University of Central Florida College of Medicine & MedPACt’s
11th Annual Student-Run Global Health Conference
The COVID-19 pandemic has shaken people and institutions worldwide – healthcare is no exception. New challenges associated with healthcare delivery are being discovered and old ones are now even more visible. As we look forward to a post-pandemic world, a new kind of healthcare provider emerges. Armed with the understanding that patient care goes beyond the clinic, the new guard finds ways to advocate in the governments, businesses, and streets of the world.
We encourage students and faculty from all healthcare fields (Medicine, Pharmacy, Nursing, etc.) who are interested in global health to attend.
Saturday, January 15th, 2022
8:30am – 3:00pm
Talks by experts in the field, clinical simulations, interactive & advocacy workshops, and networking opportunities.
The 2022 Global Health Conference has been moved to a completely virtual event.
The GHC Research Committee welcomes student and professional researchers to submit abstracts no later than December 10th, 2021.
100% of the proceeds from this conference will support charitable causes. See below for more details about our charity partners this year.
8:30-8:45 AM
8:45-10:00 AM
10:00-11:00 AM
11:00-12:00 PM
12:00-12:30 PM
12:30-1:30 PM
1:30-2:30 PM
2:30-3:00 PM
Opening Remarks
Keynote Presentation
Workshops: Session 1
Research Presentations
Lunch
Workshops: Session 2
Discussion Panel
Research Awards and Closing Remarks
| 8:30-8:45 AM | Opening Remarks |
| 8:45-10:00 AM | Keynote Presentation |
| 10:00-11:00 AM | Workshops: Session 1 |
| 11:00-12:00 PM | Research Presentations |
| 12:00-12:30 PM | Lunch |
| 12:30-1:30 PM | Workshops: Session 2 |
| 1:30-2:30 PM | Discussion Panel |
| 2:30-3:00 PM | Research Awards and Closing Remarks |
Dr. Christine Ngaruiya is a researcher, emergency physician and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine (DEM) at Yale University.
Ngaruiya was born in Nebraska; her parents studied in the Midwest before returning to Kenya because they wanted their children to be familiar with the country and its culture. Ngaruiya attended elementary, middle, and high schools in Kenya and entered the University of Nebraska as a freshman in 2002, at the age of 15. She went on to medical school at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
Her journey to medicine began in her home country of Kenya, where she lost family members and loved ones to preventable diseases and afflictions. These cases have informed her passions in medicine. Ngaruiya advocates in both her medical practice and her writing for increased access to health care for marginalized populations and for more action on non-communicable diseases, which have eclipsed infectious disease as the leading cause of death around the world.
Follow her twitter: @c_ngaruiya
Researcher, Emergency Medicine Physician
Assistant Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine (DEM), Yale School of Medicine
Dr. Christine Ngaruiya is a researcher, emergency physician and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine (DEM) at Yale University.
Ngaruiya was born in Nebraska; her parents studied in the Midwest before returning to Kenya because they wanted their children to be familiar with the country and its culture. Ngaruiya attended elementary, middle, and high schools in Kenya and entered the University of Nebraska as a freshman in 2002, at the age of 15. She went on to medical school at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
Her journey to medicine began in her home country of Kenya, where she lost family members and loved ones to preventable diseases and afflictions. These cases have informed her passions in medicine. Ngaruiya advocates in both her medical practice and her writing for increased access to health care for marginalized populations and for more action on non-communicable diseases, which have eclipsed infectious disease as the leading cause of death around the world.
Follow her twitter: @c_ngaruiya
Researcher, Emergency Medicine Physician
Assistant Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine (DEM), Yale School of Medicine
Dr. Anna Varlamov is an obstetrician/gynecologist who joined the UCF College of Medicine as an adjunct professor earlier this year. She is currently practicing in Orlando, where she sees patients at both Winnie Palmer Hospital and a local Planned Parenthood clinic. Before joining the UCF College of Medicine earlier this year, Dr. Varlamov was an assistant professor with Albany Medical School in New York. She has spent her career advocating for women and mothers, serving as a delegate to the House of Delegates with the Florida Medical Association and as Maternal Mortality Committee Chair for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Dr. Varlamov was also a member of the Pregnancy Associated Mortality Review through the state’s Department of Health and has participated in Florida Perinatal Quality Collaborative initiatives aimed to advance perinatal health care.
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Cindy Nelly is a certified nurse midwife. She received her Master of Science in Nursing in Nurse-Midwifery from the University of Florida in 2011, before continuing on with her Doctor of Nursing Practice which she received from the Frontier Nursing University in 2020. She has worked in women’s health for over 20 years, and has experience working both domestically and internationally. Cindy’s humanitarian work has taken her all over the globe, from Iraq to Rwanda. Her most recent work abroad includes working in refugee camps in Turkey and Lebanon, working as COO of an organization focused on setting up alternative care sites on the southwest border of the United States for COVID-positive asylum seekers, and working with gender-based violence victims from the DRC. Domestically, she has worked as the COVID-19 ICU Project Manager for Mt Sinai Beth Israel in NYC, working largely with patients experiencing homelessness and mental health conditions.
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Ch’uya Lane is an expert in public health advocacy with over 20 years of experience at the national and international levels and in multiple health sectors. She received her Master of Public Health from Emory University in 2001, and since then has served in governmental and non-governmental organizations, philanthropies, the private sector, academia and on advisory boards. Ch’uya’s work has centered on public health policies that reduce death, disease and disparities, including healthy food policy promotion, tobacco control, child survival, maternal and child health and nutrition. Currently, Ch’uya works with the Bloomberg Philanthropies Healthy Food Policy program to strengthen institutions in the Global South, with a focus on decolonizing global health practices. Prior to her current role, Ch’uya served as Director of Advocacy at the Global Health Advocacy Incubator, where she led the implementation of integrated advocacy campaigns for healthy food policy change in Latin America.
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Dr. Raj Sawh-Martinez is a board-certified plastic surgeon who specializes in craniofacial surgery. He attended medical school at Yale University School of Medicine, where he also ended up as a resident, eventually moving on to become Chief Resident at Yale-New Haven Hospital. During his time in medical school at Yale, he spent two years as an NIH research fellow with the Vascular Tissue Engineering Laboratory, which was the first in the world to implant tissue-engineered blood vessels into human infants to repair congenital heart defects. He is currently practicing at Craniofacial & Aesthetic Plastic Surgery in Orlando. In addition to seeing patients at his private practice, Dr. Sawh-Martinez also travels abroad yearly to provide surgical care to people in developing countries. Recently, he and his wife Dr. Pavri have traveled to Uganda, Thailand, Nicaragua, and Honduras in order to provide surgical aid.
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This year, proceeds from the Global Health Conference will be donated to MedPACt (Medical Students Providing Care Across Continents).
MedPACt is the global health student interest group at the UCF College of Medicine. Our mission is to:
1. Provide education and mentorship opportunities to students interested in global health
2. Facilitate health outreach to local and global communities of need, and
3. Promote awareness and active engagement in improving the wellness of people throughout the world.
The annual Global Health Conference is just one of the many events MedPACt coordinates. All proceeds of GHC 2022 will go towards resources needed for service-learning endeavors (Apopka Farmworkers Clinic, medical volunteer trip to Latin America, and Medical Spanish learning opportunities to name a few) and future GHC conferences. Such events are key to equipping physicians-in-training with the skillset needed to better serve communities both locally and abroad.
We thank you for your participation in GHC 2022 and your contribution to enhancing medical student education.
WE ARE NO LONGER ACCEPTING SUBMISSIONS.
MedPACt (Medical Students Providing Across Continents) is an organization dedicated to providing education and mentoring for students to become actively engaged within communities of need both locally and abroad, and to promote awareness and participation in improving the health-related needs of people throughout the world.
To see other work done by the global health group at UCF College of Medicine, click here!
To see information on previous Global Health Conferences, click here!
Thank you to our sponsors for helping make this conference come to life. We encourage GHC attendees to support these local businesses and institutions.
