSF, TdH, WFPHA) in the field of global health. Fourteen booths presented various aspects of collaborative research and teaching in global health. The ISG and all its partners present felt privileged to be part of this magnificent spotlight on global health. "An exceptional highlight of the activities that the ISG is carrying out on a daily basis in the field of global health research and training with the other global health actors present in Geneva," emphasizes Professor Antoine Flahault, Director of the ISG.
The presented projects:
- Data Science Ecosystem for Epidemics: The case of RNA viruses (UNIGE-Swiss TPH/UNIBAS, EPFL-ETHZ, IBM Zürich: Antoine Flahault, Olivier Verscheure, Isabella Eckerle)
- Ebola and Violence in DRC: An epidemic of suspicion (IHEID, HUG, UNIGE, MSF: Vinh-Kim Nguyen, Laurent Kaiser)
- Essentialtech: Making high-tech innovation accessible to all (EPFL-UNIGE: Klaus Schönenberger)
- Infectious Diseases Epidemiology: HIV, Hepatitis C, Influenza (UNIGE: Olivia Keiser)
- DYNAMIC (unisanté/UNIL and SwissTPH): clinical decision making algorithms evolving with epidemiological changes (UNIL/Unisanté and UNIBAS/Swiss TPH): Joanne Blackwell, Valérie D'Acremont, Jürg Utzinger)
- IeDA: connecting low-income countries to improve maternal and child health (Terre des Hommes, UNIGE, UNIL, Swiss TPH:Ricardo Lampariello)
- Geneva Health Forum 2020: Improving access to health - learning from the field (UNIGE-HUG: Eric Comte, Danny Sheath, Amy Sy) - hosting the World Health Summit (Julian Kickbusch, Charité, Berlin)
- RAFT: Telemedicine with and for Francophone Africa (UNIGE-HUG: Antoine Geissbuhler)
- AccessMod5: Modelling physical accessibility to health care (UNIGE: Nicolas Ray)
- SnakeBytes and SNAPP: AI and citizen science against snakebites (UNIGE-EPFL-HUG:Rafael Ruiz de Castaneda, Isabelle Bolon, Nicolas Ray, François Chappuis, Andrew Durso)
- Innovative Global Health education from the Swiss Universities (SSPH+:Sandra Nocera, Daniela Erb)
- World Federation of Public Health Association: promoting PH worldwide - the case of vaccination (UNIGE:Marta Lomazzi, Bettina Borisch)
- Street-Racket: promoting physical activity everywhere at everytime in every circumstance (UNIGE: Antonio Latella)
- Dr. Beat Stoll's Jazz Band, with musicians from Zimbabwe