Medsin Global Health Conference, 27th-28th March 2010, Newcastle Upon Tyne

2050:A Healthy Future?

                 to the Medsin Global  Health Conference 2010, set in 

the buzzing city  of Newcastle, officially  the  best place  in the UK to be a  student,  pipping Aberystwythe to the 

post*, sorry chaps. On behalf of the enFre  Medsin commiHee here  in Newcastle, may we  congratulate  you on 

choosing two days  of intense, acFon‐packed fun instead of a  weekend catching up with the  Cash In The AMc 

and Hollyoaks  omnibuses. What you would gain in anFque  knowledge and peHy drama  entertainment cannot 

make up for the whirlwind of facts  and friendships  you will  undoubtedly acquire in the next forty‐eight hours. 

You may well  have met up with your  accommodaFon buddy  and squeezed yourself in with the others  sharing 

the house for the night, and we hope you’ve seHled well.

The conference  is  enFtled: 2050 A Healthy Future? This is  no mere intelligent 

but useless  rhetorical  quesFon,  it  is  a  complex  conundrum which we  aim to 

unravel over  the  course  of the weekend. So picture the world in 2050. Aside 

from  the   obvious   things   like   intergalacFc  travel,  hover  boots   and  GilleHe 

razors with twenty  seven blades, how will the  health of our  populaFon have changed? We know there’s  an 

obesity  epidemic, We know we  face  an ageing populaFon,and we  know that climate change is  occurring and 

acceleraFng. But exactly how this will impact upon health in communiFes  and naFons  is  harder to determine. 

Furthermore, it all depends on our intervenFons on a personal and global level.

You may think that  this would suffice for  a conference of 

our  stature.  But  we  don’t  aim  to  merely  suffice.  In 

between plenaries  you  will  pop  off  to  the  workshop  to 

enjoy  their  focus  on  smaller, more digesFble  issues in  a 

directly  engaging way, with anything from fierce debates 

to immediate, pracFcal acFon.

The quesFon of whether our future can be a healthy one 

is fiercely contested. We hope by the end of GHC 2010 

you will feel empowered to add your voice to the debate! 

Thanks for coming! Newcastle Medsin

* Oh yes it’s true (according to hHp://

www.accommodaFonforstudents.com/)

Welcome...

Lord Nigel Crisp is an independent crossbench member

of the House of Lords and works mainly on international

development and global health. His new book “Turning

the world upside down – the search for global health in

the 21st Century” was published at the end of January

2010. It takes further the ideas about mutual learning

between rich and poor countries that he developed in

his 2007 report for the Prime Minister – “Global Health

Partnerships”: the UK contribution to health in developing

Keynote Speech

countries – and shows how this will shape healthcare in the future. He co-chaired

an international Task Force on increasing the education and training of health

workers globally, which advocated practical ways to increase massively the training

of health workers in developing countries, in May 2008.

He was both Chief Executive of the NHS between 2000 and 2006 and Permanent

Secretary of the Department of Health and led major reforms in the health system.

He is a member of the Health Worker Migratory Advisory Council, a Champion

Advocate for the Global Health Workforce Alliance and an Advisory Board Member

of the African Centre for Health and Social Development.

“Turning the world upside down”

Welcome from Newcastle Medsin!

So what can you look forward to this weekend?

And more importantly, when is lunch?

Whats on?

RegistraFon opens 

IntroducFons to Conference

Keynote

Plenary 1‐ Climate Change

Coffee

Workshop 1

Lunch

Plenary 2 – Ageing 

Coffee

Campaigns

Medsin QuesFon Time

Finish

Social @ WHQ

Buffet Dinner served

Entertainment

Club night opens

clocks go forward!!

Plenary 3‐ Resources

Coffee

Workshop 2

Lunch

Campaigns

Workshop 3

Coffee

Plenary 4‐ AcFon

FINISH

0800

0900

0910

0940

1110

1140

1240

1340

1510

1540

1600

1715

1900

1930

2100

2300

saturday

sunday

0930

1100

1130

1230

1330

1345

1445

1515

1645

Workshops will be held in the 3rd and 4th floors of the Leech building, and in the Ridley building. There will be a list of workshops at the porters lodge, and please ask anyone in a white t-shirt if you are lost!

The future ain't what it used to be-Discuss.

©

You are here..?

David Shaw Lecture Theatre

computer cluster

Lecture theatre C

Lecture theatres D-F

cafe

porte

rs

Stairs to the David Shaw lecture theatre

To the Ridley building for worshops. 300m on your left

Common Room

for lunch and coffee!

To the Leech building for workshops Lunch lunch lunch!

from tasty, local and ethical Dene’s deli!

Remember to recycle!

Lost?

Please ask anyone in a conference t-shirt for help!

My Conference....

My Workshops

workshop1 room

workshop2 room

workshop3 room

Accomodation contactsNotes

Go for it now. The future is promised to no one. Wayne Dyer

The distinction between the past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion. Albert Einstein

Across

1. AbbreviaFon of 1d, 18a (3)

6. A country within South 

Africa, with the lowest 

elevaFon in the world (7)

8. The country with the 2nd 

most army personnel aoer 5d 

(5)

10. Country with highest rate 

of deforestaFon (6)

11. Country with the second 

highest Gross DomesFc 

Product, aoer 1a. (5)

13. Country with highest gross 

NaFonal Product per capita, 

and was the founding 

member of the European 

Union and the 1d, 22a. Next 

door to Belgium. (9) 

14. Used to be called Persia 

(4)

15. Monarchy (7) With 1d: 

Country where the average 

age of the populaFon is 40, 

with a current life expectancy 

at birth of 79. (6,7)

18. With 1d, highest carbon 

emissions from consumpFon 

of energy (6,6)

19. The local name for this 

country, near 1d, 15a (4)

22. A large body of people, a 

country or territory (7). With 

1d: Peace keepers. Leader is 

Ban Ki‐moon (6, 7)

23. Country with lowest infant 

mortality and government run 

health system (4)

24. Country that held the 

2009 Climate Change summit 

in December (7)

5

1 2

9

3

8

6

13

4

10

12

24

23

18

20 21

22

16

19

1715

7

11

14

Down

1. Came together, to share a common view (6)

2. African country, on west coast, with highest child mortality in 

the world. Speak Portuguese. (6)

3. Country with highest percentage of land covered in forest. (6)

4. Country with highest rate of inflaFon. (8)

5. Most highly populated country in the world and highest carbon 

emissions (5)

6. Country where the highest ever temperature was recorded. Flag 

is just green with no paHern or other colours on it. Forth largest 

African country, highest Human Development Index in Africa (5)

7. Country that spends the most on computer games, and has the 

longest coastline in the world (6)

9. Highest Human Development Index in the world. Formally 

adverFsed by Kerry Katona (7)

12. The least corrupt country in the world, made up of 2 islands in 

the Pacific Ocean (3,7)

16. Country with most Spanish speakers, borders 1a. (6)

17. Country with most tourists visiFng each year, largest country in 

European Union (6)

20. Most corrupt country in the world, used to be called Burma (7)

21. A small country with highest life expectancy, and in the 

Pyrenees (7)

CrossWordWorld!

We’re pumping more Carbon dioxide into the atmosphere by the second,

more ice is careening into the sea at either pole, more methane is

bubbling up from ancient chasms, and more cute penguins face extinction.

Our climate is changing and changing fast, which inevitably has an effect

on biosystems equipped to deal with the conditions they initially grew into.

This will undoubtedly affect the physical and (especially in the case of

witnessing the plight of penguins) mental health of populations across the

globe. The economic South will inevitably be hit worst, with a constantly

increasing rate of drought and extreme weather. This plenary is an

excellent opportunity to learn the finer details of this important global issue.

On a more local level, we will discuss the effect that running the NHS is

potentially having on climate change. The Carbon Footprint of the NHS and

other large organisations can be substantially reduced, and we have the

exciting opportunity to learn how from the figurehead of the project. 1.3

million people work for the NHS, the third largest employer in the world

after the Indian Railway and Chinese Army. Chances are you’ll be working

for one of these three and hence an opportunity to learn how to make

your future work environment as green as possible is not one to be

missed.

Plenary1:Climate

Dr David Pencheon is director of the NHS Sustainable

Development Unit. He has special interest in sustainable

development and climate change and is leading the mission to

improve policy and action in these areas -including by cutting

CO2 emissions- on a local and national level. After the

realisation that the NHS risked being more ‘part of the

problem than part of the solution’ with regards climate change, we may be able to learn from these efforts how

global healthcare systems can follow the example of the UK.

Due to unforseen circumstances we had some trouble

tieing down our third plenary speaker! Do not worry, the

one we do get (who you will have the pleasure of

meeting...) will no doubt be incredible.

Hold on in there, its like christmas all over again.

Mustafa Abbas is currently a third year medical

student at UCL, where he also obtained an iBSc in

International Health. He has a long history of

involvement with Medsin at both branch and national

level. He was Branch President of Medsin-UCL, and is

currently the Vice- President for Branches for Medsin-

UK. He is also outgoing director of Healthy Planet, a

position he has held for two years. He was recently a

contributing author to the UCL-Lancet Commission on

Managing the Health Effects of Climate Change. 

We’re all getting older. Not just individually, which is fairly obvious, but also as a

whole population. Incredible advances in medicine are pushing life expectancy so high

that The Queen is getting repetitive strain disorder, and the UN predicts 9.1 Billion

people squashed onto Earth by 2050, a 38% leap. It’s a little known fact that on

current trajectories we gain a year of life for every five, which, despite making your

procrastinating not seem so bad, is potentially a strain on our ability to achieve

health equality for all. An ageing population could increase pressure on health services

across the globe. If so, how will they cope? Thinking more locally, since the NHS can

never offer all aspects of care to the elderly, who will? The ageing population also

directly forces us to address the way in which we deliver care. Do we care more

about the potentially curable conditions than the chronic conditions associated with

geriatric healthcare? An ageing population is normally considered a problem of the

rich world. However, by 2050, it is likely that 80% of the world’s over 65s will

live in the economic South. Will this cause further, unneeded economic burden, or

greater difficulty in supporting older people?

There are many presumptions regarding what will happen to us in an ageing

population, and often these are outdated, some would even say ageist. So be

prepared to drop your preconceptions at the door and learn what life will really be

like for the zimmer-wielding silver foxes of the future.

Plenary2:Ageing

Prof Thomas Kirkwood is currently the Director for the

Institute for Ageing and Health at Newcastle University. His

research interests are in the evolution and genetics of ageing

and mechanisms of cellular ageing, mathematical biology and

biological standardisation. He has a BA in Mathematics from

Cambridge University, a MSc in Applied Statistics from Oxford

University and a PhD in Biology form Cambridge University. He

has had various research positions across the country,

including Professor of Biological Gerontology at the University

of Manchester and Head of the Laboratory of Mathematical

Biology at the MRC Institute for Medical Research in London.

Nigel Unwin is Professor of Epidemiology and leads the Advancing Research in

Chronic Disease Epidemiology Programme (ARCHEPI), in the Institute of Health and

Society at Newcastle University. His research interests are

in the epidemiology and prevention of diabetes and related

chronic disease, both within the UK and in low and

middle-income countries, especially Africa. He regularly

contributes to the work of the diabetes group at WHO

Geneva, and to the work of the International Diabetes

Federation.

Tessa Pollard is currently a senior lecturer in the Department

of Anthropology at Durham University, a lecturer in the Health

and Human Sciences department and a Fellow of the Wolfson

Research Institute. Her main research interest is in working to

explain why some groups of people, especially those of South

Asian origin living in the UK, have very high rates of metabolic

diseases, such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

She approaches this work from two different perspectives,

improving understanding of current lifestyle and health

behaviours, and an evolutionary perspective.

Everyone wants their share of the pie. Now it’s been wrestled over so much it looks

like a personal attack on Mr Kipling. Problems are inevitably arising in our expanding

Plenary3:Resourcespopulation with limited resources, which are often kept under

lock and key for the sake of profit. So what’s being done to

tackle this problem head on?

Thanks to the incredible efforts of campaign groups including

our own Stop AIDS society, Unitaid (the international drugs

purchasing facility) voted for an HIV drug patent pool last September, potentially

allowing millions in the economic South to access generic drugs at affordable prices.

This means that that medications can be developed for HIV sufferers and important

combined medicines can be created. Despite still being a step away from involving all

drugs companies in the pool, this exemplifies positive changing attitudes of the West

towards resource distribution. This plenary will explore whether this positive trend will

continue to 2050, or whether we will face higher charges from pharmaceutical

companies stashing their pieces of pastry.

Within Britain, resource distribution is a shifting landscape. Last year saw a redraft

of healthcare policy which withheld some aspects of healthcare to asylum seekers

who have had their claims rejected by the

government. This controversial policy was criticized by

the healthcare community as potentially illegal and

inhumane, and is an indicator of the extent to which

our country can disable access to resources to

groups of society. Speakers will discuss our local

means of dispersing wealth, health and inequality,

and how this may change in the future for different

groups of society, especially our vulnerable

populations of immigrants.

Johanna Hanefeld is a doctoral researcher in the Health

Policy Unit at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical

Medicine, focusing on policy processes of access to

treatment for HIV/AIDS and TB in sub-Saharan Africa.

Before coming to the School she worked for seven years

on health and health systems in low-income countries

most recently for Amnesty International and the Panos

Global AIDS Programme.

Dr Edwin Borman is a Consultant Anaesthetist based in

Warwickshire. He is a previous Chairman of the BMA

International Committee and Chair of the GMC’s committee

on Diversity and Equality and is currently on the BMA

Council. He has special interest in asylum seeker and

refugee health and health inequalities among many other

prominent global health issues. He has contributed to articles

on a range of topics from institutional racism within the NHS to the re-employment

of qualified medical professional refugees in Britain, and the potential benefits to the

Prof Danny Dorling is professor of Human Geography at

Sheffield University., where he leads the Social and Spatial

inequalities department. He also is one of the

masterminds behind the website: www.worldmapper.org

His current interests involve trying to understand and map

the changing social, political and medical geographies of

Britain and further afield, concentrating on social and

spatial inequalities to life chances and how these may be

narrowed.

By now you may be thinking that 2050 is all

doom and gloom, a post-apocalyptic nightmare

as depressing and unnessesary to know about

as The Day After Tomorrow. But what a film

with extremely dodgy scientific assertions

won’t tell you is that there is the potential for

a healthy future. In this plenary, speakers will

discuss how we, individually, nationally and

globally, can organize such a healthy future.

The tragedy of the Haitian earthquake fortifies

a central issue of how we should prepare for

the inevitable increase in natural disasters,

both at home and in the transportation of aid

to other countries. We have previously

Plenary4:Action

discussed the economic burden and actions of pharmaceutical

companies as being barriers to attaining global health in 2050,

and we shall discuss how this will have to change for the future.

If we progress successfully towards achieving greater health

equality, who should govern our global health policy and why?

Furthermore, who should pay for the sustenance of global health

and through what means? All these issues and more shall be

discussed with a view to progressing towards a healthy future.

So ignore all of Hollywood’s impending doomsday special effects

and predictable romance, and listen to how a very real problem

can be tackled head-on.

It is said that the present is pregnant with the future. Voltaire

One must care about a world one will not see.Bertrand Russell

Dr Andrew Lee qualified in medicine from the University of Edinburgh. Following paediatric

and tropical medicine training, he worked in primary health care and tuberculosis control

programmes in Afghanistan. He undertook an MSc in Public Health at the London School of

Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. His thesis examined beneficiary perspectives of humanitarian

aid. He worked in general practice, genito-urinary medicine and geriatric medicine before

joining Sheffield University’s School of Health and Related Research. He currently lectures

on international health needs assessment, disaster planning and impact evaluation, and is

the lead developer of the health protection module for the Public Health MSc.

Sir Michael Rawlins has been chairman of NICE since its formation. He is also Honorary

Professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University of London, and

Emeritus Professor at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. He was

Professor of Clinical Pharmacology at the University of Newcastle upon

Tyne from 1973 to 2006 .Concurrently he was also consultant

physician and consultant clinical pharmacologist to the Newcastle

Hospitals NHS Trust. He was vice-chairman and chairman of the

Committee on Safety of Medicines; and chairman of the Advisory

Council on the Misuse of Drugs.

Benny Dembitzer is an economist who has spent almost 40 years

working on grassroot development projects across Africa, in Pakistan

and Indonesia. He has worked for the United Nations Development

Programme, the World Bank and various NGOs, and the

International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War. Since

then Benny has worked as a development consultant. He has

recently published a book entitled “The attack on world poverty”.

His interests include the food crisis in the global south, the

influence of international aid, and the importance of fair trade.

SocialSo we’re treating you to an unbelievable quantity of intellectually

stimulating activity during the day, challenging you at every step of the

way and educating you in a number of different disciplines. You’re

probably thinking that given this input, you’ll be expected to be in bed

before eight with a hot water bottle, a sensibly sized mug of horlicks

and an alarm set for six (you don’t want to be late for tomorrow).

Right? Wrong sister, this conference is as much about communication,

socialising and sourcing out like minded individuals as it is about

education, and we’ve got just the itinerary to make this happen.

Saturday will be a different ball game. This is your chance to party with

new found friends and old amigos. There’ll be something for everyone,

and it all kicks off at the famous World Headquarters nightclub. Doors

open at 7pm, food will be served at 7.30pm- a selection of hot and

cold vegan, vegetarian and carnivorous culinary delights, all ethically

sourced, will be provided, with plenty of time to rest and digest. Then,

curries safely far down, we will have a ceilidh at 9pm. Don’t worry,

you don’t need to be a ceilidh veteran to attend, all the dances will be

called and they all come with a maximum enjoyment guarantee (however

no guarantees against minor bruising can be provided unfortunately). If this isn’t your scene we’ll have the World Headquarters resident DJs

spinning soul, funk, Motown and plenty more to get you pulling incredible

shapes on the dancefloor through till 4am.

Phew, thats a lot of information, but I have one more factlet. Considering

we’re talking forty years into the future during the day, Saturday night is

futuristic disco themed. We want to see the best robot costumes since Dr

Who decided that daleks couldn’t be represented by upturned bins anymore.

We’ll have foil on the door if you need, but we’d love it if you got creative

and dazzled us with your own cyber couture.

We hope this is enough to keep you entertained

over the weekend. If you’re ever looking for

something to do though, just ask the committee. We

aim to entertain.

Need a Taxi? These are cheap and cheerful-0191 262 6666 0191 287 7777

otherwise monument metro is nearby