Rethinking Global Health: The Third Symposium on Integration Science
On October 27, clinicians, researchers, economists, and advocates will gather in Boston, and online, to consider how integration science might transform global health.
What could global health achieve if it stopped organizing itself along traditional lines? That question is at the heart of the Third Symposium on Integration Science, taking place October 27. Integration science is a growing field that draws on a range of disciplines to bridge fundamental gaps in traditional, disease-specific approaches to global health.
The Center for Integration Science in Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital will host the free symposium in Boston and online. (Registration is required to attend, whether in person or virtually.) Led by its executive director, Dr. Gene Bukhman, the Center serves as the Boston co-secretariat of the NCDI Poverty Network.
The Science of Philanthropy
The symposium will open with a fireside chat between Dr. Bukhman, who is also a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, and Dr. Una Osili. An economist, Dr. Osili is the associate dean for research and international programs and the Efroymson Chair in Philanthropy and Economics at Indiana University’s Lilly Family School of Philanthropy.
Dr. Osili, who is also executive director of philanthropy, strategy, and operations at the Eli Lilly and Company Foundation, will summarize research on the conditions that allow philanthropy to flourish. With Dr. Bukhman, she will discuss fresh ways to connect donors with proven health interventions, and how leaders can use community-building to drive systems change that lasts beyond any single grant cycle.
Expert Panels
Three expert panels will follow the fireside chat. The first will look at integration in action, and the other two will take up the two central pillars of integration science: delivery model design and social movement design.
The first panel, “Integration in Action: Stories from Implementers,” will examine how traditional disease-specific paradigms and financing mechanisms play out where it matters most: in the patient encounter. Dr. Emily Wroe, the Center’s senior director of programs, will moderate. The panelists are:
Dr. KJ Seung, an associate physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School, and a former co-leader of the endTB project, which expanded access to new tuberculosis drugs;
Dr. Sachita Shah, a professor of emergency medicine and an adjunct professor of global health at the University of Washington; and
Dr. Sonya Shin, an associate physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.
The second panel, “Designing for Integration,” will consider how structured operational mapping can help health systems reach more patients, achieve better outcomes, and design smarter financing incentives with minimal additional investment. Dr. Chantelle Boudreaux, the Center’s associate director for integration science, will moderate. The panelists are:
Dr. Allyala Nandakumar, director of the Global Social Work and Public Health Lab at the Center for Innovation in Social Work and Health in the Boston University School of Social Work;
Dr. Ryan McBain, a health economist at the Center, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, and a policy researcher at the RAND Corporation; and
Dr. Biraj Karmacharya, director of public health and community programs at Dhulikhel Hospital in central Nepal and an associate professor in the Department of Public Health at the Kathmandu University School of Medical Sciences.
The third panel, “Identity and Power,” will ask how health systems shape identity, and how shared identity can generate the power to reshape health systems. Dr. Alma Adler, the Center’s director of research, will lead a discussion on how people with lived experience, advocates, and global health experts might build solidarity across disease communities. The panelists are:
Kyle Banks, founder and executive director of Kyler Cares, a nonprofit organization focused on type 1 diabetes;
Rachel Gasana, the Center’s senior director of advancement; and
Dr. Jon Shaffer, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Vermont who studies the intersection of global health, human rights, and social movements.
The Broader Global Frame
After the panels, Dr. Bukhman will hold a second fireside chat, this time with Dr. Sania Nishtar, chief executive officer of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. A physician by training, Dr. Nishtar has been a national and global health leader for more than 30 years. In Pakistan, she has served as a senator, as special assistant to the prime minister on social protection and poverty alleviation, and as a federal minister charged with re-establishing the country’s Ministry of Health. She also founded the Pakistani health reform think tank Heartfile.
Dr. Nishtar will share what her roles have taught her about planning, prioritization, and financing in the shifting political landscape of global health. She and Dr. Bukhman will also discuss how delivery models and social movements have reinforced each other in practice, and why sustained investment across every lever remains essential, including domestic and external financing, philanthropy, and the private sector.
Musical Inspiration
The symposium will close with a performance by vocalist Kyle Banks and guitarist Hélder Tsinine.
Banks, a Broadway actor and classically trained singer, was performing in Disney’s The Lion King in 2015 when he was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. Several years later, he founded Kyler Cares, which works to improve health outcomes for people of color living with diabetes. The organization expands access to diabetes technology, connects people with education and resources, and fosters community as an added source of support.
Tsinine is a Mozambican-born, Boston-based guitarist and bandleader who founded Kina Zoré, an African-infused world music group.
A reception will follow the performance.
Dr. Neil Gupta, senior director of policy for the Center, will serve as the emcee for the Third Symposium on Integration Science, which will take place Tuesday, October 27, from noon to 5 p.m. EDT at the Joseph B. Martin Conference Center, 77 Avenue Louis Pasteur in Boston. Advance registration is required for both in-person and virtual participation.