AMSNY to Co-host New York State's 2010 Global Health Forum

Forum will allow professionals to share and collaborate on ways to prepare students for work in underserved regions

NEW YORK, NY (12/08/2010)(readMedia)-- On Tuesday, Dec. 14, the Associated Medical Schools of New York (AMSNY), in conjunction with the New York State Academic Dental Centers (NYSADC), will host the second annual New York State Global Health Forum. The event will bring together global health leaders and educators from medical, dental, nursing, social work and public health schools to present on the unique health programs being conducted at their institutions and how these programs may be used and integrated across the global health professions.

WHO: AMSNY and NYSADC

WHAT: Second Annual New York State Global Health Forum

WHEN: Tuesday, Dec. 14

9 a.m. – 5 p.m.

WHERE: New York University College of Dentistry

345 East 24th Street – Schwartz Building, 6th Floor

Nagle Auditorium, New York, NY

"The goal of the forum is to lay the foundation for resource sharing across the health professional schools in the state and advance development of the New York State Global Health Forum's 'Classrooms Without Walls' initiative," said AMSNY President and Chief Executive Officer Jo Wiederhorn.

"While students are being equipped to treat patients using state-of-the-art medical equipment, many times they do not concentrate on basic fundamental elements needed to practice in developing countries or in underserved rural communities' right here in New York," said Ms. Wiederhorn. "They may not have access to these advanced technologies in other venues. Initiatives such as 'Classrooms Without Walls' address this need and provide basic fundamental knowledge needed to supply quality care."

Forum attendees have grown since last year and currently represent more than 40 academic health professional schools in New York State. The forum will address ways to:

* Promote, advance and broaden awareness of the Global Health curricula in New York's schools;

* Develop Global Health competencies and assessment tools; and

* Establish a framework for inter-institutional collaboration in sharing Global Health curricula across New York's schools.

"Inter-professional collaboration plays an important role in mitigating the global health workforce crisis," said Ms. Wiederhorn. "It also has the potential to improve the quality of care through inter-professional training. "While there have been many discussions to try and bridge the gap between the health professions and foster collaboration between global health experts from the schools of medicine, dentistry, nursing, public health and social work, educational frameworks currently do not support inter-professional education. This forum will begin to build this framework."

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The Associated Medical Schools of New York (AMSNY) is a consortium of the 16 public and private medical schools throughout New York State. The AMSNY mission is to support quality health care in New York State through the continual strengthening of medical education, medical care and medical research. For more information on AMSNY, please visit www.amsny.org.

The New York State Academic Dental Centers (NYSADC) is a consortium of New York State's 5 public and private academic dental centers. Established in 1996, NYSADC's mission is to improve the oral health of all New Yorkers through the development of improved dental health policy, faculty development programs and oral health research and clinical care.

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