Abstract
BackgroundThe Duke Global Health Institute (DGHI) was founded in 2006 with a goal to foster interdisciplinary global health education and research across Duke University and Duke Medical Center. Critical to achieving this goal is the need to develop and sustain strong international partnerships. ObjectiveTo host a conference with multiple international partners and strengthen existing relationships. MethodsAfter a deliberate year-long planning process, DGHI convened a Partnership Conference with its international partners on the Duke University campus in conjunction with its 10th Anniversary Celebration. The Partnership Conference sought to promote an exchange of novel ideas in support of global health education and research, explore new collaborations in South-South relationships, and identify and facilitate pursuit of new educational and research opportunities. FindingsA total of 25 partners from 10 countries and 46 DGHI faculty members participated in the 3-day event in October 2016. Activities included workshops on preselected research topics, educational symposia on novel teaching methods and harnessing technological advances, introduction of the Health Humanities Laboratory to prepare students and trainees for fieldwork, and discussions of research infrastructure and training needs. Surveys from visiting partners revealed a high degree of satisfaction. Proposed action items include methods to realize improved communications, enhancement of mutual education opportunities, support and mentoring to build local research capacity, and more exchange of faculty and students between partnering institutions. ConclusionsWith careful planning from all parties, a multilateral partnership conference including both university and medical center faculty can be a productive forum for exchange on global health education and research. Sustaining such partnerships is vital to the success of global health scholarship.
Highlights
The study of global health has attracted unprecedented interest from universities around the world, including schools of medicine
We describe here the methods employed to plan and execute the conference, present results of the conference, and discuss how the conference aims to strengthen the Duke Global Health Institute (DGHI) partners network
We believe that our experiences and results may be useful for enhancing other academic partnerships in global health and other topic areas
Summary
The process of hosting and follow-up for the conference was divided into three phases: initial concept development and planning, refinement, and execution. Several general areas emerged: (1) Provide better communication through mutual visits between DGHI and PPL and EL institutions, and creation of a communication platform such as a website, which would allow for effective dialogue among collaborators and a dedicated site to post news and learning and research funding opportunities; (2) enhance learning opportunities by offering language courses and advanced cultural documents to better prepare students and trainees traveling overseas for fieldwork studies; (3) implement innovative learning opportunities by promoting teaching resources such as Duke Coursera offerings in global health or an annual One Health course and the collaborative development of future online materials; (4) provide support and mentoring to expand local research capacity by offering collaborators the opportunity to access Duke online resources such as journals, research management modules, library services, notification of funding opportunity announcements, and assistance with presubmission peer reviews of grant applications; and (5) help expand research capacity and support collaborative research by offering travel grants that would lead to more exchanges between DGHI faculty and PPL and EL institutions, and create a pilot grants program to support collaborative research proposed by researchers from 2 PPL or EL institutions and a DGHI faculty member. CID, Center for Instructional Technology; DGHI, Duke Global Health Institute; EL, emerging location; PPL, priority partnership location
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