Explore Global Health with Rob Murphy, MD

This episode was first released in June, 2024.

Northwestern Medicine primary care physician Robert J. Havey, MD, has always been motivated by patient relationships. As he advanced in his career, these relationships shaped his approach to the future of global health. As both the namesake of the recently endowed Havey Institute for Global Health and deputy director for the Ryan Family Center for Global Primary Care, Havey shares insight on ensuring the longevity of global health efforts for generations to come.

Patrick Mbullo Owuor, PhD, a pioneering anthropologist and public health leader, discusses his community-driven solutions to global health challenges in Kenya and beyond. He shares how local action and research are making an impact on HIV, water insecurity and more.

From his childhood in Chile, to years working for Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) supporting sustainable healthcare in West and Central Africa, Dr. Luis Pizarro has spent a lifetime thinking about the intersection of healthcare, equity and social justice. In this episode, Dr. Pizarro discusses his clinical roots and his current leadership role at Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi), and how his years of experience on the ground inform his understanding of the future of global health.

The new Center for Global Pediatric Health, an initiative between the Robert J. Havey, MD Institute for Global Health and Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, is building a global community committed to improving the health of children worldwide. In this episode, Drs. Colleen Fant and Sahera Dirajlal-Fargo, co-directors of the new center, discuss their goals for the center, their own journeys in global pediatric health as well as emerging trends and challenges in pediatric care worldwide.

In this episode, John A. Rogers, PhD, a pioneering material scientist and founder of stretchable bioelectronics, discusses his career and groundbreaking work on wireless health monitoring systems, which are now being used in low-and-middle income countries to improve maternal and fetal health and surgical recovery.

In this episode, Theresia Ambrose Ottaru, MD, PhD, a rising star in global health research and a physician and epidemiologist at Muhimbili University in Tanzania, explains the complexities of managing HIV alongside other comorbidities, especially in aging populations, and highlights the successes and ongoing challenges of HIV programs in Tanzania. She also explains how a Global Health Research Catalyzer Award from the Havey Institute helped her create a cohort in Tanzania to study the intersection of aging, HIV and comorbidities.

Robert Garofalo, MD, is well-known for his expertise on pediatric HIV prevention and care and sexual and gender minority health, but global health research was not on his radar until about a decade ago when a series of events sparked a passion for global health that is thriving today. In this episode, Garofalo shares his journey into the field and how his current global health projects in Nigeria are helping to engage young sexual and gender minority populations in HIV care and prevention.

In this episode Dr. Murphy talks with Claudia Hawkins, MD, Director of the Center for Global Communicable and Emerging Infectious Diseases at the Robert J. Havey, MD Institute for Global Health. She shares her career path from a medical student in the UK to her impactful work in infectious diseases and global health at Northwestern University which includes groundbreaking HIV and Hepatitis co-infection research.

In this episode, Dr. Rob Murphy welcomes Dr. Hester Klopper, Deputy-Vice Chancellor of Strategy, Global and Corporate Affairs at Stellenbosch University, South Africa. The two discuss the new Stellenbosch University/Northwestern University Global Health Knowledge Hub (SUNU Hub) which has been designed to unite the universities, broaden their scope of expertise and discovery and offer more opportunities for international collaborations between students, trainees, staff and faculty. They discuss this innovative project and talk about Dr. Klopper's career in global health and facilitating major international collaborations such as the SUNU Hub.

Patti Gravitt, PhD, began her life-long career dedicated to global human papillomavirus (HPV) and cervical cancer research and prevention from a young age. Most recently, she has shifted her research focus to advocating for implementation science and systems approaches to tackle global cervical cancer health disparities. Gravitt is trained as a molecular epidemiologist, implementation scientist, and currently is the Senior Advisor of Populations and System Sciences at the National Cancer Institute Center for Global Health. In this episode, Gravitt discusses her career path in global health, her cervical cancer research, and how implementation science research can help achieve global health equity in cancer.