About
Breakout sessions at the conference will be organized thematically into the following six tracks:
- Combatants & military populations
- Vulnerable populations
- Policy, human rights & social justice
- War, society & the environment
- Health professionals as peace-workers
- The role of media and information in war & global health
To read more about the six tracks, click here.
Health Consequences of War
Beyond military casualties and civilian “collateral damage,” war and conflict have a profound impact on health. War is responsible for more death and disability than many major diseases combined. It causes profound damage to families, communities, and societies. The destruction of health infrastructure, loss of health workers and contamination of the environment directly affect the health of populations, while the diversion of resources to building weapons and waging war depletes funds that could otherwise be spent on improving health. War leaves no area of health care or public health practice untouched: maternal and child health, reproductive health, mental health, environmental, nutrition, etc.
Role of Health Professionals in the Prevention of War
Medical and public health professionals are well-positioned to reduce the damage caused by armed conflict. There are powerful roles that practitioners, educators, and other workers in public health can play in preventing war itself, as well as mitigating the public health consequences of war. The World Health Assembly declared in 1981, “The role of physicians and other health workers in the preservation and promotion of peace is the most significant factor for the attainment of health for all.” War can and should be approached as a public health problem. One can design and implement interventions, monitor and evaluate outcomes. Strategies of prevention can be applied at primary, secondary, and tertiary levels. Different interventions can be conceived that are appropriate for pre-conflict and post-conflict environments as well as during the conflict itself.
A Paradigm Shift
Those who have committed their careers to promoting the public’s health need to change their framework to encompass war as one of the most significant—and preventable—threats to the health of people in every demographic group and in every country. Preventing war and its consequences should be part of any Global Health curriculum. Armed conflict, however, is still addressed indirectly or not at all in the standard curricula in the Schools of Medicine and Public Health.
Since World War II, physicians and health professionals have advocated against the harmful effects of nuclear weapons and other weapons systems, and have organized to provide humanitarian assistance in conflict situations. Increasingly, health professionals have been speaking out against war as a major threat to health worldwide. Just as tobacco use and smoking moved from accepted practice to public health problem, war and conflict are beginning to be viewed not as inevitable, but as a health problem that requires intervention. This conference aims to provide a foundation for understanding war’s impact on health, but will also take the additional step to equip attendees with tools and skills so they can contribute to peace building as health professionals.
Specific goals of the conference:
- To frame war prevention and reduction as a legitimate area of study and practice for those in the public health and medical fields.
- To advance the understanding among medical and public health students and practitioners of the health consequences of war, and share information and tools on how these groups can contribute to peace building and mitigate the effects of conflict.
- To develop new leaders in the medical and public health fields committed to war prevention and reduction.
Previous Conferences:
The Western Regional International Health Conference started in November 2002 by a group of medical students at the University of Washington, School of Medicine’s International Health Group, a student organization committed to bringing awareness to global health issues and supporting their medical student colleagues.
This event, which began as a student-inspired, student-run conference, now draws close to 1,000 students, faculty, staff, residents, and community members from the western half of the United States and Canada. Past keynote speakers have included Paul Farmer, Jim Yong Kim, Jeffrey Sachs, and Mirta Roses Periago.
The conference has been hosted every other year by the University of Washington, the home institution for the event, and typically travels to other western U.S. and Canadian institutions on alternate years. The conference organizing committees are made up of an interdisciplinary cross-section of undergraduates, graduate, and professional students who are committed to a pursuit of a career in global health, including nursing, medicine, social work, law, business, public health, dentistry, and pharmacy.
Past Conferences and Themes
November 2002: University of Washington, Seattle, WA
Theme: “1st Western Regional International Health Conference”
Keynote: Dr. William Foege, Fellow at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Former Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Former Executive Director of the Carter Center
February 2004: University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
Theme: “Bringing International Health Home”
Keynote: Dr. Victor W. Sidel, Distinguished University Professor of Social Medicine, Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York
February 2005: University of Washington, Seattle, WA
Theme: “Politics, Social Justice, and Global Health” Keynote: Dr. Mirta Roses Periago, Regional Director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO)
February 2006: Oregon Health Sciences University, Portland, OR
Theme: “Health, Human Rights and Economics: The Value of Human Life”
Keynote: Jeffrey Sachs, PhD., an economist and Director of the United Nations Millennium Project (live video address)
February 2007: University of Washington, Seattle, WA
Theme: “Global Health Through Different Lenses: Reflections, Perspectives, and Visions for the Future”
Keynote: Dr. Jim Yong Kim, Professor of Medicine and Social Medicine and Chair of the Department of Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Co-founder of Partners in Health
Video: “The Golden Age of Global Health: An Ethnology in Progress”
February 2008: Simon Fraser University/University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC
Theme: “Meeting the Challenge: the Millennium Development Goals and Beyond”
Keynotes: Dr. Samantha Nutt, FRCPC, Executive Director & Founder, War Child Canada and Dr. Julio Montaner, FRCPC, FCCP, Clinical Director, BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS and Professor of Medicine, UBC
April 2009: Joint conference with the Global Health Education Consortium (GHEC), University of Washington, Seattle, WA
Theme: “Transcending Global Health Barriers: Education and Action”
Keynote: Harriet Fulbright, Director of the Fulbright Center