Unpacking Development

Today I was at the first day of the Ontario HIV Treatment Network’s 2008 Research Conference.  The organization is a big funder of AIDS research in Ontario and it was great to check out what people are doing to learn about the pandemic in my ‘hood. Sometimes I’m amazed at how broad the approach is [...]

On the topic of international health rockstars (see previous post on Paul Farmer), I’m very excited to finally be heading to see Triage: Dr. James Orbinski’s Humanitarian Dilemma this Saturday.  I missed it at Hot Docs, and some other pre-screenings, but now that it’s coming to theatres I’m all set to go.  Some friends and [...]

In my list of global health and development rock stars (which I should publish here one day), Paul Farmer is pretty close to the top.  Friends and I joke about the celebrity-style worship we direct towards people like him and Stephen Lewis or Alex De Waal, for example.  For some background, Farmer is a maverick [...]

First day of Medicine 2.0 today.  In general, the conference hasn’t focused on my global health and tech interests but is looking at practical solutions for Western health issues.  It was probably naive of me, but I didn’t expect such an academic focus: the presenters keep reminding us that they’re not tech people, but rather [...]

Just finished Dr. James Orbinski’s new book, An Imperfect Offering: Humanitarian Action for the 21st Century. For those of you who don’t know him, Orbinski is one of Canada’s global health heroes. He accepted the Nobel Prize for Doctors Without Borders while he was its international president and has since worked on developing MSF’s Access [...]