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University of Wisconsin-Madison

Faculty and students share global perspectives locally and abroad

The fall semester provided a range of opportunities for the School’s faculty and students to attend, present, and engage on a variety of global topics. Trisha Seys Ranola, PharmD, Assistant Director of the Office of Global Health and clinical assistant professor in the Pharmacy Practice Division, and Laurel Legenza, Comparative Health Systems Global Pharmacy Fellow presented at the Quality Improvement Leadership Institute held in late August in Madison. Ranola’s talk addressed “Documenting Quality Improvement for Effective Implementation, Sustainability and Scale-Up,” with Legenza sharing, “Frontiers in Health Care – Quality Improvement in South Africa.” The Institute covered a range of quality improvement topics and was coordinated through the UW-Madison Global Health Institute. Legenza also completed a poster presentation at the 76th FIP World Congress of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences 2016 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Aligning with the theme of the meeting, “Rising to the Challenge: Reducing the Global Burden of Disease,” her poster focused on the “Development of a collaborative quality improvement Clostridium difficile infection project in South Africa.” In addition, Legenza, gave a talk entitled “Antimicrobial resistance in Wisconsin and use of resistance data,” and presented a poster, “Physician survey of current antimicrobial stewardship culture and use of antimicrobial resistance data in practice,” for the Pharmacy Society of Wisconsin. Recent 2015 graduates and past participants of a global health rotation, Brody Olson, Beth Gribble, and Jasmyni Dias, were among the authors for work completed related to the Study on global AGEing and adult health (SAGE). In coordination with Paul Kowal, a UW-Madison School of Pharmacy alumnus and clinical instructor, the article entitled, “Cervical cancer screening programs and guidelines in low- and middle-income countries,” was published in the International Journal of Gynecology & Obstetrics in September 2016. Also in September, but closer to home, current students from the Pharmacy Global Health Interest Group (PGHIG) engaged with approximately 200 people at the annual Lincoln Health Fair in Madison, Wis. The Pharmacy Global Health Interest group (PGHIG), a student organization, and Lincoln Elementary School collaborated to host the annual health fair. Both pharmacy and nursing students partnered with community organizations to share up-to-date health information with the families of Lincoln Elementary. Topics included diabetes, organ donation, influenza vaccinations, asthma, handwashing, and the difficulty in distinguishing candy from medications. In addition to health information, the fair included an obstacle course, salsa making, and food trucks. The fair was held in conjunction with an open house and book fair at the school. The annual event is a collaboration between PGHIG and Lincoln Elementary School. The initial health fair was organized by three pharmacy students and held at Midvale Elementary in 2013. Students from PGHIG have continued to host the fair annually at one or both, Midvale and Lincoln, elementary schools.