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DURHAM, N.C. -- Duke University will soon create a new Global
Health Institute to promote education, research and service in
health care to underserved populations locally, regionally and
around the world.

The Institute will unite the efforts of faculty,
administrators and students across all campuses and centers.
The initiative draws on Duke's strength in interdisciplinary
research to build a program that spans medicine, humanities,
social sciences, engineering, environment, law, divinity and
the life sciences.

Duke University President Richard Brodhead and Health
Affairs Chancellor Victor Dzau, M.D. will launch the Duke
Global Health Institute during a two-day symposium featuring
international experts in global health issues. The symposium
will also highlight Duke's ongoing efforts in addressing global
health and health disparities.

For more information and a detailed schedule of events,
please visit http://globalhealth.duke.edu/symposium.html.

The symposium begins the evening of Monday, April 17, at
4:30 p.m. in the Nasher Museum of Art auditorium. Anthony
Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and
Infectious Diseases, will present a talk entitled "Global
Health Challenges for the 21st Century." A reception and poster
session featuring current and proposed activities in global
health by Duke faculty and students will follow the talk.

The symposium continues on Tuesday, April 18, at 8:30 a.m.
in the Schiciano auditorium of Duke's CIEMAS building. The
morning session features three international experts in global
health issues: Paul Farmer, founder of Partners in Health; Joep
Lange, former president of the International AIDS Society; and
Amartya Sen, 1998 Nobel Prize winner in economics. Each will
present their perspective on the challenges of health
disparities in our world today.

The roll-out of the Duke Global Health Institute begins at
1:30 p.m. in the Schiciano auditorium. The session features
remarks from President Brodhead, Chancellor Dzau and Barton
Haynes, M.D., director of the Center for HIV-AIDS Vaccine
Immunology. A panel of Duke faculty will then discuss their
schools' efforts in developing global health agendas for
education, research and service.

President Brodhead identified global health as a major
priority for Duke at the beginning of the 2005 academic year.
There are three main planning areas:
• A body charged with identifying focus areas for global health
as it relates to scholarship, research, policy development and
service.
• A group that will focus on practical ways to improve the
health status of people in underserved and under-resourced
areas in Durham and around the world.
• A committee to examine how to develop courses, certificates
and curricula that will exposure all students to the issues of
global health and health disparities and provide opportunities
for future leaders to improve the quality of health for
others.